People who get regular dental X-rays are more likely to suffer a common type of brain tumor, U.S. researchers said Tuesday, suggesting that yearly exams may not be best for most patients.

The study in the U.S. journal Cancer showed people diagnosed with meningioma who reported having a yearly bitewing exam were 1.4 times to 1.9 times as likely as a healthy control group to have developed such tumors.

The number of new teenage mothers in the United States is at its lowest level in nearly 70 years but remains the highest of any major developed country, according to official figures released Tuesday.

The current rate of 34.3 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19 is down 44 percent from a peak in 1991, and is 64 percent lower than the record set during the 1957 "baby boom" of 96.3 births per 1,000.

Obesity during pregnancy may increase chances for having a child with autism, provocative new research suggests.

It's among the first studies linking the two, and though it doesn't prove obesity causes autism, the authors say their results raise public health concerns because of the high level of obesity in this country.

A German gynecologist is being investigated for allegedly having a stash of 35,000 photographs and several videos of naked patients, a report said on Saturday.

Medical assistants alerted the authorities to the collection of photographs kept by the doctor from Schifferstadt near Frankfurt in western Germany, the report by the DPA agency said.

A ban on tobacco displays in large shops and supermarkets came into force in England on Friday, meaning such stores must hide cigarettes from public view.

Under the new rules, all tobacco products must be kept out of sight except when staff are serving customers or restocking.

The success of an AIDS vaccine trial that in 2009 was shown to protect 31 percent of people studied may have been due to varying levels of antibody responses in the patients, researchers said Thursday.

Different types of antibody responses were associated with who became infected and who did not, according to an analysis of the results published in the April 5 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

A new method of delivering cancer drugs that could cut down on chemotherapy's side effects and boost the strength of the tumor-fighting medicine showed promise, US researchers said Wednesday.

Early phase 1 studies on a small group of humans showed that the therapy, which delivers a potent cancer drug directly to the tumor through a process known as nanomedicine, is safe and shows some effectiveness in shrinking cancers.

Sweat drips down the face of a plump woman as she shuffles between exercise machines and pauses to greet passersby in Soweto's first outdoor gym, a new trend in South Africa, one of the world's fattest nations.

The facility, set in a park among tiny two-bedroom homes, has caught on with many Sowetans who are determined to lose the flab without signing expensive gym contracts.

A team of American University of Beirut researchers has found that raising taxes on tobacco products would both reduce the prevalence of smoking-related diseases as well as bring in much needed revenues into the national Treasury, an AUB press release said Thursday.

The one-year study was funded by the Canadian International Development and Research Center and led by three members of the AUB Tobacco Research Control Group: Professors Rima Nakkash, Jad Chaaban, and Nisreen Salti.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers Wednesday not to take a product called "Japan Rapid Weight Loss Diet Pills" because they contain a suspected cancer-causing agent.

The pills, advertised as promoting weight loss, are distributed by a company called Xiushentang and sold on popular web sites including Amazon.com, said the FDA.