Ignoring the red-and-white danger sign, Sri Mulyati walks slowly to the train tracks outside Indonesia's bustling capital, lies down and stretches her body across the rails.

Like the nearly dozen others lined up along the track, the 50-year-old diabetes patient has all but given up on doctors and can't afford the expensive medicines they prescribe.

An Australian woman who lived for more than 15 years with a grapefruit-sized surgical sponge sewn inside her after abdominal surgery was to sue her doctor for negligence, a report said Monday.

Helen O'Hagan claims the sponge was left in her abdominal cavity by surgeon Samuel Sakker during a 1992 colectomy, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Some 30 Vietnamese children have been hospitalized after eating disinfectant accidentally mixed with milk during snack time at an unlicensed preschool.

Dr. Huynh Thi Nguyet Phuong of the General Hospital in Thuan An town in southern Binh Duong province says the 3-year-old children suffered Chloramine-B poisoning Friday. Three were seriously ill with vomiting and convulsions, but all were released by Monday.

British researchers looking at the causes of chronic fatigue syndrome have received death threats from protesters angry at their focus on possible mental triggers, a report said Friday.

Several scientists researching the condition, which is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), say they are being subjected to a campaign of harassment and abuse, the BBC reported.

Some 10 million people who inject illegal drugs have hepatitis C while 1.2 million have hepatitis B, according to the first global estimate of infection rates among this population, published Thursday.

Both viral diseases are debilitating and potentially deadly, and public health officials must step up efforts to combat blood-borne transmission and to lower treatment costs, the researchers urged.

When's the last time you were guiltily scraping your way to the bottom of an ice cream carton and noticed this message: "150 calories per 1 pint" (half liter)?

Yes, per pint (half lifter).

An apple a day may keep the doctor away. But when you put it in a Happy Meal, it might help keep regulators at bay too. McDonald's on Tuesday said that it would add apple slices and reduce the portion of French fries in its children's meal boxes beginning this fall, effectively taking away consumers' current choice between either having apples with caramel dip or fries as a Happy Meal side.

The move by McDonald's, which has become a leader in moving from just burgers and fries to more nutritious fare like oatmeal and salads, comes as fast food chains face intense scrutiny from health officials and others who blame the industry for childhood obesity and other health-related problems. Some municipalities, including San Francisco, have even banned fast food restaurants from selling kids' meals with toys.

As the surgeons cut into her neck, Marianne Marquis was thinking of the beach.

As she heard the doctors' voices, she was imagining her toes in the sand, the water lapping.

Mexican papayas tainted with salmonella have sickened 99 people in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

No deaths have been reported but the outbreak spans 23 states and health authorities warned people not to eat fresh, whole papayas imported from Mexico by Agromed Produce of McAllen, Texas.

Some 40,000 famine-hit people have fled to the Somali capital Mogadishu over the past month in search of food and water, the U.N. refugees agency said Tuesday.

"Over the past month, UNHCR figures show that nearly 40,000 Somalis displaced by drought and famine have converged on Mogadishu in search of food, water, shelter and other assistance," said Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.