BANGKOK, April 2, 2008 (AFP) - Thai health officials on Wednesday banned doctors from performing castrations, pending an ethics review of complaints about minors undergoing the operation as the first step toward a sex change.

TOKYO, April 2, 2008 (AFP) - Japan will study whether to allow meat and dairy products from cloned animals to be served at homes and restaurants, the government said Wednesday.

CHICAGO, April 2, 2008 (AFP) - Cardiology experts meeting in Chicago this week reaffirmed statins as the best way to treat cholesterol and heart disease, the biggest cause of death in industrialized countries.

BEIJING, April 2, 2008 (AFP) - Authorities in southern China have uncovered another illegal blood scheme, state media said Wednesday, days after health officials said almost 5,000 blood banks were shut last year.

CHICAGO, April 1, 2008 (AFP) - A new strain of a deadly water-borne disease has been discovered in the Peruvian Amazon, researchers said Tuesday.

This emerging bacteria may be responsible for up to 40 percent of the region's cases of leptospirosis, a deadly disease transmitted from animals to humans which can cause jaundice, renal failure, lung hemorrhage and other symptoms.

SEOUL, April 2, 2008 (AFP) - Officials sealed off a poultry farm after some 2,400 chickens died in a suspected bird flu outbreak in South Korea, the government said Wednesday.

Preliminary tests on chickens that died at a farm in Gimje, 260 kilometres (162 miles) southwest of Seoul, pointed to a suspected avian flu case, the agriculture ministry said.

PARIS, April 1, 2008 (AFP) - A ban on smoking in American bars has caused the number of accidents from drunken driving to surge, researchers have discovered.

US jurisdictions with a smoking ban have seen, on average, a nearly 12-percent rise in the number of drink-related accidents at the wheel, they say in a study released on Wednesday.

PARIS, April 2, 2008 (AFP) - Scientists have confirmed what parents of teenagers have always suspected: adolescents are out of sync with the rest of the world.

Most teens probably don't get enough sleep and suffer in their school work because their internal clocks make them night owls, according to a study published Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS, April 1, 2008 (AFP) - US broadcasting giant Ted Turner on Tuesday joined hands with the Methodist and Lutheran churches to launch a new global effort to raise 200 million dollars to combat malaria in Africa.

PARIS, April 1, 2008 (AFP) - French doctors on Tuesday said that an overview of the latest research into sport and good health proved that moderate, frequent exercise combatted the risk of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, respiratory disease and depression.