LONDON (Reuters) - Legislation allowing human-animal embryo research, which scientists believe could help treat conditions like Parkinson’s but which opponents say is unethical, cleared its first parliamentary hurdle on Monday.
But the battle has only just begun. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is set to spark heated debate on either side when it returns to [...]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Leading advocates in the fight against cancer Thursday urged lawmakers to overhaul the US health care system to put all Americans on an equal footing when it comes to the country’s biggest killer disease.
“We have chosen as a nation to turn our backs on some of us who have cancer,” Elizabeth Edwards, [...]

MADRID (AFP) - Prosecutors in Spain have opened a preliminary investigation into the deaths of 18 people linked to a multi-drug resistant bacteria outbreak at a Madrid hospital, a judicial source said Monday.
The purpose is to “clarify all the facts” surrounding the outbreak of Acinetobacter baumannii at the 12th October University Hospital, one of the [...]

BEIJING (Reuters) - A strain of hand, foot and mouth disease has killed five more children in China, bringing the death toll in recent weeks to 39, state media said on Monday.
But the official Xinhua news agency cited health officials as saying that the epidemic was being brought under control, with more children being discharged [...]

LONDON (Reuters) - Senior Labour figures should stop attacking Gordon Brown and focus on policies, Health Secretary Alan Johnson said on Monday after a weekend of party infighting piled more pressure on the prime minister following a drubbing in the polls. Johnson said “the knives were out” for Brown after weekend newspapers published damaging extracts [...]

A third of cancers are preventable, an expert claims.
An estimated 95,000 people in the UK each year are diagnosed with cancers that could be avoided - enough to fill Wembley Stadium.
Professor Martin Wiseman said that while many people know that smoking is the most important cause of the disease, more needs to be done to [...]

LONDON (Reuters) - Parliament on Monday will debate legislation allowing human-animal embryo research that scientists say could help treat conditions like Parkinson’s or multiple sclerosis but that opponents say is unethical.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is set to spark heated debate on either side when it returns to the House of Commons for its [...]

BEIJING (Reuters) - Four children died in a suburb of southwest China’s Chongqing municipality on Monday when an earthquake toppled two primary schools, Xinhua news agency said.
More than 100 children were injured, it added, quoting the local government.
(Editing by Nick Macfie)

BEIJING (Reuters) - An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck China’s Sichuan province on Monday, less than 100 km (60 miles) from the provincial capital of Chengdu, followed by a series of smaller tremors.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or major damage.
The quake was felt across much of China and as far southwest [...]

LONDON (Reuters) - Senior Labour figures should stop attacking Gordon Brown and focus on policies, a minister said on Monday after a weekend of party infighting piled more pressure on the prime minister following a drubbing in the polls.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson said “the knives were out” for Brown after weekend newspapers published damaging extracts [...]