Japanese scientists have uncovered how thalidomide led to deformities in children born to mothers taking the drug in the 1950s and 1960s, according to a study released Friday. The researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have now unlocked the mechanism by which thalidomide -- an anti-nausea drug given to pregnant women that turned into one of the worst pharmaceutical disasters in history -- triggered the deformities in developing fetuses.

More than 90 authors, including Nobel winner JM Coetzee, have condemned China for refusing an HIV-positive Australian writer entry to the country for a government-sponsored tour. Robert Dessaix revealed his health status in his application for a visa which was refused without explanation. The Australian Society of Authors condemned the decision, penning an open letter signed by more than 90 writers including "Schindler's Ark" author Thomas Keneally and 2004 Commonwealth Prize regional winner Michelle de Kretser.

Swine flu has claimed at least 16,713 lives around the world since it was first uncovered in Mexico and the United States last April, the World Health Organisation said Friday. The pandemic, which has spread to 213 countries and territories, has since waned in much of Europe and North America, but data indicated that transmission may be increasing in West Africa.

More than 10,000 people who worked in the toxic chaos of New York's Ground Zero after 9/11 could receive compensation totaling 657 million dollars for health problems under a deal reached Thursday. Thousands of plaintiffs, mostly firefighters, police and construction workers, have sued the city for what they say are health problems connected to work in the debris of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Former British premier Margaret Thatcher on Friday threw her weight behind a campaign to help ex-servicemen suffering from mental health problems after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Thatcher recalled that she had sent British troops into action -- in the Falklands in 1982 and the first Gulf War -- and knew about the mental scars they can suffer.

US researchers have decoded the entire genome of patients to identify the root cause of their diseases paving the way towards individual genomic treatments, according to newly published studies. James Lupski of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, sequenced his own genome to locate the gene responsible for the rare neurological disorder he suffers from, Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome.

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak's health is "satisfactory" after surgery in Germany to remove a gall bladder, the head of the medical team at Heidelberg University Hospital said on Thursday. "President Hosni Mubarak's overall medical condition continues to improve in a satisfactory manner," Professor Markus Buechler said in a statement released by Egyptian authorities.

The South African government on Thursday announced a ramped up AIDS plan that aims to test 15 million residents for HIV in the world's worst affected country by next June. President Jacob Zuma's cabinet, which approved the scaled up programme on Wednesday, will lead a voluntary and public testing campaign with the goal of a 50 percent drop in the rate of infection by 2011.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has undergone surgery but is in good health, his office said on Thursday without specifying what the procedure was for. Maliki, who was operated on Wednesday, left Baghdad's Medical City hospital in "good health" on Thursday, the statement said. "Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki yesterday had a surgical operation by a specialised Iraqi medical team at Medical City hospital," the statement said.

Ivermectin, a pill prescribed for the skin disease known as scabies, also gets rid of hair lice that are resistant to conventional lotions, a study published on Thursday says. Lice affects over 100 million people worldwide each year, especially children of primary school age, according to the paper, appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine.