China (AHN) – China will ban smoking in most indoor facilities, including hotels, restaurants, theaters, bars and railway stations beginning May 1.

The Ministry of Health law doesn’t specify penalties for people who violate the ban or for businesses that don’t meet the ban’s specifications.

The rule requires business owners to post no smoking signs, it prohibits cigarette vending machines in public places and it requires outdoor smoking areas to be out of the way of pedestrian walkways.

According to the Chinese news service Xinhua, about 300 million Chinese citizens are regular smokers. This leaves about 700 million people exposed to second-hand smoke.

The new rule does not prohibit smokers from lighting up at work.

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SATURDAY, April 30 (HealthDay News) — After reviewing more than 50,000 prescriptions for narcotic-containing drugs given to kids up to age 3, researchers found that about 4 percent were given an overdose.

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Stanford University became the latest Ivy League school on Friday to reinastate the Reserve Officers Training Corps. 

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Hospitals need to take steps to adequately prepare for an outbreak of measles, which can spread in health care settings, researchers say.

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Food companies should revamp their marketing to children by advertising foods that are healthy, four U.S. agencies said on Thursday in proposing voluntary principles for the food industry.

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Koriyama, Fukushima, Japan (AHN) – School authorities in Fukushima started removing the topsoil from playgrounds on Wednesday. The soil was exposed to radiation leaks from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor plant.

School authorities decided to remove the surface soil because tests showed that radiation levels exceeded 3.8 microsieverts per hour at the elementary and junior high schools and 3 microsieverts at the nurseries. The Education and Science Ministry set limits at 3.8 microsieverts.

Soil will be removed at 15 elementary and junior high schools, and 13 nursery schools in the prefecture.

The removed soil will be sent to local landfills.

On Wednesday, Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited the port of Minamisanriku, where more than 1,350 residents are missing or dead. This is the imperial couple’s first visit to the region, although they have been to other earthquake-affected areas in the south.

The town has about 20,000 residents. Over 3,800 houses in Minamisanriku were destroyed by the magnitude 9 tremor. About 200 residents still live in a local gymnasium.

The royal couple will visit the Iwate and Fukushima Prefectures next week.

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With some genetic sleuthing, scientists have fingered a likely culprit in the spread of leprosy in the southern United States: the nine-banded armadillo.

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Pro-government student activists and supporters traded bullets Tuesday morning for supremacy over a student’s dorm in a campus in Dhaka, leaving 70 hurt.

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Galka’yo, Puntland, Somalia (AHN) – A man whom local residents said was mentally ill on Tuesday sprayed people in a small bar in Somalia’s central town of Galka’yo with bullets, killing at least two people, according to witnesses.

Local residents said they rushed one of the wounded to the hospital in the restive town where he died minutes later.

An eyewitness told a local radio station that the killer escaped after the shooting.

“A large number of Puntland security forces has immediately encircled the small and closed all streets nearby, but they failed to arrest the mentally-ill man who is said to have escaped before their arrival at the area,” the witness explained.

Security officials have not so far talked publicly about the incident, but it is the first time for such event to take place in Galka’yo, according to a local resident.

Nonetheless, this is part of growing insecurity activities in the areas controlled by Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland.

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Most Americans believe that drinking red wine is good for the heart but may not fully understand that failure to limit the amount they drink could lead to serious health problems, according to a new survey by the American Heart Association.

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