A Swiss tourist died Thursday of swine flu while visiting India, a local health official said, as the country grapples with an outbreak that has killed more than 400 people since the start of 2015.

The 70-year-old woman fell ill while visiting the western state of Rajasthan, a popular tourist destination that has been particularly hard hit by the latest outbreak.

Education chiefs apologized on Thursday for wrongly announcing a postponement of the reopening of Ebola-hit Liberia's schools, blaming the mix-up on "problems at the ministry".

Classrooms were shut six months ago to limit the spread of the virus as the epidemic neared its peak, but lessons had been due to restart next week -- before a two-week delay was announced on Wednesday.

More than a million Qataris were given a day off work Tuesday to take part in a nationwide day of sport amid growing concern at obesity levels in the super-rich Gulf state.

Although the annual Qatar National Sport Day is meant to be a fun event with beach volleyball, jogging, fitness boot camps and even a screening of the boxing movie "Rocky", it contains a serious message.

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a real and serious disease that needs a new name to reflect that — and a straightforward way to diagnose the illness, a U.S. government advisory group declared Tuesday.

Patients flooded the prestigious Institute of Medicine with stories of years of misdiagnosis or even being dismissed by skeptical doctors. Tuesday, an IOM panel sought to redefine this long-controversial ailment, setting five main symptoms as simple criteria for doctors to use in making a diagnosis.

Dietary advice can be confusing. Is it OK to eat meat and eggs? Is fat in or out? What about grains? How much salt?

An advisory committee's recommendations for U.S. dietary patterns are due soon, and some advice may be changing. The committee is expected to downplay the importance of lowering cholesterol intake and may put less emphasis on eating lean meats. The panel could also tweak its recommendations on exactly how much salt is too much and put limits on sugar consumption for the first time.

Facebook? Of course. Books? Definitely not. Video games? For sure. Sport? No way. Speed? Yes. Patience? Not so much.

This, in a nutshell, is the life of the "Generation Z" -- independent, stubborn, pragmatic and always in a rush.

French charity Medecins du Monde (MdM) on Tuesday said it was contesting a European patent awarded to a hepatitis drug made by U.S. firm Gilead Sciences, arguing the treatment was too costly.

The organisation -- "Doctors of the World" -- said it had filed a "brief in opposition" with the European Patent Office (EPO), the Munich-based agency that awards patents covering 40 European countries.

Damage to the brain's outer layer caused by smoking may be reversible after quitting, but it could take years, a study said Tuesday.

Brain scans of 500 Scottish septuagenarians confirmed a link between smoking and an acceleration of age-related thinning of the cortex -- the outer layer of grey matter, researchers reported.

The head of the World Health Organization on Tuesday described universal healthcare as a powerful tool to fight inequality, hailing countries such as Singapore, which last month introduced a safety net for the poor and elderly.

According to the WHO, a lack of universal healthcare pushes 100 million people a year below the poverty line as a result of paying for the services they need, while countries such as the United States and China grapple with how to provide coverage to all their citizens.

High school girls in Japan spend an average of seven hours a day on their mobile phones, a new survey has found, with nearly 10 percent of them putting in at least 15 hours.

Boys of the same age average just over four hours mobile phone use a day, the survey by information security firm Digital Arts, published Monday, said.