A new drug can help advanced lung cancer patients live longer and may aid in treating other kinds of cancer, researchers said Monday.

If the initial results are confirmed in a Phase III study already underway, it would be the first treatment developed in the past decade that can improve outcomes for patients with late-stage lung cancer.

A senior health ministry official in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday ruled out an Ebola outbreak in the northeast of the country, after possible cases were reported by United Nations staff.

"There were six cases, including four children under five and two adults, who suffered from fever and haemorrhagic symptoms. We have carried out analysis at the INRB (National Institute of Biomedical Research) and the results are negative... It's not Ebola," Benoit Kabela Ilunga, who runs the contagious diseases department at the ministry, told Agence France Presse.

As China boomed around 200 men set out from Shuangxi's rural idyll to build its infrastructure and skyscrapers. Now lung disease from dust has killed a quarter of them and 100 more are waiting to die.

Back home amid rice paddies and forested hills, Xu Zuoqing walks outside and his face contorts in pain from the effort. As he struggles to breathe, his wife rushes over a stool so he can recuperate.

Four people have died after drinking home-made alcohol in southern Iran and 298 others were poisoned, the ISNA news agency quoted a local health official as saying on Friday.

"Nine of the victims are in a coma and have lost their vision," said Hamid Najmeddin, adding that 100 of the victims were on dialysis after drinking the alcohol on Wednesday.

Cancer researchers warned Friday that federal budget cuts enacted by the U.S. Congress could block key advances in the fight against deadly disease.

"Draconian cuts to biomedical research will slow our progress at the moment of greatest scientific potential and increasing need worldwide," Dr. Sandra Swain, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, said at the opening of the group's annual meeting.

Japan and South Korea suspended some imports of U.S. wheat Friday as American regulators investigated the discovery in an Oregon field of rogue wheat genetically engineered to resist Monsanto herbicide.

U.S. regulators insisted that the wheat carries no risks, but the outcome of the probe -- namely finding out whether such wheat is growing elsewhere -- could have a wider impact on world markets, with the U.S. the biggest global exporter of wheat.

General anaesthesia for the elderly boosts the risks of dementia by more than a third, according to a study by French doctors released on Friday.

Researchers led by Francois Sztark at the University of Bordeaux in southwestern France analysed data from a long-term study into cognitive decline covering 9,300 elderly people in three French cities.

Germany's "baby hatches", where women can safely leave their unwanted newborn, have come under fire as the government pushes a new law to guarantee a child the right to eventually know its mother's identity.

At a Berlin clinic, a discreet path winds through springtime flowerbeds to a sign that simply directs visitors to the "Baby Crib" -- a steel hatch that opens onto a heated cot where an infant can be left.

An EU medicines watchdog on Thursday endorsed the safety of acne drug Diane-35, also widely used as a contraceptive, despite protests from France, which has suspended its use.

The CMDh, which groups EU drug agencies, agreed with a ruling by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) two weeks ago that the benefits of Diane-35 outweighed the risks of developing blood clots.

Tamiflu, the frontline treatment for influenza, offers no benefit for patients if it is administered in double the normal dose, a study conducted in Southeast Asia said on Thursday.

Previous studies that found Tamiflu -- lab name oseltamivir -- is more effective if administered swiftly after infection, have prompted suggestions that patients would also do better if they are given a higher dose.