A German newspaper reports that Johnson & Johnson is recalling thousands of hip implants 2 1/2 years after a similar recall.

Handelsblatt reports that the Adept implants made by J&J's subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics showed a failure rate of 12 percent after seven years. It said some 7,500 of the implants were shipped worldwide between 2004 and 2011.

U.S. health officials say synthetic marijuana has been linked to kidney damage in some teens and young adults.

Sixteen people who smoked synthetic marijuana were hospitalized with kidney problems last year in six states. All recovered, but five of them needed dialysis.

U.S. regulators approved a so-called bionic eye on Thursday, giving hope to people with a rare genetic disease.

Developed by California-based Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System is the first retinal implant for adults with advanced retinitis pigmentosa that results in the gradual loss of vision and can lead to blindness.

An Australian court Friday dismissed a challenge against the patenting of human genetic material in a landmark case which has devastated a cancer group that says it could stifle research.

The case hinged on whether a valid patent can be granted to cover naturally occurring nucleic acids, the building blocks of living organisms -- in this case the so-called breast cancer gene BRCA1.

Health experts are urging the United States and other countries to boost their ability to identify fake or subpar medicines and close loopholes that allow products to be falsified or diluted.

In an international system in which different companies in many countries make ingredients for single treatments, no country alone can effectively enforce quality control on drugs that can be the fine line between life and death, stressed a report by the independent Institute of Medicine (IOM).

The EU's executive called in Europe's law enforcers and urged bloc-wide DNA food testing on Wednesday to restore consumer confidence in a widening scandal over horsemeat-tainted processed food.

"We do not know exactly what has gone wrong," British food and environment minister Owen Paterson told reporters after emergency talks in Brussels and amid growing public anger over mislabeled meat products.

Researchers in Japan have moved one step closer to clinical trials using adult stem cells in a therapy they hope will prove a cure for common sight problems, an official said Thursday.

The ethics committee at the Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation in Kobe, west Japan, on Wednesday approved a trial treatment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) using induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells.

Mexican authorities said Wednesday that a young girl who gave birth last month was 12 or 13 and not nine as originally reported, and that her stepfather is the father of the newborn.

"DNA tests confirmed that the individual responsible for this case (of sexual abuse) is the stepfather of the minor," Jalisco state prosecutor Tomas Coronado said at a press conference.

Children born to women who started taking folic acid supplements four to eight weeks before pregnancy appear to be at a lower risk of autism, a study showed Tuesday.

Pal Suren of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and colleagues looked into the use of folic acid supplements before and during early pregnancy, and any impact on the later risk of various disorders on the autism spectrum.

Cancer rates in Europe are generally falling, but lung cancer is poised to overtake breast cancer as the disease's biggest killer of women, a study published on Wednesday said.

In 2013, about 1.31 million people -- some 737,000 men and 576,000 women -- will die of cancer in the 27-nation European Union (EU), researchers said.