Spain's highest court on Tuesday suspended an unpopular one-euro surcharge for medical prescriptions introduced in Madrid this year to reduce the region's deficit.

The ruling by the Constitutional Court came in response to a suit filed by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government against the measure and just two weeks after the court ordered the suspension of an identical surcharge introduced last year in the region of Catalonia.

Research into the wonder material graphene and the neurochemistry of the human brain will receive up to two billion euros ($2.68 billion) in funding, the biggest research award of its kind in history, the European Commission said on Monday.

The two areas are beneficiaries of the Future Emerging Technology (FET) Flagship program, described as an "X-Factor for science", whose winners were chosen by leading scientists, a Nobel prize winner and industrialists.

Two Cambodian girls have died from bird flu, health authorities said Tuesday, raising the toll from the deadly infection in the kingdom to four so far this year.

The victims, a 17-month-old girl and a nine-year-old girl, from the southern provinces of Kampot and Kampong Speu, died Monday in hospital, the World Health Organization said in a joint statement with the Cambodian health ministry.

Gays and lesbians who come out about their sexual orientation are less stressed than those who remain in the closet, and often more relaxed than heterosexuals, according to a study released Tuesday.

Researchers at Louis H. Lafontaine Hospital, affiliated with the University of Montreal, tested the levels of cortisol -- a stress hormone -- and other indicators of strain in homosexuals, bisexuals and heterosexuals.

French health regulator ANSM has launched a probe into the drug Diane-35, used to treat acne and also as a contraceptive, after linking it to four deaths over the past 25 years.

Produced by the German drugmaker Bayer, Diane-35 is authorized in 135 countries and sold in 116. In 2012, about 315,000 women in France used the drug, ANSM said in a statement Sunday.

After banning smoking in public places, the Turkish government has gone one step further by clamping down on an ancient tradition -- the hookah, or water pipe.

As of Sunday it is no longer permitted to smoke the "hubbly-bubbly" in cafes, bars or restaurants as the conservative Islamic government cracks down on use of tobacco.

U.S. consumers are being offered a cornucopia of smartphone apps to track or manage health, but only a small number of people are using them, according to a survey released Monday.

The Pew Research Center's study found that only about seven percent of people surveyed used a smartphone app to track a health indicator like weight, diet, exercise routine or to monitor a chronic disease such as diabetes.

New Zealand's Fonterra, the world's largest dairy exporter, said Monday that its milk was "100 percent" safe to drink despite tests finding trace elements of an agricultural chemical in milk powder.

Fonterra, which reported revenues of NZ$19.8 billion ($16.6 billion) in the 2012 financial year, said tests had revealed low levels of dicyandiamide (DCD) in some milk samples.

Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's health care law, according to experts who are just now teasing out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation.

The Affordable Care Act — "Obamacare" to its detractors — allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums starting next Jan. 1.

A California jury heard opening statements Friday in a lawsuit that accuses Johnson & Johnson of knowingly marketing a faulty hip implant that lawyers say left thousands of people with crippling problems or in need of replacement surgeries.

The fraud and negligence suit is the first of thousands of similar cases to reach trial in the United States that involve an all-metal ball-and-socket hip joint that was pulled from the market two years ago.