Facing new regulations that target high-calorie soda drinks, U.S. soft-drink giant Coca-Cola will unveil a pair of television ads this week that acknowledge the calories in its products and encourage consumers to burn them off.

A two-minute video titled "Coming Together" will begin airing on national cable news networks late Monday, reminding viewers that all calories count in managing their weight, including those that come from Coca-Cola beverages.

Mayumi Kurasawa's seaweed company saw seven of its factories swept away by Japan's 2011 tsunami. Nearly two years later, sales continue to be eroded by consumer fears over nuclear contamination.

"Our seaweed is checked every day, and I guarantee you that it's safe," she told Agence France Presse during a recent visit to Tokyo to promote the company she works for, Kawashu. "But we are selling two-thirds less than before Fukushima."

Children who frequently eat fast food are far likelier to have severe asthma compared to counterparts who tuck into fruit, a large international study published on Monday said.

Researchers asked nearly half a million teenagers aged 13-14 and children aged six and seven about their eating habits and whether in the previous year they had experienced wheezing, eczema or an itchy, blocked nose when they did not have cold or flu.

The EU's food safety agency challenged its doubters on Monday, making available all the scientific information used to clear a genetically modified corn which a French researcher had linked to cancer.

The European Food Safety Authority said that "given the level of public interest ... (it would) make all data on genetically modified (GM) maize NK603 publicly available on its website."

A Jordanian woman has died of swine flu in the second such death in a week, Health Minister Abdullatif Wreikat said on Sunday.

"The woman, who was in her forties, was taken to hospital last Sunday, suffering from pneumonia," Wreikat told the official news agency Petra.

Thousands of people marched in Madrid on Sunday to protest plans to privatize parts of their public health care system, with some questioning the motives behind the government's actions.

The march by employees and users of the system is the year's second large "white tide" demonstration, named after the color of the medical scrubs many protesters wear. Several similar marches took place last year.

Public anger in China at dangerous levels of air pollution, which blanketed Beijing in acrid smog, spread Monday as state media editorials queried official transparency and the nation's breakneck development.

State media joined Internet users in calling for a re-evaluation of China's modernization process, which has seen rapid urbanization and economic development achieved at the expense of the environment.

After decades of qualms about lung cancer screening, the American Cancer Society says there now is enough evidence to recommend it, but only for current and former heavy smokers ages 55 to 74 and after a frank talk about risks and benefits.

The new guidelines, announced Friday, are a cautious but exciting step against the world's most deadly cancer, doctors who wrote the advice say.

Air pollution levels in China's notoriously dirty capital were at dangerous levels Saturday, with cloudy skies blocking out visibility and warnings issued for people to remain indoors.

Local authorities warned that the severe pollution was likely to continue until Tuesday.

The Food and Drug Administration is requiring makers of Ambien and similar sleeping pills to lower the dosage of their drugs, based on studies suggesting patients face a higher risk of injury due to morning drowsiness.

The agency said Thursday that new research shows that the drugs remain in the bloodstream at levels high enough to interfere with alertness and coordination, which increases the risk of car accidents.