Children in Fukushima are getting fatter as outdoor activities have been cut in the area due to radiation fears after last year's nuclear disaster, a Japanese government report said Tuesday.

The education ministry said it had surveyed the heights and weights of about 700,000 children, aged between five and 17, at schools and kindergartens across the country this year.

Ailing Nelson Mandela was Tuesday visited in hospital by his wife Graca Machel and family as he spent Christmas Day on sickbed, said President Jacob Zuma who joined the family.

"We found him in good spirits," said Zuma in a statement.

New taxes are coming Jan. 1 to help finance President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Most people may not notice. But they will pay attention if Congress decides to start taxing employer-sponsored health insurance, one of the options in play if lawmakers can ever agree on a budget deal to reduce federal deficits.

The tax hikes already on the books, taking effect in 2013, fall mainly on people who make lots of money and on the health care industry. But about half of Americans benefit from the tax-free status of employer health insurance. Workers pay no income or payroll taxes on what their employer contributes for health insurance, and in most cases on their own share of premiums as well.

Britain's former prime minister Margaret Thatcher was in hospital for a fifth day on Monday as she recovers from bladder surgery, a spokeswoman said.

There was no change in Thatcher's condition from Sunday when the 87-year-old was said to be "in good spirits", the spokeswoman added.

Ailing icon Nelson Mandela will spend Christmas Day in hospital, the South African government said Monday, dashing hopes for a festive end to his longest stay in care since being released from prison in 1990.

"Former president Nelson Mandela will spend Christmas Day in hospital, his doctors have confirmed today, on 24 December 2012," the presidency said in a statement.

A 40-day-old baby has died of the cold in Morocco's Atlas mountains, witnesses said Monday, after a winter freeze and reports that four other infants had earlier perished in similar circumstances.

Habiba Amelou died on Friday morning in the village of Anifgou after suffering from a severe cough, according to two witnesses.

Scientist in the United States on Sunday offered a molecular-level explanation for how a Chinese herbal medicine used for more than 2,000 years tackles fever and eases malaria.

The herb is an extract of the root of a flowering plant called blue evergreen hydrangea, known in Chinese as chang shan and in Latin as Dichroa febrifuga Lour.

One of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's daughters took to social media to demand a halt to "lies" about her father's health after rumors circulated the cancer-embattled leader had died.

"Respect for the family and especially fully respect for my people. Enough of the lies! We are next to papa. LIVING, struggling and recovering his health. WITH GOD," Maria Gabriela Chavez wrote in a Twitter message Friday.

The newly appointed deputy chief of the United Nations HIV-fighting program, Brazilian Luiz Loures, hailed his own country's achievements in the fight against the deadly global epidemic in an interview published Saturday.

"We are beginning to talk of the end of the epidemic. Scientific progress makes it possible," Loures told the daily Folha de Sao Paulo, estimating the milestone could come within the next 15 years.

A pharmacy connected to a deadly nationwide meningitis outbreak filed for bankruptcy protection and said it was seeking to set up a fund to pay victims.

Contaminated steroid injections from the New England Compounding Center have been blamed for 39 deaths and 620 illnesses since the outbreak began over the summer. The Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Friday shields the company from the threat of creditor lawsuits while it establishes the fund.