Aid agencies said Monday they are facing a multi-million dollar funding shortage to deal with a food crisis in the Sahel where people are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to survive.

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is close to reaching a $9 billion deal to sell its infant nutrition business to Nestle, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The amount of salt on the menus of the six biggest fast food companies varies greatly from nation to nation, according to a study Monday that calls for regulations to curb sodium intake.

Children's aid organisation UNICEF on Tuesday led a cross-agency appeal for funds for the Sahel region where 15 million are suffering from malnutrition, it said.

Nearly a third of pre-school children in Vietnam suffer from malnutrition and stunted growth, while in urban areas rates of childhood obesity are rising, a survey said Thursday.

The US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday warned consumers not to take a product called "Japan Rapid Weight Loss Diet Pills" because they contain a suspected cancer-causing agent.

A leading US ground-beef processor, AFA Foods, filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, blaming media coverage of one of its products dubbed "pink slime" by critics.

The United States will give $120 million in emergency aid for western Africa's drought-hit Sahel region in hope of preventing severe hunger, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday.

Cancer deaths in the United States continued to decline over the past decade, said a yearly report on US cancer statistics released Wednesday.

A new kind of blood thinner that comes in a pill form and is made by German drug giant Bayer works as well as injection therapy to ward off blood clots in the lungs, said a study on Monday.

Healthy people who exercise and also eat chocolate regularly tend to have a lower body mass index than those who eat the rich brown sweets less often, a US study suggested on Monday.

US online auction giant eBay on Monday banned global sales of sorbitol following the death of a 28-year-old Italian woman who consumed a phial of the sugar substitute as part of a food allergy test.

Eating raisins and soy appears to help ward off high blood pressure, a key risk factor in heart disease, according to two studies presented at a major US cardiology conference on Sunday.

The British government will introduce a minimum price per unit of alcohol in England and Wales to tackle their infamous binge-drinking culture, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Friday.

World consumption of wine increased slightly in 2011 thanks to added consumers in the United States and China, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine said on Thursday.

Deaths from liver disease have risen 25 percent in England in less than a decade, mainly due to increased alcohol consumption, a study revealed on Thursday.

Taiwan will tighten checks on beef imports over food safety fears surrounding a controversial additive used to promote lean meat, officials said Sunday.

Billionaire Chaleo Yoovidhya, the co-founder of energy drink Red Bull and the second richest man in Thailand, died Saturday at the age of 89, a company spokeswoman said.

Up to 1.5 million children under five living in Africa's Sahel region risk severe malnutrition if famine warnings are ignored, the United Nations childrens' agency said on Friday.

The US government said Thursday it will leave it to schools to decide whether to use a controversial ground-beef filler in the meals they serve to students.