British women are being offered free supplies of the emergency "morning-after" contraceptive pill over the Christmas and New Year holidays, the country's leading abortion agency said Tuesday.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) said it saw more women with unplanned pregnancies in January than any other time, and hoped the project would reduce numbers.

Radiation contamination has been found in a leading brand of Japanese baby formula, most likely fallout from the country's crippled nuclear plant, its manufacturer said Tuesday.

Meiji, a major producer of milk, confectionery and pharmaceuticals, said it was recalling some 400,000 cans of "Meiji Step" formula that contained a small amount of radioactive caesium-134 and ceasium-137.

Local authorities in northeast China said Tuesday drinks made by U.S. giant Coca-Cola that left one child dead and three others ill last week were deliberately poisoned.

In an incident that caused nationwide concern, a boy who drank a Pulpy Milky yoghurt drink made by Coca-Cola subsidiary Minute Maid died on November 28 in Jilin province, prompting a mass recall of the products.

Millions of Chinese went online Tuesday to vent their anger over the thick smog that has blanketed Beijing in recent days, raising health fears and causing hundreds of flights to be cancelled.

Sales of face masks were reported to have surged as residents of China's heavily polluted capital sought to protect themselves from the air, which U.S. embassy figures ranked "very unhealthy".

A United Nations-appointed expert is urging Vietnam's government to close down rehabilitation centers for drug users and sex workers following criticism of abuses by an international rights group, calling them "counterproductive."

Anand Grover, a special rapporteur for the U.N. Human Rights Council, said Monday at the end of a 10-day visit to Vietnam that the centers violate drug users' rights and are ineffective. He said the government should instead expand alternative treatments for drug users.

Four years after transforming Paris's two-wheeled transport habits with an easy-to-rent bicycle system, officials on Monday launched a similar project for the electric car.

Regional and business officials unveiled "Autolib," an electric car rental service they hope will yield big benefits for the city's often-clogged streets.

Prime Minister David Cameron was Monday to unveil plans which could allow patient records held by Britain's nationalized health service to be shared with private firms in a bid to boost its ailing economy.

Cameron was set to make a speech outlining the government's strategy for the life-science industry, in which he was to insist on "opening up" the National Health Service (NHS) in order to make health a "huge magnet" for economic growth.

South Korea says it has decided to resume sending aid to North Korea through the U.N. children's agency UNICEF.

It's another sign that animosities between the two Koreas are easing. Diplomats are seeking to restart long-stalled nuclear disarmament talks and South Korean religious and cultural delegations are visiting the North.

Coca-Cola said Friday there was no "product quality issue" with its Pulpy Milky drinks, after a boy who had consumed the product died and three others fell ill.

Stores around the country pulled bottles of the fruit-flavored milk drink from their shelves after a boy died and his mother fell into a coma in the northeastern Chinese province of Jilin.

Zambian President Michael Sata on Friday told former U.S. president George W. Bush that the West should help fight the scourge of maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.

"We have in Zambia a generous budget but we can't meet all that we require in maternal health," Sata said.