Morphine and similar powerful painkillers are sometimes prescribed to recent war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress along with physical pain, and the consequences can be tragic, a government study suggests.

These vets are at high risk for drug and alcohol abuse, but they're two times more likely to get prescriptions for addictive painkillers than vets with only physical pain, according to the study, billed as the first national examination of the problem. Iraq and Afghanistan vets with PTSD who already had substance abuse problems were four times more likely to get these drugs than vets without mental health problems, according to the study.

A type of fake pot has raised new health concerns in the United States after at least three users were hospitalized for kidney failure, authorities in the western state of Wyoming said Monday.

Often known as "Spice" or "K2," the substance is marketed to young people as herbal incense, and creates a marijuana-like high when it is smoked like a joint or a cigarette.

Children with even relatively mild concussions can have persistent attention and memory problems a year after their injuries, according to a study that helps identify which kids may be most at risk for lingering symptoms.

In most kids with these injuries, symptoms resolve within a few months but the study results suggest that problems may linger for up to about 20 percent, said study author Keith Owen Yeates, a neuropsychologist at Ohio State University's Center for Biobehaviorial Health.

Cuba's top biotech teams have successfully tested a new AIDS vaccine on mice, and are ready to soon begin human testing, a leading researcher told a biotechnology conference in Havana on Monday.

"The new AIDS trial vaccine already was tested successfully (on mice) and now we are preparing a very small, tightly controlled phase one clinical trial" with HIV-positive patients who are not in the advanced stages of disease, researcher Enrique Iglesias said.

Children in Afghanistan suffer one of the highest levels of chronic malnutrition in the world, a report said Monday, despite billions of dollars in aid that have poured into the war-torn country.

More than half of Afghan children under the age of five are chronically malnourished, according to the joint report by the World Bank and the government.

Japanese scientists say they have found a link between consumption of vitamin E and the degenerative bone condition osteoporosis, in a study likely to shed new light on the use of supplements.

Researchers found that giving mice increased doses of the vitamin to a level similar to that found in supplements caused the animals' bones to thin.

A 66-year-old Swiss pastor has become the oldest known woman to have given birth in Switzerland after delivering a pair of twins, tabloid SonntagsBlick reported Sunday.

"A 66-year-old had a pair of twins at the women's clinic," Martin Vincenz, a spokesman for the cantonal hospital in eastern Switzerland's Graubuenden, told the tabloid.

Some 910,000 lives have been saved so far under a six-year-old policy of cooperation between AIDS and tuberculosis health services, the World Health Organization estimated Friday.

The stepped-up collaboration has brought about better protection of AIDS patients against TB, a leading killer of people living with HIV, the Geneva-based UN agency said in a statement.

There's new evidence that exposure to exhaust from diesel engines increases the risk of lung cancer.

Diesel exhaust has long been classified as a probable carcinogen. But the 20-year study from the National Cancer Institute took a closer look by tracking more than 12,000 workers in certain kinds of mines — facilities that mined for potash, lime and other nonmetals. They breathed varying levels of exhaust from diesel-powered equipment, levels higher than the general population encounters.

The Swiss group Nestle said on Friday it was the first company in Britain to remove artificial flavors in all its confectionery products such as Smarties or Rolo.

The company said in a statement that it had replaced artificial colors, flavors and preservatives with natural ingredients in all 79 confectionery products it sells in Britain.