Japan's Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry on Monday confirmed that a five-year-and-four-month-old female cow, which died last week in northern Japan, has tested positive for mad cow disease. The discovery brings to 30 the number of confirmed bovine spongiform encephalopathy cases in Japan.

Reports say the cow was born in June 2001 before the implementation of a ban on meat-and-bone meal which is suspected of being the cause of the brain-wasting disease. The cow was traced on a farm in Chitose, Hokkaido prefecture, it was said

Vampire bats may have been given a raw deal, says Paul Faure, a neuroscientist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. They may be more treat then trick, he says, citing clinical trials of a drug using bat enzymes which have improved recovery for stroke victims.

"Vampire bats are not blood suckers," Faure told the Toronto Star. "They drink the blood, they don't suck it

The World Health Organization claims that globally for every four malnourished adults, five more are overweight while 30 percent of them are clinically obese. The massive number is already constituting to a global epidemic.

The world's six billion population counts 1 billion people overweight while 800 million are underfed

A report confirms a decrease in death rates from all cancers. It also says, more Americans were found to suffer from thyroid cancer.

Experts say that the increased occurrence of thyroid cancers may be the result of enhanced diagnostic tools; it is still premature to rule out other risk factors that may be involved

The rise in temperature could trigger the migration of malaria-carrying mosquitoes and boost the spread of infectious diseases.

Professor Paul Hunter, head of the health protection at the U.K.'s University of East Anglia, told delegates at the Festival of Science being held in the city of Norwich, east England said global warming are causing organisms to migrate