Chinese medical teams have fanned out across the earthquake zone, disinfecting makeshift camps and educating survivors, and on Monday the Health Ministry said it could guarantee there would be no epidemics. Where bodies could not be cremated, they had been been buried deep underground and far from water sources to prevent contamination

China stepped up the fight on Thursday to stave off disease among over five million earthquake homeless as it tried to boost morale with plans to bring the Olympic flame through the disaster zone. Ten days after the quake, China was faced with the challenge of how to reconstruct shattered communities after more than 74 000 people were confirmed dead or missing.

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang may be guilty of contempt of court for criticising a ruling that allowed the Sunday Times to comment on her health records, the Public Protector said on Wednesday. The Public Protector made this finding while investigating a complaint of misappropriation of funds against the Health Ministry.

Teenage smokers in Japan could soon be taking their last illicit puffs thanks to the introduction of cigarette-vending machines that can spot underage customers just by looking at them. The machines are equipped with a digital camera that can compare users' facial characteristics with a database of more than 100 000 people.

Malawi lawmakers on Tuesday began examining draft legislation aimed at ridding the HIV/Aids-plagued country of quacks claiming to cure the pandemic through such remedies as sex with virgins, health authorities said. "When it passes into law, all traditional healers claiming to cure Aids will be dealt with," Mary Shaba, head of HIV/Aids issues for Malawi's Health Ministry, said.

The government is to intervene to curb rocketing private healthcare costs and prevent the sector's "demise", Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Tuesday. The health charter task team, among others, has been discussing the challenge of making healthcare more affordable, she told the National Assembly's health committee.

Uganda is officially free of the deadly Ebola virus, which killed 37 people in the East African country last year, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday. Forty-two days passed with no new infections -- long enough to be sure that there were no cases still in the incubation stage, said the country's Health Minister, Dr Steven Malinga.

A magnitude-7,5 earthquake struck Indonesia's Aceh province on Wednesday, killing at least three people, injuring several and sending thousands fleeing their homes and offices in panic, officials and local media said. The quake struck the province that bore the brunt of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The Mozambican government announced on Wednesday that it was scrapping a planned increase in bus fares as the death toll from riots sparked by the price hikes rose to three. Calm had returned to the streets of Maputo on Thursday after the riots, which residents said were the most serious since 1975.

Heavy rains and high tides have caused chaos in Indonesia's capital for three days, highlighting its ailing infrastructure as roads to the airport became impassable and thousands had to abandon their homes or cars. The flooding also led to flight delays elsewhere in South-East Asia.