Malaria vaccine gets 'green light'

The world's first malaria vaccine has cleared one of the final hurdles prior to being approved for use in Africa.

The European Medicines Agency gave a positive scientific opinion after assessing its safety and effectiveness.

It represents a 'green light' for the Mosquirix jab, developed by GlaxoSmithKline.

The World Health Organization will consider later this year whether to recommend it for children, among whom trials have yielded mixed results.

Malaria kills around 584,000 people a year worldwide, most of them children under five in sub-Saharan Africa.

HIV: UN meets goal to treat 15 million

The goal to get HIV treatment to 15 million people by the end of 2015 has already been met, says the United Nations Aids agency.

The landmark figure was reached in March - nine months ahead of schedule.

It follows decades of global efforts and investment to get antiretroviral drugs to those in need - such as people living in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2000, when the UN first set goals to combat HIV, fewer than 700,000 people were receiving these vital medicines.

According to UN Aids, which has a report out today, the global response to HIV has averted 30 million new HIV infections and nearly eight million Aids-related deaths since the millennium.

South Korea seals off two MERS hospitals; worst may be over

South Korea has sealed off two hospitals that treated people with a deadly respiratory disease, officials said, even as the outbreak that has been spreading through health facilities could have peaked, with just four new cases on Friday.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome has infected 126 people in South Korea and killed 11 since it was first diagnosed just over three weeks ago in a businessman who had returned from a trip to the Middle East.

The outbreak is the largest outside Saudi Arabia, where the disease was first identified in humans in 2012, and has stirred fears in Asia of a repeat of a 2002-03 scare when Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) killed about 800 people worldwide.

The 68-year-old man who brought the virus back from the Middle East visited several health centers for treatment of a nagging cough and fever before he was diagnosed, leaving a trail of infection in his wake.

GE launches bidding process for U.S. lending operation: WSJ

General Electric Co launched the bidding process for a $40 billion portion of its U.S. commercial lending business, a critical step in its effort to avert regulation by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Wall Street Journal said on its website on Sunday.

The chunk of the operation represents more than half of the $74 billion U.S. commercial lending and leasing portfolio that includes loans for equipment purchases and financing and leases for midsize firms.

The business units could all go to a single buyer or could be divided and sold separately, the Wall Street Journal said.

GE is working with Credit Suisse Group AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc on the sale, while J.P. Morgan Chase & Co is overseeing all of the sales processes, it said.