TOKYO (Reuters) - The stabbing deaths of 19 disabled people in their sleep last July and the silence surrounding their identities are forcing Japan to grapple with its attitudes toward physically and cognitively impaired persons, less than four years before Tokyo hosts the Paralympics.

LONDON (Reuters) - Early results from a crucial case-control study in Brazil have confirmed a direct causal link between Zika virus infection in pregnant women and the brain damaging birth defect microcephaly in their babies, scientists said on Thursday.

(Reuters Health) - In the decade after Belgium legalized doctor-assisted death, the number of patients using it to end their lives rose nearly eight-fold, according to records of the national euthanasia control committee.

(Reuters) - An assailant wielding a meat cleaver struck a New York City police officer in the head on Thursday in midtown Manhattan, and two other officers chasing the suspect were also hurt during the incident, police said.

(Reuters) - An initiative on California's November ballot aimed at reining in prescription drug prices is favored by 66 percent of state voters, according to a new poll released on Thursday.

(Reuters) - The death of a mentally ill black man who reportedly begged for drinking water while jailed in Milwaukee and died of dehydration has been ruled a homicide, a county medical examiner said on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors fled U.S.-based stock funds at the fastest rate in a year, Lipper data for the latest week showed on Thursday, as fears over global central bank policy shook markets from their summertime slumber.

Sept 15 (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd formally recalled 1 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold in the United States, replacing or refunding the flagship phones, whose susceptibility to catching fire has damaged the image of the Korean company.

BENGALURU, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Oracle employees were at work on Monday when protesters entered their nine-story building in India's technology hub, Bengaluru, and asked them to leave in support of demonstrations that had erupted across the city over a water dispute.