(Reuters) - UnitedHealth Group , the largest U.S. health insurer, will stop covering several brand-name drugs as of next year, reinforcing a trend of payers steering prescriptions to lower-priced options.

LONDON (Reuters) - A new drug to treat a rare inherited bone disorder that was developed by Alexion Pharmaceuticals and could cost up to 1.5 million pounds ($2 million) a year per patient has been cleared for limited use by Britain's health cost watchdog.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Social Security Administration needs to up its game when it comes to helping retirees decide when to claim their benefits.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A volunteer group in Syria that has rescued thousands of people from buildings bombed in the civil war were among the winners of the Right Livelihood Award, the prize-giving foundation said on Thursday.

STOCKHOLM, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Hazaras are a mainly Shi'ite community, several thousand of whom have fled to Sweden in recent years to escape abuse and poverty in marginalized communities in Afghanistan and Iran.

SVANGSTA, Sweden, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Mustafa Ansari's journey ended one April morning in his bedroom in a quiet Swedish village.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - With China facing a demographic crisis of stalling birth rates and a fast-ageing population, one city has taken a novel approach: a direct call to action aimed at young government officials to lead the way and have a second child.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan on Wednesday pledged more than $3 billion toward a plan to "cure, prevent or manage all disease within our children's lifetime."

LONDON, Sept 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The United States unveiled plans on Thursday to ramp up efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM) after figures showed more than half of million women and girls were living at risk.