BEIJING: Lawyers advising victims of China's spreading tainted milk scandal said Tuesday that they were under growing pressure from officials in central China to withdraw from the cases.

NEW YORK: The AIDS virus has been circulating among people for about 100 years, decades longer than scientists had thought, a new study suggests.

Genetic analysis pushes the estimated origin of HIV back to between 1884 and 1924, with a more focused estimate at 1908.

People with pancreatic cancer are more likely than those without the disease to have been infected with the hepatitis B virus, a study has shown for the first time.

The finding suggests that hepatitis B - already known to cause liver cancer in some patients - may also increase the risk of pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest types of tumor.

Floods in Thailand have killed 23 people and sickened 230,000 in the past two weeks, including many who contracted ailments after wading through dirty water, the government says.

The 23 people were swept away by flash floods that have afflicted 27 of Thailand's 75 provinces since early September, the Ministry of Public Health said in a statement Tuesday.

BEIJING: Melamine has been found in milk powder from 15 more Chinese dairies, the authorities said Wednesday, and Hong Kong's food safety agency said its tests had found melamine in a Japanese-brand cheesecake that is made in China.

Thailand is tightening restrictions on dairy products from China after finding two samples of milk powder contaminated with melamine, Deputy Health Minister Wicharn Meechainant said Tuesday. "We'will issue a new ministerial regulation very soon that milk imported from China must be checked more thoroughly," he said.

The U.S. agency that removed the gray wolf from the endangered species list in March has changed its mind and is asking a federal judge to void the decision.

More than a dozen countries in Asia and Africa have banned China dairy imports, and several others had recalled products by Wednesday, fearing potentially lethal melamine-tainted milk has made its way to their markets.

Here is a list of how different countries are reacting.

IMPORT BANS

LUCKNOW, India: Heavy rains continued to lash northern and eastern India, with another 44 people reported killed within 24 hours, as officials rushed Tuesday to rescue hundreds of thousands trapped in their homes.

The latest reported deaths brought the toll of those killed by monsoon flooding to 163 over the last four days.

BEIJING: China's latest tainted product crisis widened Friday after tests found the chemical melamine in liquid milk produced by three of the country's leading dairy companies, the country's quality monitor said.