Chile's government has ordered about half a million pigs to be evacuated from a meat processing plant where they were abandoned, prompting locals to riot over foul odors, local media said Saturday.

Residents in the town of Freirina, 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of Santiago in the parched Atacama region, have cut off access roads to the pig slaughterhouse.

French smokers have formed a lobby to "defend their rights" against what they perceive as unfair curbs imposed by the state, the group's leaders said Sunday.

The Union for the Rights of Adult Smokers (UDFA) says it represents a potential 12.5 million voters and intends to fight against the spread of no-smoking zones or rising cigarette prices.

Australia said Friday it would "vigorously defend" itself against complaints about its plan for plain cigarette packaging made by Honduras and Ukraine to the World Trade Organization.

The action was launched by Ukraine at the WTO in March and Honduras joined the following month, according to the global trade arbiter.

Chile will soon cover sex change surgeries under its public health plan in order to allow citizens of limited means to "recover their true sexual identity," Health Minister Jaime Manalich said.

Until now such operations were only offered in private clinics at a cost of $20,000 to $30,000, but will now be performed in public hospitals in the capital Santiago, Concepcion and Valparaiso, he said late Thursday.

The World Health Organization announced on Friday it was set to approve a new target to reduce premature deaths from chronic illnesses such as heart disease by a quarter by 2025.

Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory conditions are known in medical terms as no communicable diseases (NCDs) and represent the world's biggest killers -- accounting for 63 percent of all deaths.

After decades of indifference, big businesses and the government are turning up the heat on smokers in South Korea, a nation with one of the developed world's highest male smoking rates.

Some firms are pressing workers to kick the habit or miss out on promotion and the health ministry will toughen warnings on cigarette packs.

Scotland on Thursday became the first part of Britain to introduce a minimum price for alcohol in an attempt to change its unhealthy relationship with booze.

Alcohol will be sold at a minimum price of 50 pence (81 U.S. cents, 63 euro cents) per unit after lawmakers voted 86 to one in favor of the act. The measure could come into effect from next April.

Tinnitus, an incurable ringing in the ears that can wreck the lives of those that suffer from it, can be significantly eased by a new combination of therapies, The Lancet reported on Friday.

The approach uses psychological training and audio therapy in small groups to reduce distress and refocus the mind so that it does not dwell on the sound.

Australia moved to assure its meat export partners and domestic market Friday that its beef was safe after it was linked to an E-coli contamination scare in the United States.

Australia's agriculture department said it had recently been notified that local beef had been "implicated" in E-coli contamination of mincemeat in the United States.

Motorists along the Beirut-Jounieh highway are exposed to twice the acceptable levels of air pollutants set by the World Health Organization, a new study revealed.

The study was conducted by the American University of Beirut in collaboration with Rasamny Younis Motor Company – RYMCO, Nissan’s exclusive dealer in Lebanon, and Bank Audi s.a.l – Audi Saradar Group, and the results were announced at a joint press conference held at AUB on May 24, 2012.