Nearly one million children across eastern and southern Africa are suffering from “severe acute malnutrition” after two years of drought and the strongest El Nino in 50 years, UNICEF said Wednesday. Children in the region face food and water shortages, with rising prices worsening the situation as families are forced to skip meals and sell belongings. “Severe acute malnutrition” is defined as extreme hunger, causing a very low weight-for-height ratio, visible wasting or fluid retention.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Retailers that accept food stamps would have to start stocking a wider variety of healthy foods or face the loss of consumers under proposed rules expected to be announced by the Agriculture Department on Tuesday.

Huffing and puffing, sweat-soaked Malaysian police officer Mohamad Ra’ayim Jemahir strains in hot pursuit of an elusive quarry: a fit physique. The Royal Malaysian Police says about 11,000 of its 122,000 officers — nearly 10 percent — are overweight, causing rising health-related absenteeism and costing millions of dollars in lost productivity. Ra’ayim largely blames his weight woes on habitual consumption of Malaysia’s tasty but often fattening cuisine during the typically long stretches of inaction common in policing.