drugs

Expert says 18,000 people die as a result of the side effects of certain medications, many of which are handed out under unjustified prescriptions.

France's police anti-crime squads were set up to help combat street crime. But have they themselves become part of the problem? Driven by a target-setting culture, coming into contact with large-scale drug trafficking, co-opting their own members and subject to only limited management oversight, they seem almost programmed to crash out of control. Even before the emergence of a recent anti-crime squad corruption scandal in Marseille involving drugs, the positive impact of these police units in France's run-down estates was far from clear. Louise Fessard reports.

French police have dismantled what officials called a "huge" Albanian heroin-trafficking network, making 39 arrests in the eastern town of Mulhouse.

US Anti-Doping Agency strips cyclist Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles after deciding he used performance-enhancing drugs.

The Cofidis team have suspended Remy Di Gregorio after he was reportedly taken in by police for questioning over alleged doping offences.