WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. health agency in Washington has decided it is time to move against a dietary supplement, the first occasion the agency has taken such a step.

The Wall Street Journal reported the Food and Drug Administration will announce Tuesday it was banning the herbal weight-loss treatment ephedra.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson is expected to join FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan as he announces the FDA is moving towards banning the use of ephedra in dietary supplements, a senior administration official said.

They are also expected to provide details for implementing the ban through a formal rulemaking that will likely take months to go into effect.

The action will set a precedent for how the FDA deals with the alleged risks posed by supplements and could draw litigation from manufacturers who dispute the agency's assertion that ephedra, also known as ma huang, is a proven health risk.

Once widely taken to enhance athletic performance and as a weight-loss aid, ephedra increasingly has been linked to heart problems and strokes and was fingered in the death earlier this year of 23-year-old Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler.

Mars Express prepares to listen for Beagle

LONDON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The Mars Express orbiter soon will be able to join the search for a message from the Beagle 2 lander, European Space Agency officials said Wednesday.

The Mars Express has carried out a major engine burn to sweep it into a polar orbit of the red planet, which will put the spacecraft in prime position to listen for Beagle 2's signal, officials said. The new orbit will carry it more frequently over the Beagle 2 landing site -- a low-lying area near the Martian equator called Isidis Planitia -- improving its chances of receiving a radio transmission from the British lander.

Beagle 2, which presumably touched down on the Martian surface on Christmas Eve, U.S. time, thus far has not made contact despite five straight days of attempts by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter and Earth-based radiotelescopes to detect its faint signal.

One theory is Beagle 2 landed in a small, unknown crater that might be blocking its signal. The Mars Express will be swooping as low as 250 miles above the planet's surface and could intercept the Beagle's signal from a different angle than is possible with either the Mars Odyssey or Earth-based instruments.

Swaziland awash in fake AIDS cures

MBABANE, Swaziland, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- With little interference from the government, phony AIDS cures are flooding Swaziland, the Johannesburg Mail and Guardian reported Tuesday.

According to press reports, the supplier of one "AIDS vaccine" in pill form, manufactured in Thailand, is providing the Swazi army with the drug, although there is no proof of its efficacy.

Neither the army nor the drug's distributor, Sutitangwe Medical Services of Mbabane, owned by two Thai nationals and a Swazi, would comment when contacted for comment.

Swazi police conduct regular raids against illegal narcotics, arresting possessors of marijuana and other drugs, and burning marijuana fields. However, laws governing medicinal drugs are either obsolete or not enforced, the newspaper said.

Last month, UNAids reported that Swaziland had now tied with Botswana for the world's worst rate of infection among adults -- about 40 percent of the population.

From May through September this year, evangelical preachers from the United States and Africa held mass "healing" sessions that were attended by tens of thousands of Swazis.

Warning: Legionnaires in potting soil

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- New Zealand health officials have issued a warning to gardeners of the risk of catching Legionnaires disease from potting soil.

Medical officer of health Margot McLean told the Dominon Post there had been 13 cases of legionellosis, or legionnaire's disease, in the wider Wellington region this year, compared with nine last year. Five of those cases were in the past two months.

Four of the recent cases of the disease, which can cause anything from mild flu-like symptoms to severe pneumonia, were likely to have been caused by a specific strain of the disease usually found in potting soil mix, McLean said Monday.

The disease is often associated with air-conditioning systems as legionella bacteria, which cause the disease. While the bacteria can live in the system cooling towers, it is also widespread in water, soil, potting mix and compost.

McLean suggested taking precautions such as opening the bags away from the face, and if working indoors, ensure adequate ventilation.

Moistening the soil first will also minimize dust, the report said.

China clamps down on SARS research safety

BEIJING, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The Chinese government announced a new series of strict licensing tests for facilities that do research on SARS, the People's Daily reported Tuesday.

Government experts will check that all labs conducting research into severe acute respiratory syndrome nationwide strictly adhere to the set standards, and those that pass will receive new licenses. Those that do not will be closed, the newspaper said.

Research experiments should be conducted in labs of grade-three bio-security, the second highest of the four bio-security levels, the Ministry of Science and Technology announced.

"Problems with SARS labs in Taiwan and Singapore have rung alarm bells for us," said a ministry official.

Two medical researchers in Taiwan and Singapore SARS labs were recently infected with SARS during laboratory experiments.

According to the ministry's overall appraisal on China's current bio-security situation, the measures already taken in the country are enough to safeguard bio-security during SARS research.