BEIJING — Authorities killed rats and fleas on Tuesday as they disinfected a town sealed off after three people died of pneumonic plague in a remote farming town in northwestern China, according to the provincial health department. Police set up checkpoints around Ziketan in Qinghai province after the outbreak was first detected last Thursday. The lung infection is highly contagious can ...

 AMSTERDAM - A union representing Dutch nurses will launch a national campaign Friday against demands for sexual services by patients who claim it should be part of their standard care.

Specially trained nurse practitioners and surgeons were found to detect breast abnormalities at similar rates, researchers in Wales reported. [widget:career_profiles_quiz_career_profiles_quiz__] Researchers at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Wales -- which treats nearly 300 women with breast cancer a year -- asked a specially trained nurse practitioner and consultant surgeon to do breast assessments. "This study aimed to test the theory that ...

GENEVA — The World Health Organization told its member nations it was declaring a swine flu pandemic Thursday – the first global flu epidemic in 41 years – as infections climbed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere. In a statement sent to member countries, WHO said it decided to raise the pandemic warning level from phase 5 ...

By now you know that an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck the nation of Chile this weekend, sending a tsunami warning throughout the Pacific Ocean and displacing millions of people. At 8.8, the quake is the fifth largest of the past century, and its aftershocks continue to wreak havoc on the area (I recommend checking The Times's LEDE Blog for the ...

BEIJING - China said Wednesday that it would build a clinic in each of its nearly 700,000 villages within three years, part of a sweeping 850 billion yuan ($124 billion) investment in health care reform. The clinic program is part of an even more ambitious plan to provide basic medical coverage and insurance to all of China's 1.3 billion people. Public ...

It gets worse and worse. I'm so glad my concience is clear because I did not vote for that criminal.

THESSALONIKI, Greece – Thousands of Greeks took to the streets Saturday in union-led protests against the debt-plagued country's harsh austerity program, before a keynote speech on the economy by the prime minister

MADRID – Spain, famed for its smoke-filled bars, corner cafes and restaurants, set the stage Wednesday for a tough new anti-smoking law that will rid the country of its dubious status as one of Western Europe's easiest places to light up.

VIENNA – An Austrian man who was the first in Europe to wear an innovative high-tech artificial arm has died after the car he was driving veered off the road and crashed into a tree.

JOHANNESBURG – Health officials in South Africa said Wednesday they recommend screening all HIV patients for tuberculosis and want automatic TB tests for HIV patients to become normal procedure within five years.

Copiapo, Chile (CNN) -- His return heralded by a siren's blare and the cries of a happy nation, the first of 33 Chilean miners emerged into a cool desert night early Wednesday after being trapped underground for 69 harrowing days.

BEIJING – China's Red Cross asked citizens around the country Friday to urgently donate blood because of an acute shortage that has prompted delays in some surgeries.

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said it proposed Thursday a joint probe with the United States of the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship that an earlier international investigation blamed on Pyongyang.

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghans set fire to tires in the streets and shouted "Death to America" for a second day Saturday despite a decision by an American pastor to call off plans to burn copies of the Islamic holy book