HAVANA – Cuba's communist economic model has come in for criticism from an unlikely source: Fidel Castro. The revolutionary leader told a visiting American journalist and a U.S.-Cuba policy expert that the island's state-dominated system is in need of change, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has taken pains to steer clear of local issues since illness ...

WASHINGTON — Two new surveillance systems set up in Haiti after January's monster earthquake showed no major outbreaks of disease, and might form the basis of one long-term improvement for the Caribbean nation's health, researchers reported Thursday.

WASHINGTON — Two new surveillance systems set up in Haiti after January's monster earthquake showed no major outbreaks of disease, and might form the basis of one long-term improvement for the Caribbean nation's health, researchers reported Thursday.

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 ...

Apr. 26- Given the serious shortage of medical and nursing care workers and nurses, lifting certain restrictions so qualified foreigners in these fields can apply their skills in this country is an obvious solution. In its fourth basic immigration control policy plan compiled late last month, the Justice Ministry stated it would reexamine the mandatory limit on the length of time ...

 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.

 This is a beautiful slide show!!!  

The massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile more than a week ago moved the city of Concepción at least 10 feet (3 meters) to the west, seismological measurements indicate.   The violent temblor - the fifth most powerful quake ever measured - shifted other parts of South America as well, from the Falkland Islands (located just east of the southern ...

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A top-ranked Southeast Asian militant wanted for planning the 2002 Bali bombings may have been killed in a shootout with police at an Internet cafe Tuesday moments after sitting at a terminal, authorities said. DNA tests were under way to confirm his identity.

NICOSIA, Cyprus – Three months after it was stolen, the corpse of Cyprus' former president was found reburied in another grave and the country's justice minister said Tuesday that it had been held for ransom. But two spokesmen for former President Tassos Papadopoulos' family insisted his relatives had never received a demand for money.

PARIS – Mideast rivals Israel and Syria on Tuesday each announced ambitions to develop nuclear energy, with Israel facing the prospect that its plan could bring new international attention to its secretive nuclear activities.

CAIRO – Egypt will shoulder the costs of restoring the country's Jewish houses of worship said the culture minister Tuesday, two days after a historic synagogue in Cairo's ancient Jewish quarter was rededicated in a private ceremony. Farouk Hosny said in a statement that his ministry views Jewish sites as much a part of Egypt's culture as Muslim mosques or Coptic ...

LONDON – Former Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic must remain in a British prison for at least two more days following his arrest on Serbian war crimes charges, a judge said Tuesday. The 64-year-old academic was arrested March 1 at London's Heathrow airport on a Belgrade warrant in connection with the 1992 deaths of Serbian troops in Bosnia.

LONDON – British dog owners may be forced to microchip their pets and take out insurance, part of a proposed crackdown on the country's dangerous canines. Postmen are delighted, but civil libertarians grumble that Britain's sprawling surveillance state now wants to track the nation's estimated 8 million dogs. Others complain that the insurance plan would impose a financial penalty on innocent ...

JOS, Nigeria – The U.S. government and human rights activists called Tuesday for Nigeria to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the deaths of more than 200 unarmed people in renewed violence between Christians and Muslims.

LONDON – Experts say there is nothing unusual about the latest spate of earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and now Turkey, but their devastation illustrates how growing construction along the world's fault lines can lead to massive casualties.

+ PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – One of two U.S. Baptist missionaries still held on kidnapping charges in Haiti was released Monday, but the group's leader remained in custody. Charisa Coulter was taken from her jail cell to the airport by U.S. Embassy staff more than a month after she and nine other Americans were arrested for trying to take 33 children out ...

OKCULAR, Turkey – Hundreds of earthquake survivors huddled in aid tents and around bonfires Monday in eastern Turkey, seeking relief from the winter cold after a strong temblor knocked down stone and mud-brick houses in five villages, killing 51 people. The damage appeared worst in the Kurdish village of Okcular, which was almost razed. At least 15 of the village's 900 ...

BEIJING – China's central bank governor acknowledged Saturday that Beijing is using its controversial exchange-rate controls to cope with the global economic crisis and said it will be cautious about retreating from the policy.