MADRID A new Spanish law allowing abortion without restrictions in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy went into effect Monday but the Constitutional Court could yet intervene to suspend or change it.The law, approved by Parliament in February, was the latest item on a liberal agenda undertaken by the Socialist government, which took power in 2004.The measure is seen as bringing this traditionally R
NEW YORK To prevent injuries in babies, car seats should stay in the car.That's the message of a new study, published today in the journal Pediatrics, which shows that almost 9,000 infants go to the emergency room (ER) every year for car seat-related injuries that happen outside the car.If the seat does have to come out of the car, said co-author Lindsay Wilson, parents should make sure their b
BERLIN In a story June 25 about a right-to-die case, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Germany's top criminal court legalized assisted suicide.The court didn't rule on the issue of assisted suicide.The case involved a woman in a vegetative coma who was being kept alive through an intravenous feeding tube, though not terminally ill.The court overturned the attempted manslaughter conv
TOKYO Former world hot-dog eating sensation Takeru Kobayashi of Japan wants to compete in this weekend's annual Fourth of July contest on Coney Island, but still can't agree to a contract with the organizers.Kobayashi, one of the world's premier competitive eaters, won the contest for six years up to 2007 and then had to settle for second-place finishes behind American Joey Chestnut.He moved to
KARACHI (AFP) Tanvir Ahmed was 11 years old when he ran away from home and got drawn into life as a sex worker on the streets of Karachi.Now he takes art lessons and dreams of a better future. The four years I spent here were the worst.It was abuse.I never knew what would happen, said Ahmed, sitting in an art studio tucked away in a backstreet in Pakistan's teeming metropolis of 16 million on t
Jinan, China Liu Pifeng is a wealthy man.The founder of a prosperous corporate law firm in this provincial capital, he drives the sort of black Chrysler sedan that proclaims personal success in China.He does not, however, trouble to conceal his humble origins.In conversation he is apt to hike his suit trousers way up, following a summertime habit among Chinese working men seeking to cool their c
ST.MARYS, Ohio Patches of green and turquoise slime floated like thick paint in the channel behind Kyle Biesel's home.His pontoon boat sat covered up, unused for weeks, on a wooden lift stained by the algae.A foul smell enveloped the backyard where he used to fish and watch blue herons glide over the water.He called it a sickening combination of manure and propane gas. Even more alarming, tests
NEW YORK Weight loss loves company, hints new research.For every additional 10 people signed up at a clinical center for a weight loss trial, the average person loses half a percent more weight, the study found.Dr.Arne Astrup of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and his colleagues delved into a database of 22 weight-loss centers across five countries, gathered in a previous large clinical