BERLIN (AP) — An expert panel unveiled a proposal Tuesday for a major overhaul of Germany's system for funding hospitals that it says would promote quality over quantity, ending what some described as a “hamster wheel” system where clinics tried to perform as many procedures as possible.
Pfizer is asking U.S. regulators to authorize its updated COVID-19 vaccine for children under age 5 — not as a booster but part of their initial shots.
Children ages 6 months through 4 years already are supposed to get three extra-small doses of the original Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine — each a tenth of the amount adults receive — as their primary series.
BEIJING (AP) — China is easing some of the world’s most stringent anti-virus controls and authorities say new variants are weaker. But they have yet to say when they might end a “zero-COVID” strategy that confines millions of people to their homes and set off protests and demands for President Xi Jinping to resign.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand is launching a wide-ranging inquiry into whether it made the right decisions in battling COVID-19 and how it can better prepare for future pandemics.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday the coronavirus had posed the greatest threat to the nation's health and economy since World War II.
It's now a lot easier — and cheaper — for many hard-of-hearing Americans to get help.
Hearing aids can now be sold without a prescription from a specialist. Over-the-counter, or OTC, hearing aids started hitting the market in October at prices that can be thousands of dollars lower than prescription hearing aids.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota town has backed away from a proposal to let people sue abortion providers, including organizations that provide abortion drugs by mail, after the state’s attorney general warned that the plan was unconstitutional.
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. flu season keeps getting worse.
Health officials said Friday that 7.5% of outpatient medical visits last week were due to flu-like illnesses. That's as high as the peak of the 2017-18 flu season and higher than any season since.
LONDON (AP) — A top official at the World Health Organization said the U.N. agency was “pleased” to see China loosening some of its coronavirus restrictions, saying “it's really important that governments listen to their people when the people are in pain.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is still actively searching for ways to safeguard abortion access for millions of women, even as it bumps up against a complex web of strict new state laws enacted in the months after the Supreme Court stripped the constitutional right.
The deadline for obtaining the Real ID needed to board a domestic flight has been pushed back again, with the Department of Homeland Security citing the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for the slower-than-expected rollout.
As more nurses leave their jobs in hospitals and health-care centers, foundations are pouring millions of dollars into efforts to ensure that more stay in the profession and get more out of the job than just the applause and pats on the back they got during the bleakest days of the pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic sent Heidi Whitney’s daughter into a tailspin.
Suddenly the San Diego middle schooler was sleeping all day and awake all night. When in-person classes resumed, she was so anxious at times that she begged to come home early, telling the nurse her stomach hurt.
BEIJING (AP) — China’s leaders eulogized the late Jiang Zemin on Tuesday as a loyal Marxist-Leninist who oversaw their country’s rapid economic rise while maintaining rigid Communist Party control over society.
BANGKOK (AP) — Stocks were mostly lower in Asia on Tuesday after Wall Street pulled back as surprisingly strong economic reports highlighted the difficulty of the Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation.
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii Gov. Josh Green took the oath of office on Monday and immediately vowed to address homelessness and housing, and ask the Legislature to help eliminate the state's tax on food and medication.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Fresh off an event trumpeting Kentucky's largest-ever economic development project, Democratic Gov.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The image of a young Pelé celebrating goals and lifting trophies with Brazil’s national team appeared brightly on the shirts, flags and banners of Brazilian fans gathering before the Seleçao’s World Cup match against South Korea on Monday.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Board of Pharmacy on Monday sued a Moorhead-based manufacturer of THC-laced gummies, saying the company's candies contain far stronger doses of the chemical that gives marijuana its high than state law allows.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The World Cup stadium was designed to leave a minimal footprint in the Qatari sand. It's now due to be dismantled.
Stadium 974 played host to seven matches, the last of which was Brazil's 4-1 win over South Korea in the round of 16 on Monday.
Iowa's meeting with No. 15 Duke at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night is more than just another game to Patrick McCaffery.
The game opens the Jimmy V Classic doubleheader, which raises funds for cancer research through the V Foundation.
NEW YORK (AP) — George Balanchine’s “Nutcracker” ends with a big, collective farewell wave. Every single dancer onstage is waving — from the Sugarplum Fairy and her fellow inhabitants of the Land of Sweets down below, to Marie and her Prince up above, soaring in their wooden sleigh.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — An outbreak of bird flu in pelicans has authorities in Venezuela taking emergency efforts to protect poultry producers.
Numerous pelicans were found dead over the weekend along Venezuela’s coast as the species arrived amid their annual winter migration.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian soccer great Pelé will be cheering on his country's national team on Monday in its World Cup game against South Korea from the hospital, where he is being treated for a respiratory infection aggravated by COVID-19.
One would have to go back hundreds of years to find a monarch who reigned longer than Queen Elizabeth II.
In her 70 years on the throne, she helped modernize the monarchy across decades of enormous social change, royal marriages and births, and family scandals.
PAPHOS, Cyprus (AP) —
Defense lawyers for a British man on trial for causing the death of his wife in Cyprus’ coastal resort town of Paphos said Monday they’re hopeful the court will suspend any sentence it hands down to their client after he pleads guilty to manslaughter next week.
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson are representing the LPGA Tour this week in the QBE Shootout. Next year, they will have plenty of company.
The QBE Shootout will become a mixed-team event starting in 2023, returning such a format to the schedule for the first time since the JC Penney Classic in 1999.
KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — Hours after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, health staff at a children’s hospital in the south started secretly planning how to save the babies.
HONG KONG (AP) — China on Sunday reported two additional deaths from COVID-19 as some cities move cautiously to ease anti-pandemic restrictions following increasingly vocal public frustrations.
The National Health Commission said one death was reported each in the provinces of Shandong and Sichuan.
SAO PAULO (AP) — Two daughters and one grandson of Brazilian soccer great Pelé said the three-time World Cup winner has been hospitalized since Tuesday to treat a respiratory infection aggravated by COVID-19.
ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he wants to keep the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate in place to protect the health of the troops, as Republican governors and lawmakers press to rescind it.
HONG KONG (AP) — China on Sunday reported two additional deaths from COVID-19 as some cities move cautiously to ease anti-pandemic restrictions amid increasingly vocal public frustration over the measures.
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian soccer great Pelé is responding well to treatment for a respiratory infection and his health condition has not worsened over the latest 24 hours, the Albert Einstein hospital said Saturday.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York's state health commissioner will resign Jan. 1 after 13 months in the job to return to Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Mary Bassett said in a statement Friday that she was “leaving now so the next commissioner can have the chance to lead this great department for a full 4-year term under the leadership of Gov.