Health

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The top courts in two conservative states ruled the same day on similar challenges to abortion bans — and went in opposite directions.

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador are now reporting cases of the XBB.1.5 variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, reflecting a spread being reported south of the border.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Nearly 20 years after Caribbean islanders sued to hold the French government criminally responsible for the banana industry’s extended use of a banned pesticide in Martinique and Guadeloupe, a panel of judges has dismisse

BEIJING (AP) — China is seeking to minimize the possibility of a major new COVID-19 outbreak during this month’s Lunar New Year travel rush following the end of most pandemic containment measures.

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron announced an overhaul of France’s struggling health system Friday, including new funding methods for doctors and hospitals, more hiring and other organizational changes.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — As COVID-19 rips through China , other countries and the World Health Organization are calling on its government to share more comprehensive data on the outbreak. Some even say many of the numbers it's reporting are meaningless.

Idaho's Constitution does not implicitly enshrine abortion as a fundamental right, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday as it dismissed a series of lawsuits brought by Planned Parenthood.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a ban on abortion after six weeks, ruling the restriction enacted by the Deep South state violates a state constitutional right to privacy.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Attackers armed with guns and hand grenades ambushed a police van assigned to guard polio workers in northwestern Pakistan, wounding five policemen, authorities said.

VANCOUVER — British Columbia's health minister says hospitals haven't yet seen the bump of COVID-19 infections that have been recorded after previous holidays during the pandemic, but the health system is still feeling the strain of respiratory illne