WHO: Small cancer risk after Fukushima accident

LONDON (AP) — People exposed to the highest doses of radiation during Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011 may have a slightly higher risk of cancer but one so small it probably won't be detectable, the World Health Organization said in a report released Thursday.A group of experts convened by the agency assessed the risk of various cancers based on estimates of how much radiation people...

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Wall Street drifts after two-day run, Dow record in sight

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged higher on Thursday with investors hard-pressed to lift indexes to multi-year highs despite strong economic data. The U.S. economy ticked up in the fourth quarter, reversing an earlier estimate showing contraction, and a drop in new claims for unemployment benefits last week added to a string of data that suggests the economy improved early this year....

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IHT Rendezvous: Will Turkey Make Peace With the Kurds?

LONDON — There is growing optimism that a ceasefire in Turkey’s three-decade war with Kurdish guerrillas will be declared to coincide with the Kurdish New Year in three weeks.Under a draft plan reported on Wednesday, the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., would lay down its arms on March 21 and withdraw its forces from Turkish territory by August.The potential for a breakthrough in ending...

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Kathy Bates Joins American Horror Story, Ron Livingston Joins Boardwalk Empire

By Andrea Billups 02/27/2013 at 01:45 PM EST Kathy Bates and Ron Livingston Retna; WireImage Two familiar stars will join the casts of American Horror Story and Boardwalk Empire for the shows' new seasons.Kathy Bates, who won an Oscar for her frightening role...

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Vt. lye victim gets new face at Boston hospital

BOSTON (AP) — A Vermont nurse disfigured in a 2007 lye attack has received a new face at a Boston hospital.Carmen Blandin Tarleton's full facial transplant at Brigham & Women's Hospital included transplanting a female donor's facial skin to Tarleton's neck, nose and lips, along with facial muscles, arteries and nerves.Hospital officials say the 44-year-old Thetford, Vt., woman suffered burns on...

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Wall Street climbs on Bernanke, economic data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose 1 percent on Wednesday as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke remained steadfast in his support of the Fed's stimulus policy and data pointed to economic improvement. In his second day before a congressional committee, Bernanke repeated testimony in which he defended the Fed's policy of buying bonds to keep interest rates low in order to promote growth...

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IHT Rendezvous: Memories of Floating Over Luxor, Now Tinged With the Macabre

My 5-year-old son spent the entire hot-air balloon ride over Luxor crouched in the bottom of the basket, terrified of the flames that kept shooting into the balloon—the flames that produced the hot air that kept us afloat. He missed the glorious views: of the ancient ruins and the quilts of green grass, of the magnificent sunrise and the dancing shadows it created out of the dozens of other hot-air...

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See the Most Amazing Oscar Red Carpet Run-Ins

Halle Berry takes Quvenzhané Wallis under her wing, Adele trades compliments with Jennifer Aniston and more star encounters Credit: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Updated: Sunday Feb 24, 2013 | 09:00 PM EST By: Kiran Hefa Subscribe Now ...

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C. Everett Koop, 'rock star' surgeon general, dies

NEW YORK (AP) — Dr. C. Everett Koop has long been regarded as the nation's doctor— even though it has been nearly a quarter-century since he was surgeon general.Koop, who died Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H., at age 96, was by far the best known and most influential person to carry that title. Koop, a 6-foot-1 evangelical Presbyterian with a biblical prophet's beard, donned a public health uniform...

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Wall Street up as Bernanke defends policy, warns on cuts

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks advanced on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the Fed's bond-buying stimulus before Congress, but he warned forced spending cuts that could be triggered this week represented a headwind for the economy. Gains in homebuilders and other consumer stocks, following strong economic data, kept the S&P 500 up slightly and a 5 percent...

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