LONDON (Reuters) - Vitamin D is vital in activating human defences and low levels suffered by around half the world's population may mean their immune systems' killer T cells are poor at fighting infection, scientists said on Sunday.
BARCELONA, Spain - Freak waves that smashed into a Mediterranean cruise ship flooded people's cabins, broke windows in a restaurant and terrified many travellers in an ordeal that claimed two lives, a passenger said Thursday.
SYDNEY (AFP) - Mothers who work part-time are more likely to have healthier children than those who work full-time or who are not in the workforce, the author of an Australian study said Wednesday.
MONTREAL - After months of balancing a woman's religious beliefs with her desire to learn French, the Quebec government stepped into her classroom to offer an ultimatum: take off the niqab or drop the course.
OTTAWA - The old question of cash or plastic is about to become moot because the cash is essentially going to be plastic, too.
TORONTO - The proportion of visible minorities in Canada, already one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world, is set to explode in the coming decades and account for one-third of the population, Statistics Canada says.
EL CAJON, Calif. - A California Highway Patrol officer helped slow a runaway Toyota Prius from 94 mph (151 kph) to a safe stop on Monday after the car's accelerator became stuck on a San Diego County freeway, the CHP said.
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.
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's Nissan Motor said Wednesday it would recall nearly 540,000 vehicles worldwide, most of them in the United States, due to brake pedal defects and faulty fuel gauges.
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday called the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks a "big lie" used by the U.S. as an excuse for the war on terror, state media reported.
WASHINGTON - Sarah Palin's weekend admission that her family once travelled to Canada to receive treatment under the public health-care system she's so often demonized prompted skepticism and ridicule Monday among her critics in the United States.
SAO PAULO, Brazil - An international cruise ship was placed under quarantine in southeastern Brazil after hundreds of passengers were stricken with vomiting and diarrhea, health authorities said Thursday
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has been no friend lately of socialized health care.
JOS, Nigeria (AFP) - Nigeria's government sent in troops to the flashpoint northern Jos region Monday after attacks by machete-wielding gangs on Christian villages that officials say killed at least 500 people.
Sunday night's Oscars ceremony was a little bit like an episode of "Lost." Sure, we got a few answers -- such as finally learning the actual Oscar winners -- but the awards show left us with more questions than answers.