LISBON -- Free state-funded health care is one aspect of the post-WWII political settlement of which Europeans are most proud. But now it could be under threat as governments are strapped for cash, and in Portugal, one of the continent’s poorest performers, the question of whether free health provision is still affordable is pressing. Portuguese citizens have their vices like anyone else. But if their health deteriorates, they know, like most Europeans, there is a high quality yet mainly ...

ABUJA - Globally, the number of maternal deaths has been cut in half since 1990.  But, in Nigeria 40,000 women die each year because of pregnancy complications.  Aid organizations say poverty, isolation and dangerous traditions are the heart of the problem while some mothers say there are simply no doctors at the hospital.     A United Nations study indicates that a third of the women who die from childbirth yearly are in two countries: India, the world's second-most ...