National / International News

The government announces the start of a major review of the way the NHS in England deals with complaints from patients and their relatives.

The Earned Income Tax Credit has been embraced by every president from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama.

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U.S. officials and security experts regularly highlight the cyberthreat, but they also note that the prospects of a major cyberattack are remote. Cyberespionage and "nuisance" cyberattacks may be a problem now, but all-out cyberwar is not.

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A giant reservoir of natural gas lies under the ocean floor, and no one had successfully extracted it until this week. Japanese engineers pulled it up through a well from under the Pacific. But there are still lots of unanswered questions about the viability of this new gas supply.

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Drinking four cups of green tea or one cup of coffee per day were each associated with about a 20 percent lower risk of stroke. That's according to a study of more than 82,000 men and women in Japan.

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Next week marks the anniversary of a landmark Supreme Court decision that says defendants facing substantial jail time deserve legal representation in state courts, even if they can't afford it. Now, many lawyers say the system for providing defense attorneys for the poor is in crisis.

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Tim Harris had wanted to open a restaurant for as long as he could remember. In 2004, with help from his father, Tim, who has Down syndrome, opened Tim's Place in Albuquerque, N.M. He calls it the world's friendliest restaurant, and doles out hugs to customers six days a week.

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Mississippi State University defied its state's unwritten rule of never playing against a team with African-Americans. Its 1963 NCAA tournament match against Loyola University, which had four black players in its starting lineup, became a symbol in the effort to overturn Jim Crow policies.

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Later today, 33,000 aspiring doctors will find out where they’ll be doing their residencies for the next three to seven years. In medical circles, they call it "Match Day."

In the last few years, doctors and hospitals have begun adapting the on-the-job training residents receive, so they can better succeed in today’s tumultuous health care world. But the past is never far from view.

At the University of Pennsylvania medical school, historic paintings of doctors and professors line the marble hallway in one of the oldest buildings on campus.

Dr. Bill Hanson, who helps oversee resident training at Penn, describes one of the most famous paintings, “The Agnew Clinic,” by Thomas Eakins in 1889.

“That’s Doctor Agnew there, pontificating in front of an auditorium full of amazed medical students,” he says.

Hanson says the painting embodies the god-like position doctors held for more than a century.

“The central figure in medical care is that isolated one professorial figure in white. And everyone else around him is in shadow, or secondary to that fount of wisdom. Very, very different from what we are talking about today,” says Hanson.

The picture of today’s doctor? The team huddle.

Dr. Brian Smith, who’s wrapping up his training at Penn, makes rounds with an assorted crew of nurses, students, and residents. Smith says teamwork is critical in the new health care era, for improving patient health, avoiding errors and holding down costs.

“We’ll say, you know, does anybody have any other ideas, are there any concerns that we are not addressing. And a lot of times that evolves into a dialogue,” he says.

Dr. Bob Wachter at the University of California, San Francisco says doctors can no longer just take care of sick people.

“I like to say that the doctor of the future has two sick patients. One is the patient they are taking care of. One is the system they are working in,” says Wachter.

So while residents at UCSF still pour over case studies -- like they have for generations -- they’re also getting a lesson in economics.

“They get that if they are doing CAT scans when they shouldn’t be, not only are we bankrupting companies and the government, we are bankrupting people,” he says.

Wachter says now, it’s an obligation to teach residents the business side of the profession. Because while the days of the god-like doctor have ended, physicians are still the central figures in medicine.

And Wachter says it’s up to this the new crop of doctors to treat what ails the health care system.

Young members of the military returning from duty are more likely to commit violence than the rest of the population, a study of UK personnel suggests.

HMS Belfast celebrates its 75th anniversary

An Irish property developer who said he had been kidnapped for eight months has been arrested on suspicion of wasting time.

There are long queues of traffic as a big section of the M4 eastbound at Newport has been closed following an accident in which one person has died.

Reuters journalist Matthew Keys is charged in the US with conspiring with hacking group Anonymous to break into the website of a former employer.

The last remaining 300-tonne boilers will leave the former Berkeley nuclear power station site later.

The Thai navy denies reports that its personnel opened fire on a group of Rohingya refugees, killing at least two.

US bank JPMorgan Chase is accused by a US Senate panel of hiding its huge "London whale" trading losses, worth $6.2bn (£4.1bn).

Pedlars are worried that proposed changes to laws on street trading could put them out of business

F1 star writes his first exclusive column for the BBC

The take-up of 'tough' subjects at A-level may drop if AS-levels are removed as a 'stepping stone', head teachers have warned the government.