Health care group offers quality check online

WASHINGTON -- A group that sets standards for health organizations is making it easier for people to compare the quality and safety of care at more than 16,000 hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies and other U.S. medical facilities. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations says its online service, Quality Check, includes information about how such groups perform in four important areas -- heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia and pregnancy. The free Web site -- www.qualitycheck.org -- also shows how hospitals and other facilities rate on meeting requirements to prevent medical mishaps such as misidentification of patients, surgery on the wrong body part, medication mix-ups and hospital-borne infections.

Wildfires hit thousands of acres in California

LAKE HUGHES, Calif. -- Despite withering summer heat, thousands of firefighters aided by planes slowly gained ground Wednesday against California wildfires that have burned more than 19,000 acres of brush and forest and caused hundreds of people to evacuate homes. Wet weather headed into the region, bringing hope of relief but also raising fears of flash flooding and new lightning-caused fires. The Federal Emergency Management Agency authorized funds for some of the fires, which were burning in Los Angeles County, to the east in Riverside County, to the south in San Diego County and in Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada.

House panel vote sets abortion funding rule

WASHINGTON -- A House committee gave the pro-life movement a victory Wednesday, voting to making it easier for hospitals, health insurers and others to refuse to provide or cover abortions. The Republican-run House Appropriations Committee added the provision to a massive spending bill by voice vote after pro-choice lawmakers concluded they lacked the votes to block it. The language would bar any of the bill's funds from going to federal, state or local agencies that act against health care providers or insurers because they do not provide abortions, make abortion referrals or cover them.

Family of slain diplomat stymied fails in court

RICHMOND, Va. -- The family of a diplomat killed by terrorists 20 years ago cannot collect damages through the sale of Iranian properties seized by the United States government, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Charles Hegna family forfeited any claim to the properties by accepting a payment of more than $8 million under the federal Victims Protection Act. Hegna was slain by members of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization with ties to Iran, during the hijacking of a Kuwaiti Airlines flight in December 1984.

-- From wire reports