Professional Malpractice

ROME - The signs seemed to point to a man preparing to escape.

ROME - An American doctor on the run for five years as charges of fraud and malpractice mounted against him was arrested as he hid out on a snowy mountain in northern Italy, and stabbed himself in the neck as he was taken into custody, police said.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration on Thursday announced $25 million in grants for states and health care systems to experiment with alternatives to costly medical malpractice lawsuits, an issue that long has divided Washington.

A look at key issues in the health care debate: THE ISSUE: Would restrictions on medical malpractice lawsuits mean cheaper health insurance? THE POLITICS: Republicans rally around the idea that the health system would save substantial money if limits were placed on frivolous lawsuits by patients or their families, and on the size of awards paid out when medical mistakes are made.

BOSTON - Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, one of the central figures in the clergy sex abuse scandal, was convicted after a 27-year-old man tearfully described how the popular priest used to pull him out of catechism classes and rape him, beginning when he was just 6 years old.