BEIRUT — U.N. observers on Thursday inspected the site of an explosion that flattened a block of houses in the central Syrian city of Hama and killed at least 16 people, while the government and...
LONDON — A surprisingly strong U.S. housing survey helped shore up markets Thursday despite a mixed batch of corporate earnings and further evidence of a sharp slowdown in the economy of the 17 countries...
WASHINGTON — Senate leaders on Thursday overcame the gender politics that had roiled debate over the government’s main domestic violence program and agreed to a vote on renewing it before heading...
FORT MEADE, Md. — A military judge refused on Thursday to dismiss the most serious charge against an Army private accused in the biggest leak of government secrets in U.S. history.
Col. Denise Lind...
NEW YORK — Vice President Joe Biden delivered a harsh attack Thursday on Mitt Romney’s foreign policy views, arguing that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is rooted in a Cold...
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas man was executed Thursday for his role in a 2002 robbery in which three people were shot, one fatally.
The lethal injection of Beunka Adams, 29, was carried out...
MOSCOW — The Russian parliament on Wednesday passed a Kremlin bill restoring gubernatorial elections, with opponents saying the new law will still allow the president to screen out undesirable candidates.
The...
SAN DIEGO — A sergeant will be discharged for criticizing President Barack Obama on Facebook in a case that called into question the Pentagon’s policies about social media and its limits on...
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — President Barack Obama went after the college vote Tuesday, pitching cheaper student loans as he courted the one age group where he has a decided advantage over Republican rival...
JERUSALEM — Israel legalized three unsanctioned West Bank settler outposts and was trying to save another on Tuesday, infuriating the Palestinians as the chief American Mideast envoy was in the region...
LONDON — The number of measles deaths worldwide has apparently dropped by about three-quarters over a decade, according to a new study by the World Health Organization and others.
Most of the deaths...
WASHINGTON — The first new case of mad cow disease in the U.S. since 2006 has been discovered in a dairy cow in California, but health authorities said Tuesday the animal never was a threat to the...
DJEMA, Central African Republic — An Internet campaign that’s gone viral aims to capture notorious rebel leader Joseph Kony, but Ugandan foot soldiers who have spent years searching for the...
LONDON — News Corp. executive James Murdoch’s behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign spilled out into the public domain Tuesday, casting a harsh light on the British government’s Olympics...
BRUSSELS — For more than a year, European Union officials have called for austerity, austerity and more austerity as a means to solve Europe’s debt crisis. Now people who don’t want to...
CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Tuesday upheld a conviction against one of the Arab world’s most famous comedians, sentencing him to jail for offending Islam in some of his most popular films.
The...
NEW ORLEANS — Federal prosecutors brought the first criminal charges Tuesday in the Gulf oil spill, accusing a former BP engineer of deleting more than 300 text messages that indicated the blown-out...
RUBKONA, South Sudan — Sudanese warplanes bombed a market and an oil field in South Sudan on Monday, killing at least two people after Sudanese ground forces had reportedly crossed into South Sudan...
SANFORD, Fla. — In an unusually low-key turn to a high-profile case, George Zimmerman was released without incident around midnight Sunday from a Florida county jail on $150,000 bail as he awaits...
BALTIMORE (AP) — Two brothers accused of beating a black teenager while patrolling an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood are set to go on trial Monday in a case with similarities to the Trayvon Martin...
RENO, Nev. — Astronomers say a loud explosion heard across a large swath of Nevada and California on Sunday morning was likely caused by a meteor.
Around 8 a.m. yesterday the explosion rattled windows...
NEW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. hushed up a vast bribery campaign that top executives of its Mexican subsidiary carried out to build stores across that country, according to a published report.
The...
KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S. and Afghanistan reached a deal Sunday on a long-delayed strategic partnership agreement that ensures Americans will provide military and financial support for at least...
SANFORD, Fla. — By questioning a state investigator on the witness stand during a routine bail hearing, George Zimmerman’s defense attorney showed some of the weaknesses in prosecutors’...
WASHINGTON — A top lawmaker briefed on the investigation into a Secret Service prostitution scandal said more firings could be imminent following the ouster of three agency employees.
“I wouldn’t...
SIMPSONVILLE, S.C. — A South Carolina county’s deputies say a McDonald’s employee spit in two customers’ cups of iced tea after the drinks were returned because they weren’t...
BARATARIA BAY, La. — Open sores. Parasitic infections. Chewed-up-looking fins. Gashes. Mysterious black streaks. Two years after the drilling-rig explosion that touched off the biggest offshore oil...
CHANTILLY, Va. — NASA turned over space shuttle Discovery on Thursday to the Smithsonian Institution, the first in its orbiter fleet to be transferred to a U.S. museum.
The U.S. Marine Drum and...
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned photographs of U.S. soldiers posing with the bloodied remains of three suicide bombers as “disgusting” and said Thursday that...
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — You can buy Fat Bastard wine in Alabama, but you’ll have to go elsewhere for Dirty Bastard beer.
The state alcoholic beverage control agency said Thursday it has banned...
AMSTERDAM — Dutch coffee shop owners went to court Wednesday in a last ditch bid to block a government plan to stop foreigners from buying marijuana in the Netherlands.
Lawyers representing the...
WASHINGTON— Lucas Harrell pitched into the seventh inning and shut down the Washington Nationals offense. The Astros bullpen woke ‘em back up.
Three relievers gave up three walks and two runs...
NANTERRE, France — She calls herself the anti-system candidate who will ensure social justice for the have-nots and purify a France losing its voice to Europe and threatened by massive immigration...
LOS ANGELES — Dick Clark stood as an avatar of rock ‘n’ roll virtually from its birth and, until his death Wednesday at age 82, as a cultural touchstone for boomers and their grandkids...
Filmmakers are calling DogTV a new breed of television — an eight-hour block of on-demand cable TV programming designed to keep your dog relaxed, stimulated and entertained while you are at work.
To...
CAIRO — Fans charged in Egypt’s deadliest soccer riot declared their innocence in the first session of their trial Tuesday, directing their anger toward police, charged with collaborating in...
MADRID — Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez is attempting to quell increasing unrest at home and boost her popularity with an “unlawful” bid to nationalize YPF, the Argentine...
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A strong magnitude-6.7 earthquake shook central Chile late Monday, prompting authorities to order the evacuation of a stretch of coastline and causing hundreds of people in...
PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea accused the U.S. of hostility on Tuesday for suspending an agreement to provide food aid following Pyongyang’s widely criticized rocket launch, and warned...
Stocks stormed higher Tuesday after promising signals about the profitability of U.S. companies and a strong debt auction by Spain. The Dow Jones industrial average rose for the fourth day in five and...
DENVER — It may take explosives to dislodge a group of cows that wandered into an old ranger cabin high in the Rocky Mountains, then died and froze solid when they couldn’t get out.
The carcasses...
MEXICO CITY — Authorities say police found the mutilated bodies of 14 men in a minivan abandoned in the downtown area of the border city of Nuevo Laredo.
Tamaulipas state prosecutors say in a statement...
WASHINGTON — The General Services Administration inspector general said Monday that he’s investigating possible bribery and kickbacks in the agency, as a central figure in a GSA spending scandal...
KABUL, Afghanistan — For Taliban militants and U.S. strategists alike, all roads in this impoverished country of mountain passes, arid deserts and nearly impassable goat tracks lead to this ancient...
ISTANBUL — In a show of unity, Iran and the world’s big powers on Saturday hailed their first nuclear meeting in more than a year as a key step toward further negotiations meant to ease international...
WOODWARD, Okla. — The television was tuned to forecasters’ dire warnings of an impending storm when Greg Tomlyanobich heard a short burst from a tornado siren blare after midnight Sunday. Then...
CARTAGENA, Colombia — An embarrassing scandal involving prostitutes and Secret Service agents deepened Saturday as 11 agents were placed on leave, and the agency designed to protect President Barack...
CORCORAN, Calif. — On August 9, 1969, two naive 17 year-old girls were launched on a path that led to the unlikeliest of friendships.
That infamous night, four young people under the sway of a charismatic...
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan’s president said Thursday that the nation will not withdraw its troops that this week entered a disputed border region with Sudan.
South Sudan President...
BEIRUT — Syria’s opposition called for widespread protests Friday to test the regime’s commitment to an internationally brokered cease-fire that the U.N. chief described as so fragile...
MODESTO, Calif. — A sheriff’s deputy and a civilian were killed Thursday when gunfire broke out as authorities tried to serve an eviction notice at a California apartment complex, officials...
PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea fired a long-range rocket early Friday, South Korean and U.S. officials said, defying international warnings against moving forward with a launch widely seen...
INGOMAR, Mont. — The top U.S. Postal Service official on Thursday took his case for rural post office closures straight to the people it will hurt most, telling residents in Montana’s capital...
SAN FRANCISCO — State lawmakers are calling for greater oversight of campus police departments after investigators blasted administrators and officers at the University of California, Davis, for...
JACKSON, Miss.— Mississippi’s abortion laws, already among the strictest in the nation, are poised to become even tighter after a push by social conservatives to shut down the state’s...
SAN FRANCISCO — In a case that affects thousands of businesses and millions of workers, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that employers are under no obligation to ensure that workers take...
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s envoys are heading for nuclear talks with confidence that the chips are falling their way.
It could be dismissed as just political theatrics for the...
BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau (AP) — Mortar rounds could be heard Thursday in the capital of the small, coup-prone nation of Guinea-Bissau as the military sealed off the city’s downtown area and lobbed...
MOSCOW — A Russian arms dealer who was convicted in the United States on terrorism charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison asked Russia on Thursday to file a lawsuit against the U.S. and Thailand...
COLLEGE STATION — Nearly a half-century after African-Americans were admitted to predominantly white Texas A&M University, a black student has reached the pinnacle of one of its signature organizations.
Marquis...
Eight Planned Parenthood organizations sued Texas on Wednesday for excluding them from participating in a program that provides contraception and check-ups to women, saying the new rule violates their...
SANFORD, Fla. — The neighborhood watch volunteer who shot Trayvon Martin to death had been out of touch and, his ex-lawyer says, “a little bit over the edge” before his arrest on a second-degree...
BEIRUT — Syria promised to comply with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire beginning Thursday but carved out an important condition — that the regime still has a right to defend itself against the terrorists...
YAKIMA, Wash. — The federal government will pay more than $1 billion to settle a series of lawsuits brought by American Indian tribes over mismanagement of tribal money and trust lands, under a settlement...
McALLEN — A van overstuffed with suspected illegal immigrants rolled and crashed after fleeing a traffic stop in a South Texas border city, leaving at least nine Mexican citizens dead and injuring...
WACO, Texas— The NCAA put Baylor on three years of probation Wednesday after an investigation turned up hundreds of impermissible telephone calls and text messages sent to prep recruits by coaches...
BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — One candidate is worth up to $250 million, ran a private equity firm and plans to build an elevator for the cars at his beach house. The other is the former head of the Harvard...
SANFORD, Fla. — Tensions are rising in Sanford as a special prosecutor nears a decision on whether to charge George Zimmerman with killing Trayvon Martin.
Someone shot up an unoccupied police car...
NEW YORK — A rule change that would allow transgender women to participate in the Miss Universe beauty pageant next year is a step forward for equality, advocates said Tuesday after pageant officials...
RASQUERA, Spain — What about growing marijuana to pay off crushing municipal debt? One Spanish village put the idea to the vote Tuesday, and a majority of its citizens approved — but not the...
BEIJING (AP) — A flamboyant and telegenic politician who until recently seemed destined for the top ranks of China’s leadership was stripped of his most powerful posts on Tuesday and his wife...
PHILADELPHIA — Jurors in a landmark church sex-abuse trial were presented with evidence Tuesday outlining the troubled clerical career of a priest who was convicted of child pornography charges yet...
GETTYSBURG, Pa. — Bowing to the inevitable after an improbably resilient run for the White House, Rick Santorum quit the presidential race on Tuesday, clearing the way for Mitt Romney to claim the Republican...
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — President Barack Obama said Tuesday the choice facing voters this November will be as stark as in the milestone 1964 contest between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater —...
NEW YORK — Text messaging is posing both new opportunities and dangers for America’s political campaigns.
The most widely used form of mobile communication, it has become one of the most effective...
GORI, Georgia — A museum that has honored Josef Stalin in Georgia since 1937 is being remodeled to exhibit the atrocities that were committed during the Soviet dictator’s rule.
Georgian Culture...
PITTSBURGH — Dozens of bomb threats at the University of Pittsburgh, including at least four on Monday, have made professors start holding classes outside and forced security officials to put in...
TOKYO — Japan’s economy minister said Monday two nuclear reactors tentatively met government safety standards even though completing improvements will take several years, paving the way for...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center announced Monday that a 300-pound, 2-year-old female Kodiak brown bear escaped six days ago from its enclosure near Portage. The bear had...
ATLANTA (AP) — More than $1 billion has been spent over the past decade searching for the causes of autism. In some ways, the research looks like a long-running fishing expedition, with a focus on...
BEIRUT — Syria launched a blistering assault Thursday on the outskirts of its capital, shelling residential areas and deploying snipers on rooftops as international envoy Kofi Annan demanded every...
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday the crisis in Syria is getting worse and claiming more lives every day even though President Bashar Assad’s government insists...
TUNKHANNOCK, Pa. — Mitt Romney is sharpening his focus on President Barack Obama and broadening his pitch to independents and Democrats. He has more security around him, his campaign team is growing...
ATHENS, Ga. — Coverage of the Arab Spring dominated the Peabody Awards when the oldest honors in broadcasting were handed out Wednesday at the University of Georgia.
CNN, Al Jazeera English...
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A Marine facing dismissal from the military for his Facebook comments went as far as posting superimposed images of President Barack Obama’s face on a donkey, a prosecutor...
JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister on Thursday warned that Egypt’s Sinai desert is becoming a “terror zone” and vowed to strike at militants there after a rocket fired from...
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Changes could be coming to Alabama’s tough immigration law that has been challenged by the courts, churches and businesses.
Its author, Republican Rep. Micky Hammon, on...
LONDON (AP) — Zoo officials have created a private love nest for Britain’s only pair of giant pandas in hope the fertility-challenged animals will mate — and Wednesday may be their last...
NEW ORLEANS — Five former New Orleans police officers were sentenced Wednesday to prison terms for their roles in deadly shootings of unarmed residents in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina,...
CAIRO — The head of Egypt’s constitutional assembly said Wednesday the committee will forge ahead with its work despite appeals from liberals, Christians and others who walked out in protest...
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A finding that a Tennessee judge was high on prescription pills during the last two years of his career is calling into question convictions in many of the criminal cases...
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The first detachment of 200 U.S. Marines has arrived in northern Australia, where a permanent joint training hub is taking shape as part of a U.S. shift of military strength...
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — An information technology worker accused of urinating on colleagues’ chairs at an office in Iowa has surrendered to police.
The Des Moines Register reports that 59-year-old...
LOS ANGELES — A would-be Canadian Miss Universe contestant who was born male said Tuesday that a rule requiring contestants to be born as women should be dropped, whether or not she gets a chance...
BAGHDAD — Now that U.S. forces are gone, Iraq’s ruling Shiites are moving quickly to keep the two Muslim sects separate — and unequal.
Sunnis are locked out of key jobs at universities...
PARIS — French presidential candidate Francois Hollande, leading in polls but lacking in ideas that stick in voters’ minds, finally dropped a bombshell: As president, he would levy a 75 percent...
WASHINGTON — The managing director of the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that the global recovery is growing stronger but remains very fragile. She urged the international community to...
OAKLAND, Calif. — A gunman opened fire at a Christian university in California Monday, killing at least six people and wounding three more, authorities said. Police say they have a suspect in custody.
The...
U.S. marshals stand at the entrance of Oaksterdam University in Oakland, Calif. on Monday. The federal agents raided the medical marijuana training school at the heart of California’s pot legalization...
NEW YORK — The new World Trade Center has reached a milestone: The skyscraper being built to replace the terror-wrecked twin towers is now 100 stories high — on its way to becoming New York’s...
