SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Eager to tangle, Republican presidential rivals Rick Perry and Mitt Romney each laid claim to a better job-creating record as governor Wednesday night in a lively campaign debate...

TUNOSHNA, Russia — A private jet carrying a Russian professional hockey team to its first game of the season crashed shortly after takeoff Wednesday, killing 43 people — including European...

WASHINGTON — Stephen Strasburg allowed two hits over five shutout innings Tuesday night in his first major league start since undergoing Tommy John surgery, but the bullpen blew the lead as the Washington...

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Casting himself as America’s CEO, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Tuesday outlined a sweeping economic plan that would reduce regulations and taxes on...

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinians on Tuesday said they would not give in to American pressure to drop their bid for statehood at the United Nations, taking a tough position ahead of a meeting...

DALLAS — The threat of rolling blackouts, constant strain on the Texas electric grid and hunkering down indoors to avoid the relentless summer heat may soon be sweaty memories as the state’s...

MCCOMB, Miss. — It’s a classic scene: a tractor loading bales of hay onto a flatbed trailer. Only these days that trailer is likely to belong to an 18-wheeler, as local farmers ship their hay...

AUSTIN — Opponents of a new Republican congressional redistricting plan in Texas are hoping to prove in federal court the plan illegally dilutes minority voting strength. A trial to determine the...

RICHMOND, Texas — A man who apparently drowned in the swimming pool behind the home of Houston Texans defensive end Antonio Smith wasn’t affiliated with the team, authorities said. Fort Bend...

DALLAS — Buffalo chicken in a flapjack and fried bubblegum are the judges’ top picks for the best and most creative foods that will be available this year at the State Fair of Texas. The buffalo...

TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has returned to Houston following a brief weekend visit to Arizona. She arrived in Tucson Friday evening with her husband, retired astronaut and Navy...

NEW ORLEANS — Federal officials say offshore oil and gas workers in the Gulf of Mexico are going back to platforms and rigs that had been evacuated because of Tropical Storm Lee. The Bureau of Ocean...

Jean Nidetch ambles down the hallway of the senior community where she lives, two cups of Coca-Cola teetering on her walker. In her one-bedroom apartment, there are Klondike bars in the freezer and, in...

Food enthusiasts have been enrolling in culinary school in growing numbers, lured by dreams of working as gourmet chefs or opening their own restaurants. For many graduates, however, those dreams have...

WASHINGTON — The dismal U.S. job market, which has intensified fears of another recession, may be even worse than the unemployment numbers suggest. The shockwaves from the Labor Department report...

TRIPOLI, Libya — Water started flowing again in several areas of Tripoli on Monday, putting an end to an outage of more than a week that rebels blamed on sabotage by retreating Moammar Gadhafi loyalists. Tripoli’s...

DETROIT — President Barack Obama used a boisterous Labor Day rally to put congressional Republicans on the spot, challenging them to place the country’s interests above all else and vote to...

Ten years after the 9/11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center, an 80-story glass and steel tower is rising like a phoenix from the ashes of ground zero. The site called a “hole in the ground”...

MIAMI — Forecasters have issued tropical storm warnings for the U.S. Gulf coast from Mississippi to Texas as a depression has organized in the Gulf of Mexico. The National Hurricane Center said...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A lockup along the shores of Lake Erie has become the first state prison in the nation to be sold to a private company. Lake Erie Correctional Institution in northeastern Ohio’s...

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department filed suit Wednesday to block AT&T’s $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA on grounds that it would raise prices for consumers. The government contends...

HOUSTON — A Houston woman got an abortion for her 12-year-old mentally disabled daughter in an effort to hide evidence that her son sexually assaulted the girl, authorities said. The woman made...

POSSUM KINGDOM LAKE, — Wildfires sweeping through parts of Texas and Oklahoma have destroyed dozens of homes and forced hundreds of people to evacuate, and although officials don’t yet know...

PORTLAND, Ore. — More than 40 major companies have agreed to double the number of engineering internships they offer in a bid to help universities train more people for jobs that require math and...

KILLINGTON, Vt. — Swollen rivers began falling Wednesday in much of the Northeast, allowing relief crews to reach the last of the tiny Vermont towns that had been entirely cut off from help by Hurricane...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Greenpeace activists shut down a petroleum services company Wednesday to protest oil exploration near a Brazilian marine national park. Two groups of activists took part: those...

HOUSTON — Texas A&M dealt a blow to the Big 12 Conference on Wednesday, saying it plans to leave by July 2012 if it is accepted by the SEC or another league. The move, which had been expected,...

IRVING— Seeing Gerald Sensabaugh get turned around while allowing a long touchdown pass on the opening drive of the last preseason game reminded the Dallas Cowboys of why they shopped around for...

AUSTIN — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked key provisions of Texas’ new law requiring a doctor to perform a sonogram before an abortion, ruling the measure violates the free speech rights...

OKLAHOMA CITY — Wildfires fueled by extremely dry conditions and strong winds destroyed dozens of homes in Oklahoma City and North Texas on Tuesday and forced hundreds of residents to evacuate. Officials...

TRIPOLI, Libya — When the end came for Moammar Gadhafi’s regime in Libya, it was stunningly sudden. One minute the rebels were in the mountains, the next they were sweeping through the coastal...

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department replaced three officials Tuesday who played critical roles in a flawed law enforcement operation aimed at major gun-trafficking networks on the Southwest border. The...

DENVER — An apartment complex near Colorado State University that used Facebook to advertise “the biggest pool party of the year’” got more than it bargained for — at least...

School’s never out for 14-year-old Zoe Bentley. Nor is it ever in. The perky teen from Tucson, Ariz., explores what she likes, when she likes as deeply as she chooses every day of the year. As an...

VIRGINIA CITY, Mont. — The Gypsy sat for decades in a restaurant amid the Old West kitsch that fills this former gold rush town, her unblinking gaze greeting the tourists who shuffled in from the...

Cincinnati Bengals running back Cedric Benson was sentenced to 20 days in jail Monday after reaching a deal to settle two misdemeanor assault cases in Texas. Benson said he will surrender to authorities...

NEW YORK — Former U.S. President George W. Bush will keynote a summit next month on fighting global extremism, organizers announced Monday. The nonprofit Concordia Summit Group said Bush will be...

HOUSTON — Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was hospitalized Monday in a medically induced coma in critical condition after fasting in the weeks since receiving a life sentence for sexually assaulting...

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Libyan rebels may be indiscriminately killing black people because they have confused innocent migrant workers with mercenaries, the chairman of the African Union said, citing...

ST. LOUIS — The federal government has frozen some aid to tornado- and flood-ravaged Missouri and the South to focus on immediate help for victims of Hurricane Irene, disappointing residents and...

Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak is optimistic Arian Foster will be ready for the regular-season opener after the star running back re-aggravated a hamstring injury in Saturday’s preseason game in...

SAN FRANCISCO — Matt Downs was facing his former team and he insisted that carried no extra motivation. Downs delivered a go-ahead single with one out in the 11th inning and the Houston Astros beat...

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber blew himself up inside Baghdad’s largest Sunni mosque Sunday night, killing 29 people during prayers, a shocking strike on a place of worship similar to the one that...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Restaurant owner Gary Honeycutt says a push in California’s state Legislature to ban the plastic foam containers he uses to serve up takeout meals could cost him thousands...

Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak is optimistic Arian Foster will be ready for the regular-season opener after the star running back re-aggravated a hamstring injury in Saturday’s preseason game in...

Welcome to big-time college football, Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners. Sort of. “It’s kind of like going from a Cadillac to an economy car,” said former Oklahoma State offensive lineman...

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber blew himself up inside Baghdad’s largest Sunni mosque Sunday night, killing 29 people during prayers, a shocking strike on a place of worship similar to the one that...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Restaurant owner Gary Honeycutt says a push in California’s state Legislature to ban the plastic foam containers he uses to serve up takeout meals could cost him thousands...

DALLAS — Sitting in a circle at the Dallas County Jail one evening, 20 women tell their stories of heartache, danger and hope. One woman describes how she’s been abused in a relationship. Another...

NEW YORK — Stripped of hurricane rank, Tropical Storm Irene spent the last of its fury Sunday, leaving treacherous flooding and millions without power — but an unfazed New York and relief that...

BEIJING — On his first attempt, Nicholas Brownlee manages to spit out the sound “shee.” His teacher patiently shakes her head. “It’s not ‘shee,’ it’s ‘xi,’”...

HOUSTON — A report released by NASA’s watchdog on Thursday saying the agency acted properly when it chose not to award Houston a retired space shuttle has not soothed the bruised egos of some...

NEW YORK — Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers were told Thursday to pack a bag and prepare to be evacuated as the nation’s biggest city braced for its first hurricane in decades. Mayor Michael...

SANTIAGO, Chile — Tens of thousands of Chileans marched peacefully Thursday demanding profound changes in the country’s heavily centralized and privatized form of government, while smaller...

BUXTON, N.C. — A nightmare Hurricane Irene barreled toward the Eastern Seaboard on Thursday, sending thousands of vacationers fleeing and threatening up to 65 million people from the Carolinas to...

UNITED NATIONS — The U.S. and South Africa reached a deal Thursday that will release $1.5 billion in frozen Libyan assets in American banks which the U.S. is earmarking for the cash-strapped rebels...

Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin has already said that a departure from the Big 12 would take time. On Thursday, he announced another step in what many believe is Texas A&M’s steady march...

A 20-year-old Sumatran orangutan has died at an Ohio zoo after battling a respiratory disease for years. The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium said Wednesday that the orangutan named Willie had periodic infections...

PINOLE, Calif. — An armored truck robbery Wednesday morning outside a Northern California bank ended in gunplay, leaving a suspect dead and several others wounded. Shortly after a Wells Fargo Bank...

BOISE, Idaho — A college professor who alternately referred to himself as a “psychopathic killer” and “the beast” committed suicide after killing a graduate student he had...

NEW YORK — The Situation doesn’t usually require a lot of motivation to lose the shirt. But Abercrombie & Fitch wants him to go one further — the company has offered to pay “Jersey...

DETROIT — Medical marijuana cannot be sold through private shops, the Michigan appeals court said Wednesday in a major decision that strikes at businesses trying to cash in on pot and cuts off a...

HOUSTON — Houston has become the latest U.S. city to turn off its red-light traffic cameras, less than a month after Los Angeles did the same. Groups opposed to such cameras say the Houston City...

AUSTIN — The manager of the state’s power grid is again urging Texans to conserve electricity as extreme heat pushes demand near record levels. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas initiated...

MOSCOW — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il says his country is ready to impose a nuclear test and production moratorium if international talks on its atomic program resume, in Pyongyang’s latest...

WASHINGTON — After months of unrelieved gloom and discord, Congress and President Barack Obama are starting to make a dent in the federal budget deficit. It’s projected to shrink slightly to...

TRIPOLI, Libya — Hundreds of Libyan rebels stormed Moammar Gadhafi’s compound Tuesday, charging wildly through the symbolic heart of the crumbling regime as they killed loyalist troops, looted...

MINERAL, Va. — The most powerful earthquake to strike the East Coast in 67 years shook buildings and rattled nerves from Georgia to Maine on Tuesday. Frightened office workers spilled into the streets...

THESSALONIKI, Greece — It took an undercover operation, but Greek police have blown a hole in a ring of alleged crooks who had cornered the doughnut market in a beach resort. It started with complaints...

HOUSTON — Convicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was moved Tuesday to his new permanent home, an East Texas prison, to begin serving his life sentence for sexually assaulting one of his child...

DALLAS — A Dallas man accused of kidnapping and drowning his two young sons had a history of violence, and child protective services officials had been tracking the family for months, according to...

Voters will be asked to approve or reject 10 proposed changes to the Texas Constitution on Nov. 8, including one that would exempt the surviving spouses of or totally disabled veterans from paying property...

McALLEN — An Austin attorney was arrested Monday on federal racketeering charges alleging bribery of an already-convicted judge as well as witnesses in state and federal cases. Marc Rosenthal’s...

HOUSTON — A judge on Tuesday denied a request to move the upcoming trials of four fired Houston police officers charged in the alleged beating of a teenage burglary suspect that was caught on videotape. Attorneys...

IRVING — The Super Bowl isn’t coming to Cowboys Stadium, and nobody is talking about the main tenant playing in February. It’s hard to tell what to expect from the Dallas Cowboys this...

MONTGOMERY — About 10,000 marijuana plants being carefully tended at a national forest in Texas have been destroyed. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that the plants were...

Gov. Rick Perry is running for president. That's the word from Perry spokesman Mark Miner. Miner is telling The Associated Press that Perry will announce his intentions to run for the GOP nomination...

UKIAH, Calif. — A woman who turned her rural Northern California home into a spa for wild bears won’t go to jail after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of feeding big game. After...

LONDON — Young rioters clogged Britain’s courthouses Wednesday, each one painting a bleak picture of a lost generation: a 15-year-old Ukrainian whose mother died, a 17-year-old who followed...

HOUSTON — Retired Houston Rockets center Yao Ming could enter the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as early as next year — not as a player but as a contributor to the game. John Doleva,...

HOUSTON — Ben Tate never got a rookie season. A second-round pick in the 2010 draft, the former Auburn running back broke his right ankle in the Texans’ first preseason game and was...

RICHMOND, Va. — About 15 percent of Virginia Tech students reported experiencing high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms several months after the 2007 shooting rampage that left 33 people...

LONDON — Some of the text messages read like real-time rallying calls for rioters. “If you’re down for making money, we’re about to go hard in east London,” one looter...

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for sexually assaulting two underage followers he took as brides in what his church deemed "spiritual...

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Softly telling five girls to “set aside all your inhibitions,” convicted polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was heard Monday giving his child brides instructions on...

AKRON, Ohio — Adam Scott hit all the right shots Sunday in a round that was close to flawless and earned him his first World Golf Championship title. He celebrated with a caddie who has won...

HOUSTON — Houston Texans defensive backs coach Vance Joseph offers words of encouragement after almost every practice snap, even if one of his players is beaten on a route. Joseph may have...

HOUSTON — A Mexican military helicopter has landed in Texas by mistake. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the helicopter landed Saturday afternoon at Laredo International Airport after...

HOUSTON — Gov. Rick Perry sent a strong message to the nation’s evangelicals Saturday: he is a member of the important constituency for Republicans that he soon may call upon to help him...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Muslims living in the world’s tallest tower will have to wait even longer to break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan. Mohammed al-Qubaisi, Dubai’s...

BEIRUT — Syrian troops fired on mourners at a funeral and raided an eastern city Sunday, killing at least 59 people in an intensifying government crackdown on protesters that defies an international...

NEW YORK — Stalled contract negotiations led thousands of workers in Verizon Communication Inc.’s wireline division to go on strike Sunday, potentially affecting landline operations as well...

CINCINNATI — Police say an 18-year-old attending summer classes at the University of Cincinnati was struck by a campus officer’s stun gun and died of cardiac arrest. Officers received...

SAN ANGELO — The punishment phase in the child sex assault trial of Warren Jeffs has resumed without the polygamist leader in the courtroom. Jeffs asked Friday to be excused in protest. He...

SAN ANTONIO  — The electric grid operator for Texas says there is a "high probability" of rotating residential outages as power demand statewide struggles to keep pace with record...

SAN ANGELO — A Texas jury convicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs of child sexual assault Thursday in a case stemming from two young followers he took as brides in what his church calls...

Updated 12:13 p.m. clarified attorney general's ruling BLACKSBURG, Va. — Virginia Tech was locked down Thursday when three children attending a summer camp said they saw a man holding...

NEW ORLEANS — Jurors deliberated for several hours Wednesday without deciding the fate of five current or former police officers charged in deadly shootings on a New Orleans bridge in the chaotic...

CHICAGO — A pregnant suburban Chicago woman was so determined to finish the Illinois bar exam that she completed the test even after going into labor. The Chicago Tribune reports 29-year-old...

CAIRO — From a bed inside the defendants’ cage, an ashen-faced Hosni Mubarak showed a glimmer of his old defiance. Egypt’s former president wagged his finger in the air and denied...