Gates: Obama picking best ideas among many options
2:35
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that President Barack Obama wants to take the best elements from several options for the next steps in Afghanistan. Gates told reporters that the decision is near on whether...
Centennial of Scouting to be honored on stamp
5:11
From Cub to Eagle, the world of scouting is being honored with its own U.S. postage stamp. The stamp design, unveiled Thursday at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum, depicts a backpacking boy scout surveying the...
Winning margin in upstate NY US House race shrinks
2:18
It turns out that the special election in New York for a U.S. House seat may not be over after all. After last week's election, Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman conceded and Democrat Bill Owens was sworn in. ...
CIA said to have won turf war against intel chief
7:31
The CIA has won a turf battle over which government agency controls U.S. intelligence operations around the world. CIA Director Leon Panetta and National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair squared off in May over...
Obama orders intel review on Fort Hood shooting
6:58
President Barack Obama has ordered a review of all intelligence related to Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies. ...
Texas man drives Bugatti into pond; blames bird
10:29
Police say a low-flying pelican distracted a driver in Texas, causing him to veer off a road and drive his million-dollar sports car into a salt marsh. La Marque police Lt. Greg Gilchrist says the man claimed he lost...
San Diego Great Dane named world's tallest dog
10:15
A dog named Titan lived up to his name Thursday when he earned the title world's tallest dog. It was one of more than 30 records announced or set on Nov. 12 _ the official Guinness World Record Day _ but the only...
Brothel owner fears employee killed in Okla. fire
11:17
The owner of a Nevada brothel featured on the HBO reality show "Cathouse" said Thursday he fears one of his employees is among the four people whose bodies were found in a burning house in Oklahoma City. Dennis Hof,...
Hawaii to lay off 650 state workers by year's end
9:35
Hawaii's budget woes will lead to the layoff of almost 650 state workers by the end of the year. State Human Resources Department Director Marie Laderta said Thursday that 84 non-civil-service workers will lose their...
Obituaries in the news
11:41
William Ganz LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Dr. William Ganz, a pioneering cardiologist and one of the inventors of a specialized catheter, has died. He was 90. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center released a statement Wednesday saying...
Munch artwork stolen from Oslo art dealership
7:43
Police say thieves stole a valuable artwork by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch from an Oslo art dealer. Police spokeswoman Britt Boerve said Friday the thieves stole "Historien" _ or "History" _ from Nyborgs Kunst, a...
Earthquake shakes northern Chile
11:19
A strong earthquake struck northern Chile early Friday, briefly knocking out power to a city but otherwise causing no major damages, authorities said. The 6.5-magnitude quake's epicenter was between the cities of...
Tony Blair to give public evidence on Iraq war
7:01
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair will be publicly questioned about the Iraq war during Britain's long-awaited inquiry into mistakes made before and during the conflict, the inquiry chairman said Friday. Chairman John...
Diary that helped expose Stalin's famine displayed
7:01
The diaries of a British reporter who risked his reputation to expose the horrors of Stalin's murderous famine in Ukraine are to go on display on Friday. Welsh journalist Gareth Jones snuck into Ukraine in March of...
Rio pledges 'power island' immune from blackouts
9:33
Organizers of the 2016 Olympics are pitching host city Rio de Janeiro as a potential "power island" immune from blackouts like the one that left 60 million Brazilians in the dark, though experts questioned Thursday...
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9:46
Man convicted of killing Little Rock TV personality Anne Pressly sentenced to life in prison. ...
Women face tough choices on abortion coverage
8:58
Millions of American women will face tough choices about abortion coverage if restrictions in the House health care bill become law, both sides in the abortion debate agree. Divisions over abortion are a major obstacle...
Boeing says first 747-8 emerges from factory
11:19
Boeing Co. says the first of the delay-plagued new version of its 747 freighter jet has emerged from the factory to be set up for test flights. The aerospace company based in Chicago said the plane was towed from its...
Family hurt in Texas pipeline explosion files suit
8:24
A family whose members suffered burns when a natural gas pipeline exploded last week in the Texas Panhandle filed a negligence lawsuit Thursday against the companies that own and operate it. The Torres family filed the...
Jury: Fmr. slaughterhouse manager guilty of fraud
9:21
A former manager of an Iowa kosher slaughterhouse that was the site of a massive immigration raid was convicted Thursday on 86 financial fraud charges that could bring a prison sentence of hundreds of years. Sholom...
`Wipeout' TV show player with rare condition dies
7:04
A contestant who was hospitalized after competing briefly on the game show "Wipeout" died two weeks later of a stroke apparently caused by a rare condition, his father said. Tom Sparks, 33, was participating in the...
Studio settlement reported for fake movie news
9:03
Universal Pictures has agreed to pay $20,000 to the Alaska Press Club to settle complaints about fake news archives used to promote the movie "The Fourth Kind," the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. The Anchorage...
Officials to restore birthplace of Robert Johnson
5:39
The mystery surrounding bluesman Robert Johnson's life and death feeds the lingering fascination with his work. There's the myth he sold his soul to the devil to create his haunting guitar intonations. There's the...
Group seeks to preserve Hughes home in Ohio
8:56
A boyhood home of writer Langston Hughes has been purchased after foreclosure by a nonprofit group in Cleveland that aims to preserve it. The Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp. says options include renovating it...
Film honors NYC defense attorney William Kunstler
7:53
They grew up in a home like no other _ where bullets arrived in the mail and where their father went to the basement to open packages he feared could contain explosives. That was life for the daughters of the late...
N.C. Baptists pare budget by $5M, focus on priorities
5:45
GREENSBORO, N.C. (BP)--North Carolina Baptists approved a budget $4.8 million smaller than 2009, while increasing the percentage of Cooperative Program funds forwarded to ministries of the Southern Baptist Convention...
Ind. Baptists refuel for the journey
5:45
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. (BP)--Indiana Baptists celebrated the theme "Fuel for the Journey," based on Acts 1:8, during their 51st annual meeting at the Radisson Star Plaza Hotel in Merrillville Oct. 26-27. A total of 230...
WORLDVIEW: Where gang rape comes from
5:45
EDITOR'S NOTE: Visit "WorldView Conversation," the blog related to this column, at http://worldviewconversation.blogspot.com/; listen to an audio version at...
Okla. Baptists partner with East Asia
5:45
MOORE, Okla. (BP)--Nearly 900 messengers to the 103rd annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma embraced the meeting's theme of engaging the world with the Gospel by endorsing a new three-year...
Ky. Baptists form GC task force
5:45
ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (BP)--Messengers approved the formation of a Great Commission Task Force during the Kentucky Baptist Convention's annual meeting.Meeting at Severns Valley Baptist Church in Elizabethtown Nov. 10, the...
WHO: Give at-risk groups anti-flu drugs early
11:20
Doctors should give anti-viral drugs to pregnant women, young children and other at-risk groups as soon as they show clinical symptoms of swine flu to prevent them developing serious complications, the World Health...
Review: Reports on Pfizer drug studies misleading
6:54
Analysis of a dozen published studies testing possible new uses for a Pfizer Inc. epilepsy drug found that reporting of the results was often misleading, indicating the medicine worked better than internal company...
Few Americans make end-of-life wishes known
7:30
Lillian Landry always said she wasn't afraid to die. So when death came last week, the 99-year-old was lying peacefully in a hospice with no needles or tubes. Her final days saw her closest friend at her side and...
US reports largest mumps outbreak in 3 years
6:39
U.S. health officials say the largest U.S. outbreak of mumps in three years is occurring in New York and New Jersey. About 180 cases were identified in those two states from the time an investigation began in August...
US adult smoking rate rises slightly
6:41
Cigarette smoking rose slightly for the first time in almost 15 years, dashing health officials' hopes that the U.S. smoking rate had moved permanently below 20 percent. A little under 21 percent of U.S. adults said...
NASA to try to free stuck Mars rover Spirit
5:05
For NASA's stuck Mars rover, the Spirit may be willing, but the wheels could prove too weak. The space agency on Thursday outlined a rescue plan to try to free the rover Spirit, which has been bogged in a sand trap on...
NPD: October video game sales tumble 19 percent
7:47
After a slight reprieve in September, U.S. video game retail sales slumped again in October, unable to escape the economic turmoil that's cutting into consumer spending and swelling the ranks of unemployed. Market...
Clicker.com aims to become Internet video usher
5:06
Web surfing is becoming more like channel surfing as television shows, movies and music videos pour onto the Internet. That's why pointing people to their favorite TV episodes and flicks could emerge as next big...
YouTube to support 1080p high-definition videos
8:10
YouTube says starting next week it will support the same high-resolution video that can now be seen on flat screen TVs. The online video unit of Google Inc. said Thursday it will support video playback in the full...
Retailers use social media to advertise deals
5:35
You may want to check Facebook and Twitter before heading to the mall the day after Thanksgiving. Office supplies chain Staples Inc. this week used social media to advertise price cuts of nearly 50 percent for Nov. 27...
The nation's weather
4:43
A strong storm in the center of the country was expected to continue bringing wintry weather to the Central Rockies and Plains on Thursday. A strong low pressure system that developed over the Rockies would continue...
The nation's weather
5:57
The remnants of Tropical Storm Ida were expected to continue tracking through the Southeastern U.S. on Thursday. The system was forecast to continue pulling abundant moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and allow for wet...