ALSIP, IllinoisFour people face felony charges after authorities discovered that hundreds of graves were dug up and allegedly resold at a historic African-American cemetery near Chicago, Illinois, authorities said Thursday.
Dozens of…

Inside France’s ‘Barbarians’ trial
Jurors in the Gang of Barbarians case in Paris are due to deliver their verdict. Youssouf Fofana and 26 other gang members are accused in the brutal murder of a 23-year-old Jewish man in 2006. Emma Jane Kirby…

North Koreans learn Southern ways
By John Sudworth
BBC News, Seoul
North Korean refugees who make it to South Korea have often travelled a long, hard road.The land border that, for almost six decades, has split this peninsula in half, is one…

Iran learns from past to crush dissent
By Jon Leyne
BBC Tehran correspondent
As opposition demonstrators came out in force after Iran’s disputed presidential election, one exhilarated protester declared that his country was waking up.Two nights ago someone…

Academics denounce maths A-level
Dozens of university academics have put their names to calls for a new maths A-level in England to be scrapped.Educators for Reform, a think tank offshoot, say “use of mathematics” is not of A-level standard. They argue it…

Proof mounts on restricted diet
Cutting calories may delay the ageing process and reduce the risk of disease, a long-term study of monkeys suggests.The benefits of calorie restriction are well documented in animals, but now the results have been replicated…

Cut Heathrow ‘stacking’, say MPs
The government must reduce the number of planes that are allowed to “stack” over south-east England, MPs have said.The Commons transport committee says stacking – where planes fly holding patterns before landing -…

‘Lower’ Asian obesity threshold
By Adam Brimelow
Health correspondent, BBC News
The threshold for being overweight and obese should be lowered for British Asians, international experts say.People of South Asian origin are more likely than white people to develop heart disease and diabetes. To…

Get tough with Russia, MPs urge
The UK and other Nato members should take a tougher approach to Russia, the Commons Defence Committee has urged.The MPs said that while co-operation was needed on many issues, it…

Phelps sets butterfly world mark
Olympic superstar Michael Phelps has broken the 100m butterfly world record.The 24-year-old American, who has won 14 Olympic gold medals, lowered countryman Ian Crocker’s four-year-old mark of 50.40 seconds, clocking 50.22. Phelps’ win…

WASHINGTON – Republicans will use next week’s high-profile Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor to raise concerns about her record on race, gun rights and abortion while Democrats work to defend…

KABUL – Afghanistan’s government has revised a law that stirred an international outcry because it essentially legalized marital rape, officials said Thursday. The new version no longer requires a woman submit to sex with her husband, only…

MIAMI – Paris Hilton hated her 2006 movie “Pledge This!” and refused for months to make promotional appearances for it despite a contract requiring her to do so, lawyers for the film’s investors…

LOS ANGELES, CaliforniaActress Kelly Preston, whose son Jett Travolta died earlier this year, will talk publicly in October about how she and her husband, actor John Travolta, have dealt with their grief….

ISTANBUL, TurkeyIason Athanasiadis’ ordeal began at the airport, shortly after he checked in for his flight to leave Tehran.
Iason Athanasiadis said he endured hours of questioning over several weeks in sound-proofed…

BEIJING – A moderate earthquake rocked southwest China Thursday evening, injuring at least 336 people and collapsing 10,000 homes, state media said. The magnitude-6.0 temblor, centered in Yunnan province’s Yao’an county,…

BERLIN (Reuters) –
A badger in Germany got so drunk on over-ripe cherries it staggered into the middle of a road and refused to budge, police said on Wednesday. A motorist called police near the central town of Goslar to report…

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) –
Advice for holidaymakers heading to a beach or a pool this summer — don't hog beach chairs and men, leave the skimpy speedos at home.
A survey by travel website TripAdvisor found that…

MULDERSDRIFT, South Africa – Dumisani Rebombo wasn’t circumcised, did chores considered girls’ work and was sick of being taunted for not being a man. So at age 15, he took the only course considered “manly” in his…

CHICAGO (Reuters) –
A 20-year study of monkeys shows that a reduced-calorie diet pays off in less disease and longer life, U.S. researchers said on Thursday, a finding that could apply to humans.
They said rhesus monkeys on…

EISENACH, Germany – Richard Wagner is the classical composer most associated with the Nazis, but Johann Sebastian Bach was the one the party dubbed “the most German of Germans” and whose music was played at…

TEHRAN (AFP) –
Iranian police fired tear-gas on Thursday as thousands of demonstrators defied government warnings and staged a march to commemorate the anniversary of bloody student unrest in 1999, witnesses…

WASHINGTONIf Sonia Sotomayor fulfills her long-held dream to sit on the Supreme Court, she would have the prestige of joining the highest court in the land, lifetime job…

WASHINGTONThe story of Sen. John Ensign’s affair with a former staffer took a new twist Thursday with the revelation by Ensign that his parents gave the woman’s family 96,000 as a gift.
Sen. John…

CANTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. – An Amtrak passenger train carrying about 170 people struck a car at a road crossing near Detroit on Thursday, killing all five people in the sedan, authorities…