MAYWOOD, Ill. – The owner of a suburban Chicago apartment house had his maintenance man set fire to the building, killing seven people including a newborn, because he wanted(…)

OSLO (Reuters) –
Large amounts of a powerful greenhouse gas are bubbling up from a long-frozen seabed north of Siberia, raising fears of far bigger leaks that could stoke(…)

ISLAMABAD – A top Pakistani Taliban commander close to al-Qaida is believed to have been killed in an army airstrike, officials said Saturday, in the latest apparent blow to(…)

NEW YORK – Julius Peppers found a new home and a big payday as the NFL’s free agency period opened with a few teams doling out some serious dough.
The(…)

DENVER – A witness too afraid to testify against the man accused of killing Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams has changed his mind after a night in jail.
The surprising(…)

WASHINGTON – The current partisan divide is as stark and nasty as any in recent history and on almost every issue — from health care to energy independence to(…)

HOLLISTER, Calif. – John Patrick Bedell was a brilliant and seemingly gentle computer whiz, yet so withdrawn that people in this rural community where his parents and grandparents are(…)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – A Malaysian magazine apologized Saturday for upsetting Christians after it published an article researched by two Muslims who pretended to be Roman Catholics and took(…)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Comedian Kathy Griffin brought her “Life on the D-List” show to Sarah Palin’s home state Friday, skewering the former Alaska governor at a raucous show in(…)

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – A proposal to use taxpayer funds to pay off Iceland’s substantial debts to foreign governments seemed likely to be defeated in a national referendum Saturday.
Opinion polls(…)

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama plans to focus attention on immigration next week by meeting at the White House with two senators crafting a bill on the issue.
White House(…)

NEW YORK – General Motors Co. will reinstate 661 dealerships it sought to drop from its sales network.
GM executives said Friday that the dealerships — more than half of(…)

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – A jovial night of bar-hopping in a central Georgia college town ended in a new allegation against Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger after a 20-year-old college(…)

ESCONDIDO, Calif. – Police drained a pond in a park north of San Diego on Friday in their efforts to find a girl who vanished about a year ago(…)

KABUL – The man chosen to be the fresh face of good Afghan governance in a town just seized from the Taliban has a violent criminal record in Germany,(…)

CONCEPCION, Chile – Huge piles of wreckage and tons of rotting fish and other debris blanketing the ground are turning the coastal towns shattered by Chile’s earthquake and tsunami(…)

LOS ANGELES – The people behind Sunday’s Oscars show are urging people to tune in early for one of the program’s best sequences.
Bill Mechanic, who is producing the awards(…)

Anyone who’s followed the health care debate even casually over the past year has probably heard Rep. Bart Stupak’s name mentioned a time or two. The nine-term Democrat from(…)

LONDON (Reuters) –
A giant asteroid smashing into Earth is the only plausible explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs, a global scientific team said on Thursday, hoping to(…)

Belgium’s Prime Minister Yves Leterme has offered his government’s resignation amid a row over the break-up of the stricken Fortis bank, according to national media reports.
Belgium’s Prime(…)

Baghdad diary: At home with Umm Sheyma
By Gabriel Gatehouse
BBC News, Baghdad
We arrived at Umm Sheyma’s home in the early morning.It was still dark in her small kitchen and by(…)

Ferguson blames Rooney’s enthusiasm for knee injury
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson says Wayne Rooney is to blame for the knee injury that could rule him out of the(…)

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New Jersey snow sculpture gets frosty reception
Police in the US state of New Jersey have ordered a family to cover up their snow sculpture of the famous nude Venus(…)