AP Top News
  • Click for Full Story Republicans blast 'bait and switch' health bill

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Digging in for a long struggle, Republican senators and governors assailed the Democrats' newly minted health care legislation Thursday as a collection of tax increases, Medicare cuts and heavy new burdens for deficit-ridden states.

     
  • Click for Full Story Levin: Fort Hood probe may reveal more e-mails

    WASHINGTON (AP) — There may be additional e-mails that could have tipped off law enforcement or military officials to the Fort Hood shooter before he went on his deadly rampage, the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee said Friday.

     
  • Click for Full Story US to drop shooting case against Blackwater guard

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against one of the Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, prosecutors said in court documents Friday.

     
  • Click for Full Story Police: NC girl raped, killed on day she was taken

    FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A 5-year-old North Carolina girl was raped and killed the same day she was taken from her home, according to an arrest warrant released Friday. Shaniya Davis was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated Nov. 10, the day her mother reported her missing from the trailer park where she was staying, according to the warrant. Authorities embarked on a nearly weeklong search that ended when the girl's body was found dumped off a rural road.

     
  • Click for Full Story GOP: Health test recommendations could affect care

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are seizing on this week's recommendations for fewer Pap smears and mammograms to fuel concern about government-rationed medical care — and to try to chip away support by women for President Barack Obama's proposed health care overhaul.

     
  • Museum: Galileo's fingers, tooth are found

    ROME (AP) — Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again and will soon be put on display, an Italian museum director said Friday.

     
  • Click for Full Story Researcher: Faint writing seen on Shroud of Turin

    ROME (AP) — A Vatican researcher has rekindled the age-old debate over the Shroud of Turin, saying that faint writing on the linen proves it was the burial cloth of Jesus.

     
  • Army relents, will allow media at Palin book event

    RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The U.S. Army said Friday it would open Sarah Palin's appearance on Fort Bragg to media, a reversal from earlier in the week when the military wanted the event closed out of fears it would prompt political grandstanding against President Barack Obama.

     
  • Mich. police nab wrong-way driver twice in 3 days

    KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — Authorities in western Michigan arrested a person twice in three days for driving the wrong way down the highway Kalamazoo County deputies said they were alerted about 1:30 a.m. Friday after several people called 911 when they passed the unidentified driver traveling south on northbound U.S. 131.

     
  • Click for Full Story NFL union pans reporting on teammates' concussions

    The NFL Players Association opposes commissioner Roger Goodell's call for players to tell their teams' medical staffs if they think a teammate shows symptoms of a concussion, saying that is not an adequate solution.

     
AP Top International News
  • Click for Full Story Researcher: Faint writing seen on Shroud of Turin

    ROME (AP) — A Vatican researcher has rekindled the age-old debate over the Shroud of Turin, saying that faint writing on the linen proves it was the burial cloth of Jesus.

     
  • Museum: Galileo's fingers, tooth are found

    ROME (AP) — Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again and will soon be put on display, an Italian museum director said Friday.

     
  • Click for Full Story Afghan police are weak link in security force

    KABUL (AP) — Underpaid, under-equipped and under-trained, Afghanistan's 93,000-member police force is the weak link in an ambitious security strategy to hand over defense of the country to Afghans so American and other foreign troops can go home.

     
  • Pakistan demands US share Afghan blueprint

    ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan expressed fear Friday that a large increase in foreign troops in Afghanistan could push militants across the border into its territory and called on the U.S. to factor in that concern as part of its new war strategy.

     
  • Click for Full Story Argentina forces dirty war orphans to provide DNA

    BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Valuing truth over the right to privacy, Argentina's Congress has authorized the forced extraction of DNA from people who may have been born to political prisoners slain a quarter-century ago — even when they don't want to know their birth parents.

     
  • Click for Full Story The new EU chiefs: Rompuy-pumpy and Cathy Who?

    LONDON (AP) — Catherine Ashton: International woman of mystery.

     
  • Kidnapped Britons say Somali pirates may kill them

    LONDON (AP) — A retired British couple snatched from their yacht by Somali pirates said in an interview broadcast Friday they fear they could be killed within a week or handed to a terrorist group if a ransom demand is not paid.

     
  • 6 world powers press Iran on nuclear issue

    BRUSSELS (AP) — Representatives of six world powers urged Iran on Friday to accept a U.N. plan aimed at delaying its ability to build a nuclear weapon, as the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency warned Tehran not to miss the opportunity to resolve the dispute.

     
  • Click for Full Story Resort island reels after deadly attack by gunman

    SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands (AP) — After going on a shooting rampage that left a trail of victims on the Pacific resort island of Saipan, the gunman drove to a scenic, rocky cliff where untold numbers of Japanese men, women and children plunged to their deaths to avoid capture during World War II, according to police and witness accounts.

     
  • Click for Full Story Floods devastate UK Lake District; much of Ireland

    COCKERMOUTH, England (AP) — Raging floods engulfed northern England's picturesque Lake District on Friday following the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in Britain, killing a police officer and trapping dozens in their swamped homes.

     
AP Top US News
  • Click for Full Story Oprah's departure presents problem for TV stations

    CHICAGO (AP) — For more than two decades, Oprah Winfrey has been the inspirational, change-your-life champion who reigned over daytime television much like Johnny Carson once ruled late night.

     
  • Guidelines for cancer screening differ by group

    Several doctors groups and advocacy groups set guidelines for cancer screening, and they update that advice periodically as new information emerges. Sometimes they agree, sometimes they don't. Last year, a number of groups got together and issued consensus guidelines for colon cancer.

     
  • Click for Full Story Former Marine charged in 'Cathouse' star's death

    OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A former Marine was charged Friday with six counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of four people whose bodies were found in a burning home, including a prostitute featured on the HBO reality series "Cathouse."

     
  • Click for Full Story Police: NC girl raped, killed on day she was taken

    FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A 5-year-old North Carolina girl was raped and killed the same day she was taken from her home, according to an arrest warrant released Friday. Shaniya Davis was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated Nov. 10, the day her mother reported her missing from the trailer park where she was staying, according to the warrant. Authorities embarked on a nearly weeklong search that ended when the girl's body was found dumped off a rural road.

     
  • Teen pleads guilty in Border Patrol agent killing

    SAN DIEGO (AP) — A 17-year-old pleaded guilty Friday to killing a Border Patrol agent who was shot eight times while chasing suspected illegal immigrants in the mountains east of San Diego.

     
  • Click for Full Story SC lawmakers to take up impeachment of governor

    COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina lawmakers plan to formally consider impeaching Gov. Mark Sanford for the first time next week, the chairman of the committee beginning that work said Friday.

     
  • Click for Full Story Fired therapist: Stressed Marines get shoddy care

    CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) — Marines treated at Camp Lejeune for post-traumatic stress had to undergo therapy for months in temporary trailers where they could hear bomb blasts, machine-gun fire and war cries through the thin walls, according to servicemen and their former psychiatrist.

     
  • Bond increased for man accused of taping reporter

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge has increased bond to $100,000 for an Illinois insurance executive accused of secretly making nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews.

     
  • Senator: USPS to resume North Pole Santa letters

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — North Pole elves have good reason to celebrate again, thanks to a decision by the U.S. Postal Service to resume a Santa Claus letter program that's thrilled children from around the world for decades.

     
  • Click for Full Story Measure to change U. of Neb. stem-cell rule fails

    LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska's governing board on Friday voted not to place tighter restrictions on embryonic stem cell research than those outlined under federal guidelines, which were expanded after President Barack Obama took office.