BEIJING – A U.S. Navy mapping ship confronted by Chinese vessels over the weekend was operating illegally in China’s exclusive economic zone, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, in Beijing’s first formal comment on the latest friction between the two militaries. Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu dismissed U.S. accusations that Chinese boats …

CHICAGO – Hundreds of Chicago firefighters worked to put out a high-rise fire that left one person dead and 12 people injured. The fire sent flames shooting out of the condo building in the city’s Streeterville neighborhood. More than 200 residents ran out into a bitterly cold Chicago morning after …

MOBILE, Alabama – Prosecutors asked a judge to throw out a public lewdness charge against an 81-year-old woman accused of urinating in a public park when she couldn’t make it to a bathroom, the city attorney said Thursday. Municipal prosecutors in Mobile filed a motion Wednesday to dismiss the charge …

Years ago I read an article about how a famous four-star restauranteur and his wife used to throw the most sought-after, informal dinner parties in their small Manhattan apartment for what today would be called “foodies,” cooking their culinary delights in old Farberware pots on a non-descript stove. Sounds like …

NEW YORK – Prosecutors, counselors and religious leaders on Wednesday announced a program to combat sexual abuse among members of the insular world of Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox Jews — a problem one lawmaker says extends beyond New York. The centerpiece of the outreach program, announced by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes …

MANILA, Philippines – Al Qaeda-linked militants released one of three Red Cross hostages, a Filipino woman, on Thursday after 10 weeks in jungle captivity on a southern island, officials said. Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said on nationwide television that Mary Jean Lacaba, 37, was safe in the hands of a …

PITTSBURGH – U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (search), a longtime death penalty supporter, said he is re-examining his stance. “I still support the death penalty (search), but what I’m suggesting is, number one, we have to be more cautious,” Santorum said Tuesday, adding that its use should be limited to the …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Militants targeted a U.S. patrol with a roadside bomb Tuesday that killed four nearby civilians in the northern city of Mosul, where an assassination attempt against top police officials sparked clashes that left more than two dozen insurgents dead or captured. Morgue officials in southern Iraq, meanwhile, …

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Senior Bush administration officials have warned in recent weeks that Al Qaeda (search) is regrouping for another massive attack, its agents bent on acquiring nuclear, chemical or biological weapons in a nightmare scenario that could dwarf the horror of Sept. 11, 2001. But in Pakistan (search) and …

WASHINGTON – The number of Americans filing initial jobless claims (search) dipped last week to 310,000, as expected, suggesting continued improvement in the nation’s labor market, a government report showed on Thursday. First-time claims for state unemployment insurance benefits fell 1,000 in the week ended Feb. 26 from 311,000 the …