NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - A judge on Friday blocked a Tennessee law that allowed people to bring handguns into restaurants and bars.
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama called his war council together Monday as he moves toward a decision on whether to add more U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
HARRISBURG, Pa. - Radioactive dust unexpectedly blew out of a pipe being cut by workers during weekend maintenance at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, and officials on Monday were trying to determine exactly how and why it happened.
NEW YORK - Joe Mauer sat behind a table on a podium in a conference room at the Metrodome when Justin Morneau shouted out the last question of the day. "Are you finally going to buy dinner now?" Morneau said to his teammate from the audience, one MVP to another.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Country crossover star Taylor Swift overshadowed the late Michael Jackson at the American Music Awards on Sunday, winning five prizes including artist of the year.
LAREDO, Texas - A U.S. program that offers trusted trucking companies speedy passage across American borders has begun attracting just the sort of customers who place a premium on avoiding inspections: Mexican drug smugglers.
WASHINGTON - Suddenly the Federal Reserve is everybody's punching bag.
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A bitter dispute over abortion that prompted Rhode Island's Roman Catholic bishop to ask Rep. Patrick Kennedy not to receive Holy Communion has revealed the depth of the divide among Catholics over how politicians should reconcile their faith with their public duties.
LOS ANGELES - During rehearsals for his outlandish American Music Awards performance, amid a thundercloud of throbbing theater lights and special-effects fog, Adam Lambert effortlessly governs the sprawling stage while gripping a microphone in his gloved hands and donning a tight T-shirt slathered with an image of David Bowie's face.
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran on Sunday began large-scale air defense war games aimed at protecting its nuclear facilities from attack, state TV reported, as an air force commander boasted the country could deter any military strike by Israel.
A child's never-ending "why's" aren't meant to exasperate parents, scientists say. Rather, the kiddy queries are genuine attempts at getting at the truth, and tots respond better to some answers than others.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Shuttle Atlantis astronaut Randy Bresnik awoke early on Sunday to a much-anticipated call that his new daughter had been born.
FORT HOOD, Texas (AFP) - Countless commanders in the US Army have prepared battalions for war since the terrorist attacks of September 11, but none of them had do it after losing soldiers in a shooting spree on a home base.
WASHINGTON - Since the 1997 international accord to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and accelerated — beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then.
NEW YORK - Iowa and Penn State ended their seasons eligible for an at-large BCS bid, and Oklahoma State and Virginia Tech are also in position to be eligible for invites to the four big-money bowl games even though they have no shot to win their conferences.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has gained $5 billion through its policy of shifting away from the U.S. currency in favors of the euro, state television reported on Monday, citing Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The federal government said Monday that it has found a "strong association" between problematic imported Chinese drywall and corrosion of pipes and wires, a conclusion that supports complaints by thousands of homeowners over the last year.
The Nation -- Is there something inherently wrong with entrusting a private company to run a prison? Might this even be unconstitutional? As far as I'm aware, no court in Europe or the United States has entertained this question. When and if one does, there will now be a precedent to cite: a potentially historic 8-1 ruling just handed down by the Supreme Court in Israel that overturned a 2004 Knesset amendment permitting the establishment of such prisons.
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Gov. Mark Sanford is accused of breaking 37 ethics laws regarding campaign finances and travel, including using taxpayer money for high-priced airplane tickets that took him around the world and to Argentina for a rendezvous with the woman he once called his "soul mate."
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - ABC television said on Monday it had received about 1,500 complaints about the sexually-charged performance by "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert at the American Music Awards on Sunday.
GENEVA - The world's largest atom smasher made another leap forward Monday by circulating beams of protons in opposite directions at the same time and causing the first particle collisions in the $10 billion machine after more than a year of repairs, organizers said.
SEATTLE - Parents who thought their preschoolers were spending time in home-based day cares, taking naps, eating healthy snacks and learning to play nicely with others may be surprised to discover they are sitting as many as two hours a day in front of a TV, according to a study published Monday.
OSLO (Reuters) - The people of Bergen rolled out the cookie dough Monday as local police tried to sniff out vandals who destroyed the Norwegian city's traditional Christmas decoration -- a town of gingerbread houses.
Emboldened by their success in inserting restrictive abortion language into the House health care bill, Roman Catholic bishops say they’ve found a lobbying model that could provide them a louder voice in future policy debates.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal officials are investigating a radiation leak at Three Mile Island, scene of the worst U.S. nuclear power accident, but said on Sunday there was no threat to public health or safety.
BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. - Police say a western Pennsylvania man told them he kicked his girlfriend's puppy to death because he was upset that the pit bull wouldn't behave before the start of the Pittsburgh Steelers game.
HEGANG, China (Reuters) - Relatives of victims of a gas blast at a mine in northeastern China scuffled with police and demanded answers from the owners on Monday as state media put the toll from the country's latest mine disaster at 104.
WASHINGTON - A lot more Americans are feeling stressed out by debt this holiday season, raising the glum likelihood they'll behave like Scrooge rather than Santa.
The Nation -- Across the country last week thousands of Americans gathered at more than 850 house-parties organized by the Sierra Club to watch a new documentary, Coal Country.
JACKSON, Miss. - Over the last three years, the FBI scoured faded documents, interviewed aging lawmen and tracked down witnesses from killings that occurred decades ago, many of them involving white police officers who shot black men or teenagers.