Nation News

A gas leak at an oil recycling company forced about 4,000 workers to evacuate nearby office buildings for six hours Monday, sending one person to the hospital, authorities said. Read More

The widely played video clip of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer reprimanding a general for calling her "ma'am" is the gift that keeps on giving for the two Republicans hoping to challenge her next year. Read More

A military helicopter searched upper elevations of Mount Hood on Monday, as rescuers held onto hope that two experienced climbers would be found alive after a third member of their party was discovered dead over the weekend. Read More

A group campaigning to put a marijuana legalization measure before California voters said Monday it has enough signatures to qualify for the 2010 ballot. Read More

Two Georgia men were each sentenced to more than 10 years in prison Monday for plotting to aid terrorists by sending homemade videos of Washington landmarks overseas and traveling abroad to try to turn their anti-American rhetoric into action. Read More

Targeted by drone strikes in Pakistan, al-Qaida is losing ground and financing even as attacks by Islamist groups are on the rise, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press. Read More

Quentin Patrick will spend at least the next 16 years in prison because the convicted drug dealer, paranoid of being robbed, answered a Halloween knock on his door with a barrage of bullets from an AK-47, killing a 12-year-old South Carolina boy. Read More

New data shows that California's two major river basins have lost almost enough water to fill the nation's largest reservoir in just the last six years. Read More

At least one Molotov cocktail _ or something similar _ was thrown into a city hall in Ohio, starting a small fire. Read More

The North Carolina Court of Appeals on Monday temporarily blocked the release of two convicted murderers sentenced to life in prison under a 1970s law, issuing an order an hour before they were to be set free. Read More

Dennis deLeon, who served as the president of the Latino Commission on AIDS and as the New York City human rights commissioner, has died. He was 61. Read More

A man accused of shooting to death his girlfriend and two others in a Texas mobile home was upset after the girlfriend allegedly told him about a sexual encounter with the other victims, a sheriff said Monday. Read More

About three dozen Boston students have been sickened by natural gas fumes after a maintenance worker inadvertently opened a natural gas line next to their school's ventilation system. Read More

Paralyzed by a detective's bullet, a man accused of killing a Seattle police officer on Halloween was wheeled into a courtroom on Monday and pleaded not guilty to charges that could bring the death penalty. Read More

The Bureau of Land Management approved the removal of 2,500 wild horses from the range near Reno on Monday as opposition grows to what would be one of the largest mustang roundups in Nevada in recent years. Read More

Prison officials say an inmate is holding an employee hostage at the Pinckneyville Correctional Center in southern Illinois. Read More

Prison officials say an inmate is holding an employee hostage at the Pinckneyville Correctional Center in southern Illinois. Read More

A secular display celebrating the winter solstice and "freethinkers" such as Albert Einstein and Bill Gates can be placed at the state Capitol alongside a traditional Christian nativity scene, a federal judge said Monday. Read More

Armored car robbers, including one toting a shotgun, made off Monday with a $1 million money bag in what police said appeared to be a well-planned daylight heist in the parking lot of a Las Vegas casino. Read More

Two Wisconsin women accused of seeking revenge on a cheating lover by gluing his penis to his stomach have reached plea deals. Read More