Nation News

President Barack Obama aims Friday to shore up relations with a new Japanese government vowing to be more assertive with its U.S. ally, even as he grapples with sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Read More

The parents accused of pulling a spectacular hoax by reporting that their 6-year-old son had floated away aboard a helium balloon have agreed to plead guilty in a deal that could send them both to jail but protect the wife from deportation. Read More

An Army psychiatrist was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the Fort Hood massacre as he lay in a hospital bed Thursday, while President Barack Obama ordered a review to determine if the government fumbled warning signs of the man's contacts with a radical Islamic cleric. Read More

Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government. Read More

Family members of five men charged in a bizarre child sex abuse case reacted with disbelief and sadness Thursday to the "unspeakable" string of alleged atrocities spanning two decades. Read More

Two people died and 14 others were injured, some critically, when a van carrying mostly college-age members of a Colorado church overturned on black ice early Thursday in eastern Oregon. Read More

A jury sentenced a man to life in prison Thursday for the beating death of a popular Arkansas television personality, sparing him the death penalty after hearing testimony about his rocky upbringing by an abusive, drug-addicted mother. Read More

A missing 5-year-old North Carolina girl was seen with a man at a hotel, but not the same person charged in her kidnapping, police said late Thursday. Read More

Former megachurch pastor Ted Haggard held a prayer meeting at his home Thursday evening, saying the living room event was the beginning of his resurrection three years after he was forced to resign amid a sex scandal involving a male prostitute. Read More

William Ganz Read More

A drenching, wind-driven rain lashed much of the Atlantic seaboard Thursday, flooding streets, closing schools, roads and bridges and causing at least five deaths. Read More

Police say a low-flying pelican distracted a driver in Texas, causing him to veer off a road and drive his million-dollar sports car into a salt marsh. Read More

A dog named Titan lived up to his name Thursday when he earned the title world's tallest dog. Read More

Hawaii's budget woes will lead to the layoff of almost 650 state workers by the end of the year. Read More

A settlement has been reached in a long-running fraud lawsuit filed against Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, the once powerful anti-tobacco litigator who is now behind bars, an attorney says. Read More

Convicted domestic terrorist Ray Luc Levasseur was prohibited from attending a University of Massachusetts forum on his 1989 sedition trial, but police officers and supporters picketed anyway to protest his ex-wife's appearance. Read More

Police fatally shot a man as he stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death in her apartment hours after she filed a domestic violence report against him, authorities said Thursday. Read More

The special election last week for the 23rd Congressional District seat in New York may not be over after all. Read More

A census taker found hanging from a tree had named his son as his life insurance beneficiary, and investigators are looking into whether the father manipulated the death scene to make a claim possible, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press Thursday. Read More

Japanese prosecutors confirmed Friday that they have dropped the case against an American man arrested in Japan when he snatched his children from his ex-wife. Read More