U.S. National News

Kennedy dispute reveals divide among Catholics

Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin speaks to a reporter in Riverside, R.I., Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009. Tobin said Sunday that he asked U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy in a 2007 letter to stop receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, because of the congressman's public stance on moral issues. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
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AP - 1 hour, 14 minutes ago

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.

  • In this photo from Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009, olives ready to be mechanically harvested for olive oil are shown at California Olive Ranch in Artois. In the distance are the new hedgerow-style plantings that allow for mechanical harvesting. Olives can be picked and crushed inside of 90 minutes. In 10 years California officials say the 12,500 acres of olives for oil planted in hedgerow style will grow to 100,000 acres. (AP Photo/Tracie Cone)
    New olive planting method prompts Calif. oil boom AP - 59 minutes ago

    ARTOIS, Calif. - An oil boom is under way in California's agricultural heartland, as evolving tastes and a trend toward healthy fare have transformed a profession as old as civilization: olive production for the extra virgin market.

  • Astronaut Randy Bresnik talks about his first spacewalk and the birth of his daughter while in orbit aboard the International Space Station in this handout image from NASA TV Space Shuttle Atlantis November 22, 2009. REUTERS/NASA TV/Handout
    Astronauts get set for spacewalk No. 3 AP - 1 hour, 44 minutes ago

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - It's another spacewalking day for the crew of space shuttle Atlantis.

  • FILE - In this May 8, 2007 file photo, Dr. Jay Chapman holds a human skull from Nepal that has been hand decorated with silver at his home in Napa, Calif. The man considered the father of lethal injection in the United States says he never gave much thought to how many fatal drugs should be used in the process, only that it worked efficiently. Dr. Chapman, now semiretired in California, said Ohio's decision to adopt a one-drug protocol, the first such system in the country, fits that goal. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
    Lethal injection creator fine with 1 drug in Ohio AP - Sun Nov 22, 4:25 PM ET

    COLUMBUS, Ohio - The man considered the father of lethal injection in the United States said it doesn't matter whether three fatal drugs are used or one — as his home state of Ohio has proposed — as long as the drug works efficiently.

  • FILE - In this Nov. 22, 2006 file photo, travelers arrive for their flights at LaGuardia Airport in New York. Fewer people are expected to fly this holiday season, but travelers shouldn't expect a full reprieve from the horrid flight delays of Thanksgivings past, especially if they need to land anywhere near New York City. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
    Holidays will again test NYC air travel bottleneck AP - Sun Nov 22, 2:28 PM ET

    NEW YORK - Fewer people are expected to fly this holiday season, but travelers shouldn't expect a full reprieve from the horrid flight delays of Thanksgivings past, especially if they need to land anywhere near New York City.

  • Mammogram guidelines spark debate over health bill AP - Sun Nov 22, 3:41 PM ET

    WASHINGTON - Lawmakers broke along party lines on a new aspect of the health care debate Sunday as a former National Institutes of Health chief urged women to ignore guidelines that delay the start of breast cancer screenings.

  • Victim ID'd in fatal NYC subway seat stabbing AP - Sun Nov 22, 5:19 PM ET

    NEW YORK - A subway passenger stabbed to death in front of horrified straphangers has been identified as 36-year-old Dwight Johnson of Brooklyn.

  • University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) student Kendall Brown and other UCLA students and supporters protest as the UC Board of Regents votes to approve a 32 percent tuition hike next year on November 19 in Los Angeles, California.(AFP/Getty Images/File/David Mcnew)
    Demonstration at UC Santa Cruz ends peacefully AP - Sun Nov 22, 5:21 PM ET

    SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - Officials at the University of California, Santa Cruz say dozens of protesters who were occupying the university's main administrative building have ended their protest.

  • In this Nov. 14, 2009 photo, a customer purchases a newspaper in Palo Alto, Calif. While U.S. newspapers are losing subscribers at a staggering rate, a few dailies stand out because their circulation is rising. But they aren't necessarily selling more copies. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
    Newspaper circulation may be worse than it looks AP - Sun Nov 22, 3:43 PM ET

    SAN FRANCISCO - While U.S. newspapers are losing subscribers at a staggering rate, a few dailies stand out because their circulation is rising. But they aren't necessarily selling more copies.

  • Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid D-Nev., speaks after the U.S. Senate voted to begin debate on legislation for a broad healthcare overhaul at Capitol Hill in Washington on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009, as Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., right, and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa looks on. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
    Gaps for consumers in Democrat health care bills AP - 59 minutes ago

    WASHINGTON - For consumers, the health care bills taking final shape in Congress don't rate close to a perfect 10.

  • Actress Kristen Stewart, star of the new film "The Twilight Saga: New Moon", poses at the film's Los Angeles premiere November 16, 2009. REUTERS/Fred Prouser
    'New Moon' wolfs down $140.7M in opening weekend AP - 31 minutes ago

    LOS ANGELES - "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" gobbled up $140.7 million the first three days the vampire romance was in theaters, while gaining $258.8 million worldwide, according to studio estimates.

  • In this Friday, Aug. 21, 2009 photo, Iraqi refugee Rawaa Bahoo helps her daughter Maryam, 5, with her hair as Marvin 8, left, and Maryana, 4, right, watch television in Farmington Hills, Mich. The hard-hit Detroit area saw a big jump in Iraqi refugees from other U.S. cities as the national economy eroded during the past year, according to a Michigan-based refugee resettlement agency. Bahoo, 29, came to Michigan in July 2008 just a few days after arriving in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
    Iraqi refugees move to Mich. despite poor economy AP - Sun Nov 22, 12:16 PM ET

    DETROIT - The U.S. government resettled Mazen Alsaqa in Massachusetts in February. Within a month, the Iraqi refugee moved to Michigan.

  • NRC investigating radiation at Three Mile Island AP - Sun Nov 22, 1:28 PM ET

    MIDDLETOWN, Pa. - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sending investigators to the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant after a small amount of radiation was detected there.

  • Va. Military Institute faces sexism accusations AP - Sun Nov 22, 11:36 AM ET

    LEXINGTON, Va. - Virginia Military Institute is defending itself against a lengthy investigation into accusations that the school's policies are sexist and hostile toward female cadets, a dozen years after women won the right to enroll.

  • This Oct. 12, 2009 photo shows the scene near where Fred Alvarez was killed near Rancho Mirage, Calif. in 1981. In the days before Fred Alvarez was shot execution-style with two friends on his verandah, the strapping Cabazon tribal leader feared he was a marked man: His motorcycle had been tampered with, his mailbox shot up and his house ransacked. Now, 28 years later, the arrest of a murder suspect has revived the question, which lengthy investigations and a grand jury probe failed to answer. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
    Arrest in 1981 tribal murders revives old mystery AP - Sun Nov 22, 1:53 PM ET

    INDIO, Calif. - In the days before Fred Alvarez was shot execution-style with two friends on his verandah, the strapping Cabazon tribal leader feared he was a marked man: His motorcycle had been tampered with, his mailbox shot up and his house ransacked.

  • This undated photo released by Census of Marine Life and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution shows a transparent sea cucumber, Enypniastes, creeping forward on its many tentacles at about 2 cm per minute while sweeping detritus-rich sediment into its mouth at 2,750 meters in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of marine species eke out an existence in the ocean's pitch-black depths by feeding on the snowlike decaying matter that cascades down, and even sunken whale bones, according to a report released Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Larry Madin) NO SALES, MANDATORY CREDIT, EDITORIAL USE ONLY
    Thousands of strange creatures found deep in ocean AP - Sun Nov 22, 3:51 PM ET

    NEW ORLEANS - The creatures living in the depths of the ocean are as weird and outlandish as the creations in a Dr. Seuss book: tentacled transparent sea cucumbers, primitive "dumbos" that flap ear-like fins, and tubeworms that feed on oil deposits.

Crimes and Trials News

  • This combination of undated photos shows, from left: Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, Waleed bin Attash, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and Ramzi Binalshibh. The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009. (AP Photos)
    Lawyer: 9/11 defendants want platform for views AP - Sun Nov 22, 10:28 PM ET

    NEW YORK - The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday.

  • FILE - This 2000 file picture provided by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences shows Nidal Malik Hasan when was a medical student at the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. The Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood will be confined until his military trial, initially staying in a hospital where he is recovering from gunshot wounds, his attorney said Saturday Nov. 21, 2009. (AP Photo/Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, file)
    Fort Hood suspect ordered held until court-martial AP - Sun Nov 22, 3:58 AM ET

    FORT WORTH, Texas - The Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood will be confined until his military trial, initially staying in a hospital where he is recovering from gunshot wounds, his attorney said Saturday.

  • FILE - This Bexar County Sheriff's Office 2007 booking file photo shows Capt. Michael Fontana after he was arrested for racing on a highway in San Antonio. Fontana, 35, an Air Force nurse, goes on trial Monday, Nov. 16, 2009 accused of killing three terminally ill patients at last summer in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Bexar County Sheriff's Office, File)
    Ex-Air Force nurse acquitted of killing patients AP - Sat Nov 21, 5:10 PM ET

    SAN ANTONIO - A military judge in Texas has found a former Air Force nurse accused of killing three terminally ill patients not guilty of murder.