;NEW YORK (AP) - On a day meant for celebration in Hollywood, Heath Ledger, one of film's bright young stars, was found dead at age 28, his promising career extinguished just as it was reaching full expression. Hours...

>BEIJING (AP) - China's senior safety inspector urged the public and the media Tuesday to expose workplace accidents in a bid to end corruption and official misdeeds aggravating the country's high rate...

.MIAMI (AP) - Jose Padilla, an American once accused of plotting with al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb," was sentenced Tuesday to a relatively lenient 17-year prison term on unrelated terror...

>BEIJING (AP) - Unusually heavy snowfall in central China has been blamed for at least 15 deaths and has stranded hundreds of thousands of people ahead of the peak Lunar New Year travel season, state...

>HAVANA (AP) - The new parliament chosen by Cuban voters could ultimately send ailing 81-year-old Fidel Castro into permanent retirement. As results came in Monday, there was no doubt that voters in...

;AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) - Sherpas laid prayer scarves on the coffin of Edmund Hillary Tuesday as thousands across New Zealand bid farewell to the Mount Everest conqueror. About 500 New Zealand and...

>CORONA, Calif. (AP) - Investigators walked through rows of vehicles at a car dealership Monday inspecting wreckage from a deadly collision of two small planes that rained debris and bodies down on...

>GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - Guatemalan legislators approved a new law Tuesday to tighten adoptions, while allowing pending adoptions - mostly to U.S. couples - to go through without meeting the stricter...

>BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of holiday cards and letters thanking wounded American troops for their sacrifice and wishing them well never reach their destination. They are returned...

.AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Every child born in Maine will be eligible for a $500 college savings nest egg, thanks to the generosity of a shoe company founder who never attended college himself. A foundation...