WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority....
BAGHDAD (AP) -- After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein stayed in Baghdad until he saw "the city was about to fall." Months later, he was caught hiding at the same farm where he had fled in 1959 after taking part in an attempt to kill the country's prime minister....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Federal marshals seized disgraced financier Bernard Madoff's $7 million Manhattan penthouse on Thursday and forced his wife to move out and leave her possessions behind, including a fur coat she had asked to take with her, an official told The Associated Press....
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Talk about adding a late-inning buzz to a ballgame. The Houston Astros - who once had the "Killer Bs" - beat the San Diego Padres 7-2 on Thursday, but only after waiting out a 52-minute delay in the top of the ninth inning caused when a swarm of bees took over part of left field at Petco Park....
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The investigation of Michael Jackson's death is widening as questions intensify about the drugs he took, the doctors who provided them and the actions of police....
NEW YORK (AP) -- General Motors Corp. may have to wait out the long holiday weekend to learn if its bankruptcy plan is moving forward, after U.S. Judge Robert Gerber adjourned a three-day hearing without indicating when he will rule on GM's plan to sell its good assets to a new company....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A top Republican pressed for more information Thursday about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's ties to a Puerto Rican civil rights group he said took extreme positions on race, as the White House argued that the material was irrelevant to the judge's nomination....
NAWA, Afghanistan (AP) -- U.S. Marines suffered their first casualties of a massive new military campaign Thursday as they engaged in sporadic gunbattles along 55 miles of Taliban-controlled heartland in southern Afghanistan. One Marine was killed and several others were injured or wounded on the first full day of the assault, the largest military operation in Afghanistan since the fall of Taliban government in 2001....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Days from his first Moscow summit, President Barack Obama declared Thursday that former Russian President Vladimir Putin "still has a lot of sway" in his nation and needs an in-person reminder the Cold War is over....
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The future of Michael Jackson's children was thrown into question Thursday when his ex-wife emerged and won a delay in a custody hearing while she decides whether she wants to raise her two offspring....
The gentle attitude of Los Olivos, Calif., residents may be tested as Neverland ranch will make the village something of a Graceland-like stop on the Michael Jackson after-death tour.
