BESSEMER, Ala. – A judge says Alabama regulators aren’t properly inspecting the state’s coal mines, some of the deepest and most dangerous in North America, and he has given them 10 days to conduct new reviews. State law requires that each of the approximately 50 coal mines in Alabama be …

NEWARK, N.J. – This could be the week that Marie Romero finally gets to look Charles Cullen straight in the eye and tell the former nurse and admitted serial killer how much pain he caused by killing her sister. Romero’s sister, Catherine Dext, was killed with an injection in June …

NEW YORK – Tattered book covers salvaged from the Iraqi Academy of Fine Arts and wax sketches of U.S. bombs blowing up Baghdad are going on exhibit in New York this month in a rare U.S. exhibition of Iraqi artists. “Ashes to Art: The Iraqi Phoenix” reflects the turbulence in …

NEW YORK – Tyco International Ltd. (TYC) is closely examining a breakup of the $60 billion conglomerate pieced together by former chief executive Dennis Kozlowski, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. The newspaper, quoting a person familiar with the plan, reported that Tyco’s …

ATLANTA – The Iraqi infant who underwent surgery for spinal birth defects was released from a hospital Friday to recover at an Atlanta-area home where father and grandmother have been staying, hospital officials said. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta officials said Noor al-Zahra was released because there was no change in …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Americans should not expect the war in Iraq to be wrapped up quickly as violence and instability will likely continue, a U.S. governor said Tuesday during a visit here with three other state governors. But Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said the Sunni-led insurgency was losing momentum even …

WASHINGTON – The former commander of the Guantanamo Bay detention center, who has been tied to the prisoner abuse scandal, is declining to answer questions in two courts-martial cases involving the use of dogs during interrogations. Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller invoked the military’s version of the Fifth Amendment right …

WASHINGTON – President Bush‘s new budget will contain tight spending controls across a wide swath of government programs as a way of getting the deficit under control, Treasury Secretary John Snow said Tuesday. Snow said the budget that the administration will present to Congress in early February will continue to …

If imitation is the best form of flattery, then HBO’s smash-hit series “Sex and the City” should consider itself flattered — very, very flattered. Ever since the four sexy yet distinctly different New York vixens left primetime TV, several shows have adopted the four-female formula that drove “Sex and the …

The death of a family’s beloved canine companion in Vermont has sparked a legal battle over pets’ rights and the question of whether they should be recognized family members. Denis and Sarah Scheele of Annapolis, Md., were moved to push for the courts to give legal recognition to the bond …