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SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea (search), which relies on outside aid to feed its people, marked the 63rd birthday of leader Kim Jong Il on Wednesday with feasts of pheasant and venison for the capital’s elite amid heightened tension on the Korean peninsula over the communist state’s nuclear weapons …

BOSTON – Harvard University (search) president Lawrence Summers (search) has suffered acrimonious condemnation, and may have jeopardized his job, for suggesting that the under representation of women in engineering and some scientific fields may be due in part to inherent differences in the intellectual abilities of the sexes. But Summers …

The CDC is “extremely concerned” over the “very ominous” threat of bird flu, CDC officials say. It’s not a new worry. Public health officials have been worried for years that a particularly nasty form of bird flu — H5N1 influenza A virus (search) — will learn how to spread easily …

NEW YORK – Stocks could show some weakness when markets reopen Tuesday as earnings season winds down, while inflation and interest-rate worries stoke investors’ concerns about future profits. Oil prices around $48 a barrel could also keep up the pressure on the markets, strategists said. Markets were closed Monday in …

ROSELLE PARK, N.J. – Police charged a mother Monday with bludgeoning her 14-year-old daughter to death with a hammer and shovel as the girl slept. Lynn Giovanni, 45, was charged with murder. She was being held at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital (search) in lieu of $250,000 bail. Several hours after murdering …

PARIS – Nearly two years after the United States broke with many of its Western allies over the Iraq war, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (search) told European intellectuals Tuesday “it is time to turn away from the disagreements of the past.” “America stands ready to work with Europe on …

WASHINGTON – President Bush will propose that families of U.S. troops killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and war zones of the future receive an extra $250,000 in government payments. The plan, which includes retroactive payments to the spouses or surviving relatives of the more than 1,500 who have died in Iraq …

UNITED NATIONS – Iraq wants the United Nations to lift all sanctions and stop using the country’s oil revenue to pay compensation to victims of the 1991 Gulf War and the salaries of U.N. weapons inspectors, Iraq’s U.N. ambassador said Tuesday. Ambassador Samir Sumaidaie (search) called sanctions “anachronistic and inappropriate” …

SAN FRANCISCO – Marking the anniversary of his decision to sanction same-sex marriages, Mayor Gavin Newsom (search) on Saturday urged gay couples to back politicians who support gay marriage (search), saying it is time “to hold our elected officials accountable.” “It is no longer acceptable for politicians to come to …

Here’s what is on tap for Monday: “FOX & Friends First” Starts at 6 a.m. ET With no majority winner in Iraq’s election, can the mix of top vote getting parties blend into one coalition government? We’ll ask Edmund Ghareeb, author of “The Historical Dictionary of Iraq” and professor of …