DENVER – Gov. Bill Owens signed a measure banning child brides, ending an uproar sparked by a court ruling that said 12-year-old girls could enter common-law marriages in Colorado. The state Court of Appeals ruled on June 15 that Colorado had no stated minimum age for common-law marriage but said …

FORT PIERCE, Fla. – A convenience-store clerk is being held without bail for allegedly attacking a boy in Fort Pierce for not buying a yo-yo, police said. Amar Shreiteh is charged with attempted murder and false imprisonment. Police said he was working at the store Monday morning when 14-year-old Jeremius …

HOUSTON – Nearly two months before Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family bathtub, her two oldest sons rushed into the living room and asked their grandmother why their mom was filling the tub to the brim with water, the older woman testified Thursday. Dora Yates, testifying for …

WASHINGTON – President Bush on Sunday renewed his call for a “sustainable peace” in the Middle East while his administration urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties in the wake of a deadly airstrike in Lebanon. “Our hope for peace for boys and girls everywhere extends across the world, especially in …

MOSCOW – An airliner careened off a rain-slicked runway in the Siberian city of Irkutsk early Sunday, plowing into adjacent garages and bursting into flames. At least 122 people were killed and 58 injured in the accident, the second major commercial airline crash in two months in Russia. Passengers’ relatives …

WASHINGTON – Free credit monitoring for veterans whose personal information was stolen has been withdrawn, the Bush administration said Tuesday, because the laptop containing their data has been recovered. In a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, White House budget director Rob Portman said he was canceling his office’s request …

LARAMIE, Wyo. – Three University of Wyoming students were found dead in a home near campus Sunday in what police said appeared to be a triple murder or murder-suicide. A fourth student, who lived at the house, suffered superficial wounds and had yelled for neighbors to call for help, police …

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli strikes killed 23 people in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, including 16 militants and a mother and her two young daughters, in the deadliest day of fighting since Israel withdrew from the coastal strip last year. The violence, in which Palestinians said 76 people …

TOKYO – Toshiba Corp. said Thursday it will postpone the sale of the world’s first HD DVD recorder because of a production delay. The new recorder, the RD-A1, had been slated to go on sale July 14, but the release will be pushed back to July 27, the Tokyo-based electronics …

The number of organized angel investor groups has increased almost 60 percent in the last three years, from 150 in 2002 to 250 in 2005, according to a new study by the Angel Capital Education Foundation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. “Angels have gone from investing as individuals and …