In some markets, says an influential new Harvard study, the fun is about to end. THE HOUSING MARKET’S foundation is finally starting to shows signs of stress. This, according to the “State of the Nation’s Housing 2005” report released Monday by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Despite strong …

LONDON – Londoners managed to move around the city Saturday to celebrate the New Year despite a 24-hour subway strike, which slowed but failed to cripple the capital’s transport system. Leaders of the RMT union had expected the subway to grind to a halt when guards and ticket office workers …

A father was stabbed and beaten to death in front of his 7-year-old son by a gang he was trying to protect the child from in almost exactly the same way his own father was killed 23 years ago, according to the Daily Mail. David Martin, 40, a window cleaner, …

NEW YORK – Unionized CBS News staffers who are members of the Writers Guild of America have overwhelmingly ratified a new contract with the network. The contract — which received a 98 percent approval vote — covers 500 employees who work in New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Chicago, in …

DETROIT – A jury convicted a 911 operator Friday of willful neglect of duty after authorities said she didn’t take seriously a boy’s calls to report his mother had collapsed. The mother was found dead three hours after the first call. The misdemeanor charge against Sharon Nichols is punishable by …

VENICE – Italian police have arrested a man in Venice who was allegedly wandering around St. Mark’s Square and other city landmarks while secretly filming thousands of women’s bottoms, officials said Tuesday. The man was arrested Saturday after police on patrol noticed him closely following a young woman while carrying …

A Canadian is recuperating after having his hand severed in an altercation outside a house party, the Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator reports. The hand of the unidentified 23-year-old was hacked off Saturday outside the bash, Hamilton Police Sgt. Paul Lahaie told the paper. “The situation escalated, there was a lot of …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – A bus plummeted nearly 1,000 feet off a cliff and crashed Tuesday into a river in a mountainous region, killing 24 people, police said. At least 25 survivors were hospitalized with injuries. More people may be trapped underneath the bus, which was lying upside down in …

RUTLAND, Vt. – A man who raped and killed a University of Vermont student after a chance meeting in which she asked to borrow his cell phone was convicted Thursday, capping a case whose brutality sent a shudder through Vermont. After more than six hours of deliberations, jurors found Brian …

AMMAN, Jordan – Jordan’s military court has convicted three men for plotting to assassinate U.S. President George W. Bush during a 2006 visit to the kingdom and sentenced them to 15 years in jail. Wednesday’s verdict comes about a year and a half after the young Jordanian men — Nidhal …