KFAR KILA, Lebanon – The Lebanese army reached the country’s southern border with Israel for the first time in decades Friday, sending a lone jeep on patrol through Kfar Kila, a battered stronghold of support for Hezbollah militants. Meanwhile, Israeli drones and warplanes were crisscrossing the skies above Lebanon’s eastern …

KIEV, Ukraine – Viktor Yanukovych, whose fraud-tainted victory in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential elections sparked the Orange Revolution, was expected Thursday to become the country’s next prime minister after the president submitted his former rival’s candidacy to parliament. President Viktor Yushchenko acknowledged that his decision to nominate the man he …

HOUSTON – A stick of dynamite was found in a college student’s checked luggage on a Continental Airlines flight from Argentina, one of seven security incidents Friday that caused U.S. flights to be diverted, evacuated, searched or delayed. Howard McFarland Fish, 21, was charged with carrying an explosive aboard an …

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock said “I do” at a fabled Nashville honky-tonk in the early hours of Thursday morning. A Nashville judge performed the ceremony — one of several around the world — just after midnight at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, said Kirt Webster, Kid Rock’s Nashville-based …

MESA, Ariz. – Four days before police captured two men they say shot people at random in the Phoenix area for more than a year, Robin Blasnek became the final victim in the killing spree. Blasnek, 22, had been walking to her boyfriend’s house in Mesa around 11:15 p.m. July …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Thousands of pilgrims arrived on foot Saturday at a Shiite shrine in Baghdad to start a major religious commemoration, as private vehicles were banned from the streets to prevent car bombings by Sunni extremists. At least 18 people including a U.S. soldier were killed in the political …

WASHINGTON – The financial noose is tightening around North Korea as international banks sever ties with the nation — a move championed by the United States, a top Treasury Department official says. The United States has accused Pyongyang of spreading weapons and missile technology to other countries, counterfeiting U.S. currency …

As we landed at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans yesterday afternoon the skies were dark and cloudy and there was a light drizzle. Driving into the city, I found a good talk show on the radio so I could get immersed quickly into what the local folks were …

NEW YORK – An appeals court on Tuesday overturned a judge’s ruling that had protected New York Times phone records from being inspected by federal prosecutors investigating leaked information about a terrorism fundraising probe. By a 2-1 vote, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held …

The tongue may have a real sweet spot for sour tastes, as well as bitter, salty, and other taste sensations. A new study suggests that individual cells in the tongues are exclusively dedicated to detecting sour tastes, a function that may have evolved to help mammals detect spoiled or unripe …