GLENDALE, Calif. – Hunks of hand-crafted clay trounced modern computer-animated images Saturday to take top honors at the 33rd annual Annie Awards, honoring achievements in feature film and television animation. “Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit” from DreamWorks Animation SKG took the prize for best feature production. The film, …

BAGHDAD – Editor’s note: U.S. Army Capt. Dan Sukman is serving a one-year deployment to Iraq. For previous entries and his bio, see the Soldier’s Diary archives. April 25, 2006 We have been on blackout for about two days now. After a soldier dies, whether it is by enemy fire, …

The St. Cloud Times reports that a county commissioner in Minnesota is in hot water for referring to the local human rights commission as a “tar baby,” a term some in town interpreted as racially insensitive. During a discussion about the panel, Stearns County Commissioner Leigh Lenzmeier said of the …

LONDON – Oil prices fell nearly 2.5 percent Monday after OPEC promised to keep pumping near maximum capacity, but losses were limited as the cartel conceded that it could not cool the red hot market. U.S. light crude fell $1.84 cents to $73.33 a barrel, distancing itself from the $75.35 …

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Coal-burning power plants spend millions disposing of fly ash, a fine powder loaded with mercury, lead and other toxic chemicals. An estimated 70 million tons of the byproduct is produced in the U.S. each year, and most of it is buried in specially designed ponds and landfills. …

MLB Steroid Use Policy: — First positive steroids test: 50 game suspension. — Second positive steroids test: 100 game suspension. — Third positive steroids test: Lifetime ban, subject to right to seek reinstatement after two years of suspension, with arbitral review of reinstatement decision. Every player will have: — A …

ROME – Center-left leader Romano Prodi prepared Friday for his return to power, shrugging off Premier Silvio Berlusconi‘s refusal to concede defeat in Italy’s election and facing the first dispute within his wide-ranging coalition. The squabbling between two center-left allies over who should become speaker of the lower house of …

WASHINGTON – Immigration rights supporters gathered Monday for a march past the White House in an event they had hoped would be a celebration of Senate legislation to put illegal immigrants on the path to citizenship. After that measure collapsed under election-year politics, the march turned into a protest against …

DETROIT – Proof, a member of rap group D12 and a close friend of Eminem, was shot to death early Tuesday at a nightclub along Eight Mile, the road made famous by the 2002 film that starred Eminem and in which Proof had a bit part. Proof, whose real name …

ROME – Judges began checking tens of thousands of contested ballots Thursday, as Italian politics was thrown into turmoil after Premier Silvio Berlusconi‘s demand for a recount of rival Romano Prodi‘s narrow parliamentary election victory. Official returns gave Prodi’s center-left coalition the majority in both houses of parliament in the …