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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A governor in eastern Afghanistan escaped an apparent assassination attempt Wednesday when a car bomb exploded outside his offices, while suspected Taliban gunmen killed a judge in the west, officials said. No casualties were caused in the explosion that occurred shortly after 9 a.m. in the eastern …

HANFORD, Calif. – Family members of two Marines say their sons were ordered to photograph and clean up corpses of unarmed Iraqi civilians that members of their unit are suspected of killing, and they have been traumatized ever since. In separate interviews with The Associated Press on Monday, the parents …

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Kentucky’s lieutenant governor, a former corruption-fighting prosecutor, announced Wednesday he won’t seek re-election with Gov. Ernie Fletcher, whose administration has been caught up in a state hiring scandal. Lt. Gov. Steve Pence said he told Fletcher late Tuesday that he will not seek any office after his …

NEW YORK – Oklahoma, Mississippi and the Mountain states have set the pace in increasing the imprisonment of women, while several Northeastern states are curtailing the practice, according to a new report detailing sharp regional differences in the handling of female offenders. The report, to be released Sunday by the …

The FDA says that there is no health risk from benzene levels in soft drinks, based on an FDA survey of more than 100 soft drinks and other beverages. “The vast majority of the products we were looking at had very, very low or not detectable levels of benzene, but …

LOS ANGELES – The buzz at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo usually surrounds the latest new video games. This year, the hot topic isn’t a sneak peek at “Halo 3” or “Metal Gear Solid 4” but a price tag — namely, the $499 and $599 Sony Corp. (SNE) said it …

MOSCOW – Thawing river ice months after a Chinese toxic spill has released a “second wave” of pollution into waterways near a major Russian Far Eastern city, experts said Sunday. Residents in settlements up the Amur River from the city of Khabarovsk, population 580,000, have already started noticing a strong …

WASHINGTON – Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne won Senate approval as Interior secretary on Friday after confirmation proceedings that highlighted the administration’s policy on offshore energy exploration. Kempthorne, a former senator, was confirmed on a voice vote to succeed Gale Norton as the steward of one-fifth of the nation’s land — …

WASHINGTON – More than 560 people have been arrested in an international investigation of mass-marketing fraud schemes that have victimized more than 2.8 million people in the United States, the Justice Department said Tuesday. Losses exceeded $1 billion in scams that included bogus lottery, prize and sweepstakes offerings, phony preapproved …

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Bausch & Lomb Inc. said Monday it has permanently removed from the market a contact-lens solution that has been linked to an outbreak of fungal eye infections that can cause blindness. “Bausch & Lomb’s top priority is the safety of our customers, and we want them to …