YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. – Firefighters were finally able to contain a nearly 100-square-mile blaze in the desert and rugged San Bernardino National Forest, but with rain in the forecast there was a new fear: mudslides. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch through the week in the Mojave Desert …

WASHINGTON – Attorneys for Rep. William Jefferson filed a motion Tuesday to stay U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan‘s ruling to release to investigators documents and hard drives seized by the FBI in a raid of the Louisiana Democrat’s office last May. They want the judge to stop Department of Justice …

SAN FRANCISCO – Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trade in Friday’s session are Horizon Health Corp., Starbucks Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. After Thursday’s closing bell, Horizon Health (HORC) shares plummeted more than 28 percent after the healthcare services provider slashed its earnings outlooks …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Gunmen kidnapped 29 people in Baghdad on Monday, while Iraq’s latest wave of violence killed 27 people, including four Iraqi soldiers in a homicide bombing. The interior minister faced calls for his dismissal because of the worsening security crisis in Baghdad and surrounding towns, mostly blamed on …

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces killed more than 40 suspected Taliban militants in raid on a compound in southern Afghanistan on Monday, a coalition spokesman said. One Afghan army soldier was killed and three coalition troops wounded in the fighting near Tarin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan …

NEW YORK – The modeling industry is all about who’s young, who’s hot and who’s next. Or is it? Linda Evangelista, 41 and pregnant, is on the cover of the August issue of Vogue. She’s the first model, not a Hollywood star, to be featured on the magazine’s cover in …

LOS ANGELES – Actress Lindsay Lohan was overcome by the heat on a movie set and required hospital treatment, her publicist told “The Insider” Wednesday. The 20-year-old actress was taken by private car Tuesday to a Los Angeles area hospital where she spent several hours being treated for overheating and …

SEATTLE – Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) are beginning a limited test of plans to make their instant messaging systems work together. The much-vaunted pairing comes a bit later than the two companies had originally hoped. The project was delayed because Microsoft wanted to make sure the systems …

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler says he was just playing along with the joke when comedian Stephen Colbert prodded him in an interview to say: “I enjoy cocaine because it’s a fun thing to do.” The Democrat who is unchallenged for re-election appeared on Colbert’s Comedy …

If Howard Stern, in his ego-fueled delusion, can call himself the King of All Media, can Jane Fonda call herself the Queen? Fonda helped launch a new radio station this week called Greenstone Media, for which she serves on the Board of Directors with other notable women, including Gloria Steinem. …