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WASHINGTON – Unless police, firefighters and other emergency responders end turf wars and talk to each other during disasters, billions of dollars spent on high-tech communication systems will go to waste, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Monday. Chertoff said the value of the technology provided through federal grants has …

CARBONDALE, Ill. – A woman who was among those injured in a series of deer attacks last year on Southern Illinois University‘s campus says she’s suing the school, arguing officials didn’t do enough to protect her. Zhimin “Nancy” Wang, a doctoral student from China, was among the first of four …

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican said Friday it had asked the Mexican founder of the conservative order Legionaries of Christ to renounce celebrating public Masses and live a life of “prayer and repentance” following its investigation into allegations he sexually abused seminarians. The Legionaries said in a statement that the …

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Four fraternity members accused of making pledges wear cowboy clothes and suffer homophobic insults in a “Brokeback Mountain”-themed initiation ritual face $1,000 fines under the state’s anti-hazing law. University of Vermont police said the civil penalties stemmed from a March 2 party at the Phi Gamma Delta …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Roadside bombs hit two U.S. Army convoys southwest of Baghdad on Thursday, killing a total of three soldiers, the military said. In northern Iraq gunmen kidnapped 10 people in two villages in northern Iraq, but U.S. and Iraqi forces saved seven of them in a gunbattle, police …

WASHINGTON – Lesbians’ brains react differently to sex hormones than those of heterosexual women, new research indicates. That’s in line with an earlier study that had indicated gay men’s brain responses were different from straight men — though the difference for men was more pronounced than has now been found …

TOKYO – Honda Motor Co. will build new plants in Japan, the United States and Canada to boost production amid soaring demand for its vehicles, the company’s president said Wednesday. The two auto plants each in Japan and the U.S. and an engine plant in Canada are aimed at meeting …

WASHINGTON – Oil prices fell below $69 a barrel Wednesday after U.S. government data showed the domestic supply of gasoline rising for the third straight week amid stagnating demand. “Perhaps the higher prices are having an effect on demand,” said BNP Paribas Commodity Futures broker Tom Bentz. Lending to the …

HOUSTON – Jurors in the fraud trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling began their first full day of deliberations Thursday in the 16th week of the biggest case to emerge from one of the most searing corporate scandals in U.S. history. The eight-woman, …

WASHINGTON – The Secret Service’s records documenting convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s contacts with Bush administration officials may not reveal all such meetings, the White House said Tuesday. The Secret Service has agreed to turn over White House visitor logs showing when Abramoff met with administration officials — and with whom. …