SALISBURY, N.C. – Two firefighters died Friday fighting a massive five-alarm fire at a wood millworks in Rowan County, a hospital official said. “One was dead on arrival and one died here this morning,” said Michael Burton, a spokesman at Rowan Regional Medical Center. Burton said two other firefighters injured …

LONDON – Good advice? Maybe. Oddest book title of 2007 — that’s official. “If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs” has won the Diagram Prize for the oddest title of the year, The Bookseller magazine announced Friday. Big Boom, the apparently pseudonymous author, calls it a …

WASHINGTON – The economy is listing. So it must be time to bail. While there is little enthusiasm for government bailouts in general, voters are increasingly demanding immediate government relief as the economy ebbs. The Fed-engineered bailout of investment banker Bear Stearns and other assistance to financial institutions has further …

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – A woman was convicted Monday of fatally shooting her ex-lover’s wife after donning a black mask and ordering the victim to her knees in a parking lot. A jury found Shawna Nelson guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 37-year-old Heather Garraus, who was shot …

Five people were found handcuffed and shot to death in a rural area near a new highway close to Tijuana, Mexico early Tuesday, the San Diego Union Tribune reported. Four of the bodies, found in a section of the country called Rancho Los Potrillos, appear to be minors, and one …

MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin says he has received a letter from President George W. Bush laying out the agenda for U.S.-Russia missile defense talks. The Russian leader says the two sides can probably reach a final agreement. Putin said Monday that six months have passed since the U.S. …

WASHINGTON – The U.S. State Department says U.S. officials have concluded that the U.S. Embassy in Yemen was targeted by three mortar rounds that crashed into a nearby high school and killed a Yemeni security guard. The attack happened early Wednesday, and at the time U.S. officials said they could …

MINNEAPOLIS – The state of New York fined the personal corporation of Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken $25,000 for not carrying workers’ compensation insurance for almost three years. The New York Workers’ Compensation Board levied the fine against Alan Franken Inc. in August 2006 for failure to carry the insurance …

JERUSALEM – Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that Hamas, with support from Syria and Iran, is trying to “torpedo” peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel. Meeting reporters after having breakfast with the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Cheney said, “It is clearly a difficult situation, in part, because …

HUDSON, Ohio – After he shot and killed his two children, Manuel Gehring dug a grave about 2-feet deep in the clay-like soil of northeast Ohio and made two crosses out of sticks, held together by duct tape, which he laid over their bodies. The New Hampshire man later told …