WATAUGA, Texas – A 911 dispatcher was reprimanded for responding to a mother’s plea for help with an unruly child by saying: “OK. Do you want us to come over to shoot her?” “I admit what I did. It was stupid, it was inexcusable and I’m sorry,” said dispatcher Mike …

LOS ANGELES – A Caltech graduate student convicted of helping to firebomb scores of sport utility vehicles was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison and ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution. A federal judge Monday rejected William Jensen Cottrell’s (search) plea for leniency. “There’s no way …

CAIRO, Egypt – Vladimir Putin (search) on Tuesday makes his first visit to the Middle East as Russia’s president, becoming the first Russian or Soviet leader in 40 years to make an official state visit to Egypt, a one-time close ally of the former Soviet Union. Topping the agenda for …

KATMANDU, Nepal – Police stormed the house of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba (search) early Wednesday after he failed to appear before an anti-corruption commission as part of a crackdown by the royalist government that critics say is politically motivated. About 50 policemen surrounded Deuba’s home on the northern …

SAN FRANCISCO – A jury Wednesday awarded nearly $5.8 million in damages to three men and a woman who were childhood victims of sexual abuse by a Roman Catholic (search) priest. The archdiocese acknowledged at the start of the 2 1/2-week trial that church officials knew in the 1970s the …

WASHINGTON – Freelance terror operations, either affiliated with Al Qaeda (search) or inspired by its goals, are a growing menace as the terrorist network’s loss of central leadership degrades its potency, the State Department said Wednesday. Nevertheless, Usama bin Laden‘s (search) Al Qaeda remained “the primary terrorist threat to the …

Kenneth Branagh (search) knew that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had polio, but like most people, he was unaware of how he dealt with the disease — first trying to conquer the disability, then learning to live with it. After reading Margaret Nagle’s carefully researched script for “Warm Springs” (search) (premiering 8 …

Bare midriffs. Short skirts. Bump-and-grind routines. Cheerleading (search) has strayed from the 2-4-6-8 rhymes of yesteryear, and that can leave parochial school cheerleading squads wondering how to craft routines that fit their values without looking downright retro. One answer is Christian cheerleading camp. A growing number of Christian schools, put …

WASHINGTON – Future high-wage earners could see their traditional Social Security (search) checks replaced by the proceeds of the personal investment accounts proposed by President Bush, according to a report by the nonpartisan research agency used by Congress. The traditional checks would disappear as the result of two factors: the …

WARSAW, Poland – As pallbearers carried the simple wooden coffin of Pope John Paul II (search) into St. Peter’s Basilica for burial, one of his closest living relatives watched from Poland, unable to make the trip to Vatican City (search). “This is so sad, really sad to watch this funeral,” …