WASHINGTON – Advocates for the blind want the government to set minimum sound standards for new cars and trucks, pointing to potential safety hazards for blind pedestrians who can’t hear silent gas-electric hybrid vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration held a daylong hearing on Monday to discuss the issue, …

LONDON – A man accused of planning to bomb North America-bound airliners said Monday that he was planning a publicity stunt, not mass murder. Abdulla Ahmed Ali, one of eight British Muslim charged with plotting to detonate liquid explosives aboard passenger jets, told Woolwich Crown Court he wanted to give …

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Police have recovered the 1997 maroon Ford Crown Victoria apparently driven by 16-year-old Antoinetta Smith, but a search continues for her and a 1-year-old toddler she was baby-sitting. Police said the vehicle belonging to the child’s mother was found Friday night in Birmingham’s Central Park neighborhood. A …

McKINNEY, Texas – Ridgell M. McKinney is ready to cross the stage and get his high school diploma, 74 years after his classmates made the same walk. McKinney’s 94 and would have graduated in 1934 had he been willing to rat out a friend. Chalk it up to honor and …

LOS ANGELES – An attorney for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and his wife were arrested on suspicion of accepting thousands of dollars from both legal and illegal immigrants in exchange for immigration benefits, authorities said. ICE Assistant Chief Counsel Constantine Peter Kallas, 38, and wife Maria Kallas, 39, both …

A Long Island woman has filed a lawsuit against American Airlines claiming the carrier endangered her 4-year-old son by serving peanuts on her flight, Newsday reported. Tehmina Haque says she was assured several times that peanuts would not be served, but flight attendants changed the plan without notice during her …

JACKSON, Mississippi ( – A celebrity photographer accused of stalking Jamie Lynn Spears and her fiance in a small Mississippi town has been arrested. Edwin W. Merino, 30, of Los Angeles, posted bond Tuesday. He is scheduled to appear in court next week. Authorities in Liberty, a small town in …

Female coffee drinkers appear to be less likely to die from heart disease than non-drinkers, a new study finds. Esther Lopez-Garcia, assistant professor of preventive medicine at Autonoma University of Madrid, Spain, and colleagues analyzed data from 84,214 and 41,736 men. Coffee consumption was assessed first in 1980 for women …

LOS ANGELES – A paparazzo who pressed charges against Britney Spears after her car allegedly ran over his foot was himself to blame for any injury it may have caused, prosecutors said in refusing to pursue the case. After reviewing police records and a videotape of the incident last year, …

WASHINGTON – The Senate Wednesday approved a $3.1 trillion election-year Democratic budget blueprint that leaves to the next president the task of sorting out a host of fiscal problems. The House-Senate compromise, adopted by a narrow 48-45 margin, would allow large near-term increases in defense and domestic programs funded by …