NEW YORK – Did Simon and Rose tie the knot? Was Rose pregnant? Did “7th Heaven” really sing its swan song Monday night? Stop reading if you don’t want to know. Now for the answers. No (though the upshot of the wedding wasn’t divulged until the show’s closing moments). No …

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – Mount Merapi shot a large cloud of searing hot ash and gas into the sky Wednesday, ending two days of relative calm and underscoring the dangers still facing thousands of people living on the volcano’s slopes. Witnesses said the eruption appeared to be smaller than the …

LONDON – The world’s biggest passenger airliner landed for the first time at Europe’s busiest airport Thursday, for tests to see if London Heathrow is ready for the Airbus A380. “It is clearly quite a momentous day in U.K. aviation history,” BAA Heathrow managing director Tony Douglas said just before …

BOSTON – The Sevens, a beer-and-wine tavern with an oak bar worn smooth by decades of drinkers, has two amenities that set it apart: a real cork dart board, and arguably one of the best jukeboxes east of the Mississippi River. From early Bruce Springsteen and Patsy Cline to rare …

MACON, Miss. – Ike Brown is a legend in Mississippi politics, a fast-talking operative both loved and hated for his ability to turn out black voters and get his candidates into office. That success has also landed him at the heart of a federal lawsuit that’s about to turn the …

LONDON – The World Food Program is so strapped for cash it has halved food rations for refugees in Sudan’s wartorn Darfur region. Another U.N. agency has been forced to cut out measles vaccinations for children there. Aid workers’ pleas for money have gone unanswered, but some say they hope …

CANON CITY, Colo. – The search for a missing 8-year-old boy with attention deficit disorder entered the fourth day Tuesday, and aircraft were expected to assist ground crews. Evan Thompson disappeared while on a family camping trip Saturday morning outside Canon City, about 90 miles south of Denver. The area …

Your tax dollars at work: Congress is drafting legislation to keep federal officials investigating criminal cases from searching their offices. Wait a minute: that sure sounds like special privileges for some. Yes, the Constitution prohibits members of Congress from being questioned “…for any Speech or Debate in either House.” According …

STAFFORD TOWNSHIP, N.J. – New Jersey officials say they’ve found the bodies of two men and two women strapped in their seats in a small plane that crashed about 40 miles north of Atlantic City. Witnesses and authorities say the plane broke apart in flight before plowing into woods. It …

NEW ORLEANS – The city’s levee system was routinely underfunded and therefore inadequate to protect against hurricanes, according to an independent report released Monday. The report also called for an overhaul of the agencies that oversee flood protection. “You tend to get what you pay for,” Dave Rogers, a member …