HOUSTON – A Hurricane Katrina evacuee who police called one of the Houston area’s “most wanted killers,” has been arrested in Louisiana on charges of killing a fellow evacuee in a robbery, police said Monday. Ricardo Irvin, 18, told the Houston officers who picked him up from authorities in New …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – In a whirlwind trip that came as a surprise to all but about a half-dozen presidential aides, President Bush went to Iraq Tuesday for a face to face visit with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in which he pledged continuing U.S. support for the emerging democracy. In …

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Violence raged across southern Afghanistan, killing 29 suspected militants, two British soldiers and two Afghan troops, and the U.S.-led coalition pressed on with its largest military offensive here since 2001, officials said Tuesday. Resurgent Taliban militants and extremist allies are waging their fiercest campaign against Afghan and …

WASHINGTON – The subject was whether to modify helmets for soldiers in Iraq, but all eyes were on Cher. As photographers clicked away, the singer and actress entered a Capitol Hill hearing room through a back door 20 minutes after the session was scheduled to start. The hearing soon got …

BOSTON – A federal agency wants to set a speed limit for boats along stretches of the East Coast to help protect endangered whales from deadly collisions. Proposed regulations, to be filed Friday by the National Marine Fisheries Service, call for a speed limit of 10 knots, about 11.5 mph, …

DENVER – A Miami man apparently hanged himself in an airplane lavatory during a United Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, and the plane was diverted to Denver after his body was discovered, police said Thursday. The Denver medical examiner’s office identified the man as Gerald Georgettis, 56, …

Kelly Clarkson beat a Beatle. In the Best Pop Vocal Album category at the Grammy awards, the spunky season one winner of “American Idol” went up against rock icon Paul McCartney, known for crafting some of the greatest songs of all time … and won. If that doesn’t positively scream …

WASHINGTON – New Mexico’s two senators laid out a path Thursday toward creating what they hope will become the nation’s first mandatory program for trading greenhouse gases in the marketplace. The technical report by Sens. Pete Domenici, the GOP chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Jeff …

DALLAS – A man running for state representative acknowledged that he once worked as a prostitute but said he’s turned his life around and doesn’t regret his past. Tom Malin, who has also sold Mary Kay cosmetics and now markets electricity, conceded that his illicit past could cost him the …

NEW YORK – U.S. manufacturing growth slowed in January for a third straight month amid weaker employment, higher costs and fewer new orders, according to a survey published on Wednesday. The Institute for Supply Management said its index of national factory activity fell to 54.8 in January from an upwardly …