WASHINGTON -- The U.S. ambassador in Niger did not deny support for a U.S. Special Forces unit that lost four soldiers in a deadly ambush on the border between Mali and Niger on Oct. 4, the State Department said Friday.

The Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau reported Thursday that the ambassador had resisted U.S. military requests for ...Read more

MIAMI -- The U.S. State Department added two victims to the list of diplomats who have suffered mysterious attacks in Havana.

The number of Americans affected is now 24.

"Based on continued assessments of U.S. government personnel, we can confirm 24 persons have experienced health effects from the attacks," State Department spokeswoman Heather...Read more

ST. LOUIS--Nancy McGowan answered her phone and a man said he had her daughter and that he was not joking. But he didn't, and by the end of the scam she had wired him $4,800. It was what police call virtual kidnapping for ransom.

McGowan, of St. Louis County, is embarrassed but wants other people to beware and not get tricked as she was.

It ...Read more

SANTIAGO, Chile -- Pablo Neruda, winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature, did not die of prostate cancer and may have been killed with a toxic substance, a group of international experts said Friday.

The studies were conducted to clarify whether the Chilean poet died of natural causes, or whether he was poisoned by the military ...Read more

IRBIL, Iraq -- Fighting erupted Friday between the forces of Iraq's central government and Kurds in the disputed province of Kirkuk, as tensions escalated between Baghdad and the autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Thirty members of Kurdish peshmerga forces were killed in clashes with Shiite militias allied with Baghdad in the Kirkuk town of Altun ...Read more

LAS VEGAS -- Charleston Hartfield was a military man. A policeman. A family man.

And a prepared man.

So it didn't surprise those who knew him that he had instructions -- a computer file called "Charleston Hartfield's Memorial Service" -- that offered careful plans for what to do in the event of his death. Nobody should wear black. There should...Read more

Weapons, explosive devices and aerial photos of schools found during child porn raid in Florida

A child porn raid at a Florida home this week turned into something much more when authorities found loads of weapons and explosive devices -- as well as aerial photos of two schools and a threatening note.

Detectives seized 20 guns, more than 2,300...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Aides will answer phones by saying something like "18th Congressional District" rather than "Congressman Tim Murphy's office."

Other than that, constituents won't notice much change when they call their congressional office next week for help with things like help applying for veterans' benefits, guidance navigating federal ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- In the hours after President Donald Trump said on an Oct. 17 radio broadcast that he had contacted "virtually everybody" who had lost a family member in military service this year, the White House was hustling to learn from the Pentagon the identities and contact information for those families, according to an internal Defense ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- In the roughly three months since President Donald Trump chose John F. Kelly as his second chief of staff, observers have puzzled over the retired Marine general's occasional scowls and downcast gazes, wondering whether he and Trump, with such different styles and backgrounds, perhaps weren't working well together.

Kelly, the ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday she needs to keep her leadership position so there is a "top" woman at the table when decisions are made.

Pelosi made the comment on ABC's "The View" while recounting being interrupted by Cabinet officials during a recent White House dinner with President Donald Trump and Senate ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- When four Americans were killed in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, Republicans moved quickly to pin blame on then-President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Now that four American service members have died in Niger and the Trump administration's slow response has irked even leading Republicans, Democrats are pressing...Read more

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump is considering launching a bipartisan task force to investigate the rising cost of prescription drugs, sources with knowledge of the discussion say.

The announcement could come as early as next week, but the sources caution that discussions remain in the early stages and are still fluid. They say it could be...Read more