Latest Stories

• Chinese tourists arrive on direct flights to Taiwan

  TAIPEI, Taiwan — Hundreds of mainland Chinese tourists — some in matching white or pink shirts — arrived in Taiwan on Friday on the first regular commercial flights in nearly six decades between the old foes. »Read Story...
  

       

• Obama wavers on Iraq timeline

  FARGO, N.D. — Sen. Barack Obama raised the possibility of slowing a promised gradual 16-month withdrawal from Iraq if he is elected president, saying Thursday he would consult with military commanders on an upcoming trip to the region and "continue to refine" his proposals. »Read Story...
  

    

• Former hostage Betancourt takes center stage

  BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Íngrid Betancourt, whose plight in captivity came to embody Colombia's fratricidal social strife, Thursday embraced her grown children for the first time in more than six years and prepared for a trip to Paris and a state welcome in France. »Read Story...
  

    

• Fires take turn for the worse in Big Sur

  BIG SUR, Calif. — The fires bedeviling California took another ominous turn Thursday as a blaze near Goleta triggered additional evacuations and authorities shut another 10 miles of Highway 1 along the flaming Big Sur coast. »Read Story...
  

       

• YouTube ordered to release info on viewers

  A billion-dollar court clash between old- and new-media giants took on unexpected privacy ramifications this week when a federal judge ordered YouTube to hand over the log-on names and Internet addresses of every person who has viewed material on the Web's top video site encompassing tens of millions of people. »Read Story...