NEW YORK - Americans across the country mixed patriotism and plain old good fun to mark Independence Day on Friday, with solemn ceremony alternating with parades and hot-dog-eating hijinks.
On the 232nd anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Boy Scouts in Hartford, Conn., rang a replica of the Liberty Bell, while organizers of the annual New York fireworks display promised the rockets' red glare would be better than ever.
Near Kissimmee, Fla., a wounded bald eagle, the... Read more
RALEIGH, N.C. _ Former U.S. Sen. Jesse A. Helms, the son of a Monroe, N.C., police chief who rose to national prominence as one of the leading lions of the American right, died early Friday morning. He was 86.
By Ellen Nakashima
A federal judge in New York this week ordered the video-sharing site YouTube, the world's third-most-visited Web site, to release data on the viewing habits of its... Read more
PARIS (Reuters) - French-Colombian politician Ingrid
Betancourt was given a hero's welcome on Friday in France,
where President Nicolas Sarkozy had made her release a foreign
policy priority... Read more
WASHINGTON - Investigators are seeing more signs that the salmonella outbreak blamed on tomatoes might have been caused by tainted jalapeno peppers and have begun collecting samples from... Read more
By ADAM GOLDMAN
NEW YORK - Joey Chestnut has reclaimed the top spot as winner of the annual hot dog eating contest in Coney Island after first tying with archrival Takeru Kobayashi in... Read more
LANSING, Mich. - Arlan Ettinger will never forget the response he got when he took one of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks' hats to a meeting at the Apollo Theater in New York. "It was a fairly... Read more
By The Wall Street Journal
A backlash is brewing against Starbucks over its Pike Place Roast coffee,
which has perked up the company's sales by attracting new business, but... Read more
By JOHN ROGERS
LOS ANGELES - Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of... Read more
By Deb Kollars and Kevin Yamamura, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
Jul. 4--Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered more National Guard troops into action Friday while thousands of firefighters and other personnel continued their battles to tame...
DETROIT _ NASCAR reaches the halfway mark of the 36-race Sprint Cup schedule Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway and one thing is certain:Any driver who wants to be champion this... Read more
BY KENT BABB, THE KANSAS CITY STAR; KANSAS CITY, MO
OMAHA, Neb. _ Dara Torres latched onto the lane barrier and squinted at the scoreboard.Sure enough, Torres, a 41-year-old former gold medalist, did it again _ advanced in this young woman's game... Read more
LONDON (Reuters) - Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal cleared
the last treacherous hurdles on Friday to set up a dream final
at Wimbledon for the third year running.Five-times champion... Read more
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... Read more
Jul. 4--EUGENE, Ore. -- No one in track and field has been more of a sure thing over the past four years than Jeremy Wariner. But the defending Olympic and world champion was dealt an... Read more
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil dropped below $144 a barrel on
Friday, but was still within sight of record highs reached in
the previous session when traders bought into the market ahead
of a holiday... Read more
BAQOUBA, Iraq - It's Staff Sgt. Edgar Covarrubias' second Fourth of July in Iraq. No family barbecue, no fireworks, but Covarrubias says he'll call his mom, wife and kids to share the day anyway.... Read more
SAPPORO, Japan - Between surging oil prices, food inflation and a credit crunch that's depressed global growth, leaders from the Group of Eight economic powers face the gravest combination of... Read more
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland spurned as insufficient on Friday
a U.S. offer to boost its air defenses in return for basing
anti-missile interceptors on its soil but said it remained open
to... Read more
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Day in Photos
In this June 17, 1999 photo, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Jesse Helms,...
