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GENEVA – A top Swiss official said Monday that voter approval of a ban on minarets next to mosques could be struck down in court, as critics at home and abroad swiftly condemned the vote, saying it undermined the country’s secular image. Legal experts have questioned whether the ban on …

Based on the rhetoric, America’s war on drugs seems poised to shift into a more enlightened phase where treatment of addicts gains favor over imprisonment of low-level offenders. Questions abound, however, about the nation’s readiness to turn the talk into reality. The economic case for expanding treatment, especially amid a …

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s embattled president has relinquished command of the country’s nuclear arsenal amid political wrangling that has posed a major distraction to the U.S.-allied government as it fights Taliban and other militants near the Afghan border. The move came as President Asif Ali Zardari faced the expiration on Saturday …

WASHINGTON – Government health officials say swine flu has sickened about 22 million Americans since April. They say about 4,000 have died, including 540 children. The startling new figures — about four times higher than previous death estimates — don’t mean swine flu has suddenly gotten worse. Instead, the Centers …

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Suspected swine flu is sweeping a traditional Eskimo whaling village on a remote Alaska island — prompting an urgent medical mission to deliver help. “Diomede is probably the most isolated place in the United States right now,” said David Head, a doctor involved in the effort. “We …

JARRATT, Va. – A former Army counterintelligence worker was executed by electric chair Tuesday for killing a Virginia couple, becoming the first U.S. inmate to die by electrocution in over a year. Larry Bill Elliott was pronounced dead at 9:08 p.m. at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. He was convicted …

The death rate from the pandemic H1N1 swine flu is likely lower than earlier estimates, an expert in infectious diseases said on Wednesday. New estimates suggest that the death rate compares to a moderate year of seasonal influenza, said Dr. Marc Lipsitch of Harvard University. “It’s mildest in kids. That’s …

KABUL – British commandos freed a New York Times reporter early Wednesday from Taliban captives who kidnapped him over the weekend in northern Afghanistan, but one of the commandos and a Times translator were killed in the rescue, officials said. Reporter Stephen Farrell was taken hostage along with his translator …

An unbelievable show this Friday night in Chicago. Together on one stage: Louis Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright and radical priest Michael Pfleger. They will all be receiving an award called “Living Legends,” and you can see it as a VIP if you have a hundred bucks. The spectacle is being driven …

Those racist cops were at it again. In New York, after the failed car bombing they were just randomly frisking people down with no rhyme or reason, patrolling for “different looking” people when — miraculously — they were able to apprehend the bomber, 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad, just before he left …