WASHINGTON – The United States on Monday warned Chadian rebels fighting government troops in the capital not to enter the U.S. embassy compound in N’Djamena that was abandoned over the weekend for security reasons. “The embassy compound, if it has been entered, should immediately be exited, and certainly they should …

WASHINGTON – Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, has been hospitalized in New York with the flu. Elbert Garcia, an aide to the 77-year-old Harlem Democrat, said Thursday that Rangel was admitted to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center on Tuesday night. Rangel’s most recent public …

MUNCIE, Ind. – William M. Bowen woke up after a night of drinking with friends and realized he was inside a commercial trash-collection truck full of waste. The driver had just emptied a commercial trash bin into his truck and was about to activate its compactor when he heard Bowen …

Younger ER patients with heart attack symptoms should be asked if they’ve recently used cocaine, which can cause similar chest pain, the American Heart Association warns doctors. For these patients, honesty can be a matter of life or death: Some heart attack treatments can be deadly to someone using cocaine. …

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A powerful undersea earthquake shook Papua New Guinea early Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate indications of whether it caused damage, injuries or a tsunami. The quake had an initial magnitude of 6.8 and struck at 12:20 a.m. in the New Britain region …

ALBANY, N.Y. – New York’s Republican Party county leaders recommended Monday that Jeanine Pirro abandon her struggling campaign to challenge Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and instead run for state attorney general. State GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik said no vote was taken but that was the consensus of the county leaders. …

NEW YORK – Transit union leaders, facing mounting fines, possible jail time and the wrath of millions of commuters, agreed Thursday to “take steps” to end a crippling strike even before a final contract was reached. The deal with the Transit Workers Union could pave the way for a resumption …

NEW YORK – U.S. mortgage applications slid to a more than 3-1/2-year low last week amid a sharp drop in refinancing demand even as interest rates held steady, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday. The MBA said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications for the week ended December …

AMBAE ISLAND, Vanuatu – An erupting volcano on this remote South Pacific island burst into spectacular life Thursday — shooting steam and toxic gases 9,845 feet into the sky. Huge columns of dense white steam and muddy ash spewed above Ambae Island to reach the greatest height seen since the …

TOKYO – Japan’s space agency will delay until 2010 the return of a star-crossed probe sent to collect samples from an asteroid because a thruster problem put the vehicle into an unexpected spin, an agency official said Wednesday. The Hayabusa probe, now hovering several miles off the surface of the …