A Bush-era plan to use National Security Agency help in screening government computer traffic on private-sector networks is proceeding, according to current and former government officials.

Federal judge tentatively acquitted a Missouri mother for her role in a MySpace hoax directed at a 13-year-old neighbor girl who later killed herself.

Out-of-work with no place to land, the legions of America's unemployed are growing. The nation's unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent in June, a 26-year high.

The Obama administration said Thursday that it needs two more months to review an internal CIA report on the agency's secret detention and interrogation program before making it public.

Nancy-Ann DeParle, President Barack Obama’s health policy czar, served as a director of corporations that faced scores of federal investigations, whistleblower lawsuits and other regulatory actions, according to government records reviewed by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University.

Cash-strapped California is scheduled to start sending out IOUs Thursday to private contractors, state vendors, people getting tax refunds and local governments for social services.

A teen thought she heard her mother being assaulted by her boyfriend and rounded up friends who beat him up, only to learn later that the couple were actually having sex,  police said.

The government will not dismantle overseas locations where a former Guantanamo detainee claims he was interrogated by the CIA, a prosecutor says.

A federal judge in California who made sexually explicit material available on his own Web site has been cleared with an admonishment by fellow judges.

The police chief of an Ohio town has retired after a video became public showing him and a female officer kissing and caressing in the front of a police cruiser while a prisoner was in the back seat.

Tennessee prosecutors have dropped charges against a Georgia man accused of kidnapping and raping a woman in a Smoky Mountain cabin before a pizza deliveryman called police.

The nation's police departments are clamoring for an unprecedented amount of federal aid to forestall big local tax hikes or the possible layoff of nearly 40,000 police officers.

The U.S. Marshals Service on Thursday took possession of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff's $7 million Manhattan penthouse, an action that forced his wife to move elsewhere.

A couple were arrested after a state inspector found several children locked in a tool shed behind an unlicensed daycare center.

Due to the troubled economy, operators of fireworks stands are betting that Americans will buy fireworks and hold "backyard" Fourth of July celebrations at their homes this year.

As Al Franken heads to D.C., other members will want to meet him and anxious staffers will ask for photos. But for lobbyists, there are few things more valuable than pushing a crisp business card into the palm of a new member with a blank slate.

It seems like just yesterday — excess was in and celebrities lived it up, buying lavish cars, expensive toys and over-the-top homes. Now, they're losing it like everyone else.

A computer problem temporarily disrupted United Airlines flights at O'Hare International Airport on Thursday, causing long delays and lines for travelers headed out for the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

A top diplomat says he is heading to Honduras to demand the return of the toppled president. He says if the demand is rejected, sanctions  will likely be imposed on the impoverished  nation.

Insurgents have captured an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan after he walked off post with three Afghan counterparts, officials said Thursday.

U.S. Marines suffered their first casualties of a massive new campaign Thursday as they engaged in sporadic gunbattles along 55 miles of Taliban-controlled heartland in southern Afghanistan.

The coup that deposed the president of Honduras exposed the small leverage that even millions of dollars in aid and longtime military cooperation will buy.

Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Iraq to visit U.S. troops and meet with Iraqi leaders, including President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The institute obtained the FBI summaries through a Freedom of Information Act request and posted them on its Web site Wednesday.

The Obama administration authorizes the seizure of assets of an extremist organization in Iraq and an Iranian backer of insurgents, saying both are responsible for deadly Iraqi attacks.

Iran announces more arrests in the post-election turmoil, detaining seven alleged provocateurs of violence it says were linked to Iranian exiles.

The government will not dismantle overseas locations where a former Guantanamo detainee claims he was interrogated by the CIA, a prosecutor says.

A heat wave in Britain and other parts of Europe killed two British police dogs left in a cruiser, police say.

Air France Flight 447 slammed into the Atlantic Ocean, intact and belly first, at such a high speed that the 228 people aboard probably had no time to even inflate life jackets, investigators said.

North Korea test-fires four short-range missiles, South Korea's Defense Ministry says, a move that aggravates already high tensions following Pyongyang's recent nuclear test.

A court ruled Thursday to decriminalize homosexuality in the Indian capital, a groundbreaking decision that could bring more freedom to gays in this deeply conservative country.

Two years after scientists concluded that a breed of wild sheep in Scotland was shrinking over time, a new study reveals why: milder winters tied to global warming.

Several PC makers were including controversial Internet-filtering software with computers shipped in China on Thursday despite a government decision to postpone its plan to make such a step mandatory.