From Long Island to New Jersey to upstate New York, the past year has seen a miniboom in sophisticated new retreats opening in the resort communities surrounding New York City. While these escapes are packed during the summer high season, the arrival of autumn means lower prices, temperatures and crowd levels. Need to get out of Manhattan? Here are three of the hinterland's best beds. THE BEDFORD POST Fall brings an explosion of color to the dense forests ...

Alleged Nazi camp guard John Demjanjuk was formally charged Monday with being an accessory to about 27,900 murders during World War II. The Munich State Court ruled 10 days ago that the 89-year-old retired auto worker from Cleveland, Ohio, was fit to stand trial. Demjanjuk, a native Ukrainian, denies any role in the Holocaust. He says he was a prisoner of war during the conflict, not a camp guard. He was deported in May from the United States to Germany, ...

Even before the mystifying Kim Jong Il took power in 1993, the outside world has tried mightily to figure out how the North Korean regime works. Spy satellites are trained on suspected nuclear sites 24 hours a day. The U.S.'s "Big Ear" — the National Security Agency — eavesdrops on communications. Defectors from the North have been thoroughly scrubbed and spies have been recruited. During the presidency of George W. Bush, diplomats from the U.S. and four other ...

Does trans-national democracy work? Or is Europe about to see a wave of new Far Right politicians and mavericks marching from obscurity to national prominence thanks to an election most voters are neglecting? Between June 4 and June 7 it could happen. Since the first European Parliament election was held in 1979 the Parliament has grown significantly in power. But the more power it gets, the less interest voters seem to take in its proceedings. The latest "Euro barometer" poll ...

A shutdown of public venues in Mexico City is likely to be lifted by Wednesday, despite caution by U.N. health officials that a second wave of the swine flu virus could "strike with a vengeance." By early Monday, the number of cases worldwide stood at 985, with 26 deaths. Twenty-five deaths were reported in Mexico -- the epicenter of the outbreak with 590 cases. The United States has reported 226 cases in 30 states, including one death -- a Mexican ...

The World Health Organization cautioned that the swine flu outbreak could gain momentum in the months ahead, despite claims by the health secretary of Mexico -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- that the virus "is in its declining phase." The outbreak is only about 10 days old, and even if the illness is declining, it could return, said Gregory Hartl, the WHO spokesman for epidemic and pandemic diseases, at a briefing Sunday. "I ... would like to remind ...

The first concern for Fort Worth's parents is the health of their children. Four hundred miles from the Mexican border, the threat of swine flu — now known as H1N1 virus — has been serious enough to cause citywide school and daycare shutdowns. So far the number of suspected and diagnosed cases of H1NI in Fort Worth hovers in the teens, but with schools closed until at least May 11, parents must now battle a different disease: cabin fever. ...

Stephen Bosworth, the diplomat President Barack Obama appointed to the thankless task of trying to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear-weapons program, got quite a reception when he arrived on his first official visit to Seoul this week. The North Korean government in Pyongyang shut down the last military communication line between the two countries on the divided peninsula, temporarily halted all transit to and from a special industrial zone just north of the border and declared that ...