When Yahoo! switched off the servers for GeoCities, the Web posting service, on Oct. 27, some 7 million of the Internet's first websites went dark forever. The bulk of these were people's personal home pages, which were pulled offline with no backup and no permanent record of those users' frenetic early forays online. Now a ragtag effort by several groups of budding computer historians is feverishly — and angrily — trying to bring as much as they ...

Former champions France have been handed a tough task against Ireland in the European playoffs to qualify for next year's World Cup finals in South Africa. France, who won the World Cup on home soil in 1998, finished a distant second to Serbia after a lackluster campaign in Group 7, while the Irish pushed Italy hard in their group. France coach Raymond Domenech is under pressure going into the two-legged affair on November 14 and 18, but told the official ...

On a recent Sunday afternoon, Joy Santiago, a real estate agent, stood atop the front steps of a vacant eight-bedroom Colonial-style mansion, bullhorn in hand. "All right, 10 minutes," she declared, ushering in the 50 or so people on the Lonely Homes Tour, an aggressive effort to sell foreclosed properties in Indian Village, one of Detroit's last solidly middle-class neighborhoods. Even with an abundance of home bargains — the redbrick, 97-year-old Colonial's asking price was $29,000 ...

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo has been ruled out of Portugal's crucial final World Cup qualifier against Malta on Wednesday with an ankle injury. Ronaldo played with the injury in Portugal's 3-0 home victory over Hungary on Saturday but lasted just 27 minutes before limping off. Portugal, who have made a late charge in World Cup qualifying after looking set to make an ignominious exit, need to beat Malta in the home game to be sure of a place in ...

A small, rural town in the hills of New Hampshire was jolted by a home invasion over the weekend that left a mother dead and her young daughter severely injured.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are heading for a Davis Cup showdown next year after Wednesday's draw paired their two countries in the first round. Swiss maestro Federer, who took over as world number one from Nadal during the Spaniard's injury layoff this summer, helped his country to a narrow win 3-2 win over Italy to qualify among the elite 16 counties who contest the World Group. Nadal, who has a stomach strain, sat out Spain's semifinal win over Israel ...

A body that may be that of a Briton taken hostage in Iraq two years ago has been handed over to Iraqi authorities, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced Wednesday. The disclosures reported by the country's official news agency were highly unusual. The agency, SPA, reported the attacker, Abdullah Hassan Talea' Asiri, a wanted Saudi militant who had been hiding in Yemen, got in touch with Saudi authorities telling them he wanted to turn himself in to Saudi Prince Mohammed ...

Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry has identified the suicide bomber who attempted to assassinate the country's assistant interior minister last Thursday and released details of a phone conversation between the two men prior to the attack. The disclosures reported by the country's official news agency were highly unusual. The agency, SPA, reported the attacker, Abdullah Hassan Talea' Asiri, a wanted Saudi militant who had been hiding in Yemen, got in touch with Saudi authorities telling them he wanted to turn himself ...

Phillip Garrido was registered as a sex offender, required to meet with parole officers and fitted with an ankle bracelet to track his movements -- but nothing prevented him from being around children, according to a victim's advocacy group. Garrido, who is charged with kidnapping and raping Jaycee Lee Dugard -- a young woman police say lived with her two daughters in a huddle of tents and outbuildings hidden behind Garrido's home - was arrested last week along with his ...

A former "Manson family" member who stabbed actress Sharon Tate to death more than 40 years ago and is now terminally ill faces her 13th parole hearing on Wednesday. Susan Atkins, 61, has terminal brain cancer. As of earlier this year, she was paralyzed over 85 percent of her body and could not sit up in bed or be moved into a wheelchair, according to a Web site maintained by her husband and attorney, James Whitehouse. However, despite her declining ...