Mexican federal police say they arrested 34 men suspected of belonging to a ruthless drug cartel blamed for a rash of violence that left at least 18 federal agents and two soldiers dead since July 11. Officials said the suspects belong to La Familia Michoacana drug gang, which drew national attention when it was accused of torturing and killing 12 off-duty federal agents three weeks ago. The bodies of the 11 men and one woman were found dumped on a ...

Among some hikers in the San Francisco Bay Area, the quad-straining trail to the summit of 4,344-ft. Mount St. Helena near Calistoga, Calif., is known as "the stairway to heaven" for its panoramic views of the Napa and Sonoma valleys. These views, however, soon may be off-limits to visitors — the latest victim of the Golden State's staggering budget crisis. The trail sits within Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, one of up to 100 state parks in California that might be closed by Labor Day ...

The British government will push for a computer hacker who broke into Pentagon and NASA computers to serve his jail time in the United Kingdom if a United States court sentences him to jail, a top politician said Sunday. "We'll seek for him to serve any prison sentence, if he is sentenced to prison, back in this country," said Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of Britain's governing Labour Party. Hacker Gary McKinnon, a British citizen, has admitted breaking the law ...

Coy has been U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's middle name ever since she floated the notion that she might challenge fellow Republican Governor Rick Perry in the Texas gubernatorial race. She made hints about the 2006 race but backed off, then did the same for the one coming in 2010. On Wednesday, July 29, after months of will she/won't she, Hutchison went on a Texas talk-radio show and stated in a formal announcement that she would launch her ...

Dr. Conrad Murray was suffering financially with nearly $435,000 in judgments and liens against him over the past two years, according to court documents. Then he decided to leave his practice and work for Michael Jackson, getting paid $150,000 a month. Before working with the King of Pop, Murray spent most of his time operating clinics in both Nevada and Texas after graduating from Meharry Medical College, a historically black school in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1989. He spent his internship ...

Divorce causes more than bitterness and broken hearts. The trauma of a split can leave long-lasting effects on mental and physical health that remarriage might not repair, according to research released this week. "People who lose a marriage take such damage to their health," said Linda Waite, a sociologist at the University of Chicago in Illinois. Waite and co-author Mary Elizabeth Hughes, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, found that divorced or widowed people have 20 percent more ...

For Morris Murenzi, a visit to his native Rwanda always includes attending a gacaca court -- a local tribunal of villagers set up to try suspects in a 1994 genocide that killed 800,000. At the proceedings, he sits with his countrymen. Some tearfully confront their attackers and testify against them, their scars from the genocide still visible. Others -- like him -- quietly listen, their emotional scars invisible. They wait and hope for answers about how their relatives died as ...

Days after the U.S. government announced upcoming trials for an H1N1 flu vaccine, Saint Louis University has been inundated with phone calls and e-mails from people volunteering for the study. The university's Center for Vaccine Development has received more than 500 responses from potential volunteers since Wednesday, when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced human trials for a swine flu vaccine would begin in early August. "This response has been exceptionally strong," Nancy Solomon, a spokeswoman for the university's ...

It takes seven minutes to execute a death row inmate, according to the state of Texas. At that rate, Mike Graczyk has spent about 40 hours of his life watching men -- and a few women -- die. Graczyk, a correspondent for The Associated Press, is believed to hold a macabre record. He's almost certainly watched more executions than anyone else in the United States. "I can't possibly imagine there's been someone present at more than Mike," said Michelle Lyons, ...

Morris Chang is living proof of Taiwan's ability to transform its economy. In 1985, the China-born Chang, once a long-serving executive at Texas Instruments in the U.S., was lured to Taiwan by the government as part of its effort to develop a high-tech industry. He was hired to manage a state-funded research institute, but shortly after his arrival, an influential technocrat, Li Kuo-ting, called Chang to his office and told him: "Think about how you want to start a ...