Bleak. That's always been the rap against American novelist Richard Yates. Though he has been celebrated as a writer's writer and a consummate craftsman since his death in 1992, even his admirers found his work depressing. Fellow novelist Carolyn See explained it in 1981: "He's not going to get the recognition he truly deserves because to read Yates is as painful as getting all your teeth filed down to the gum with no anesthetic." Joyce Carol Oates agreed, writing in ...

"Old Europe" famously declined to join the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. But six years on, countries such as France and Germany are eager to get in on the cleanup process in Iraq — and the hundreds of billions of dollars in business that effort is expected to generate. The most recent European move to woo Iraq came this week when German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier made a surprise visit to Baghdad. In addition to discussing diplomatic issues, Steinmeier ...

Layoffs at big companies are so common now that it is novel when a day goes by without Microsoft , Caterpillar , or Macy's letting thousands of people go. There are a relatively small number of America's largest companies which will almost certainly not have significant layoffs. One of them might close an office in Turkey, another could replace telephone operators with an automated system, but each is in a unique position that makes it highly unlikely for ...

The U.N. nuclear agency said it found traces of uranium from samples retrieved at a Syrian site suspected to be the location of a nuclear site, according to a report posted Thursday on the Institute for Science and International Security Web site. The site was bombed by Israeli aircraft in September 2007, and the report said Syria says the missiles that destroyed the building at the site were the source of the uranium particles. The International Atomic Energy Agency's report ...

Celebrities tell you more about the countries that produce them than any guide book. Take the mouthy, pugnacious Londoner , Jade Goody, now 27 and famous in the U.K. simply for being famous. Her joyfully lowbrow chatter struck a chord with the British public in 2002 when she appeared on TV reality show Big Brother. Five years later when Goody graduated to Celebrity Big Brother, Britons were less comfortable to see themselves reflected in her instinctive hostility toward Bollywood actress ...

A jury in Moscow on Thursday acquitted three men charged with involvement on the murder of independent journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The not guilty verdicts followed a two month trial that was hampered from the start by the man accused of masterminding the shooting, Rustam Makhmudov. Sergei Khadzhikurbanov -- a former Moscow police officer -- and Makhmudov's brothers, Ibragim and Dzhabrail were found not guilty of shooting dead Politkovskaya, a Kremlin critic, outside her Moscow home in October, 2006. ...

A Manhattan jury awarded $2.33 million to a man who lost his leg after drunkenly stumbling onto the path of an oncoming subway train. Dustin Dibble, 25, landed in the subway tracks after a late night watching a hockey game at a bar with friends April 23, 2006. A downtown N train ran over him, severing his right leg. According to Dibble's lawyer, Andrew Smiley, NYC Transit rather than Dibble bore primary responsibility for the accident because the subway driver ...

A one-of-a-kind bicycle belonging to Lance Armstrong that was stolen Saturday, hours after the U.S. cycling legend rode it in a race, has been handed over to authorities, police said Wednesday. "A local resident came to the police headquarters and turned in a bicycle that he believed to be Lance Armstrong's," said Sgt. Norm Leong, a spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department. By checking the serial number, "we were able to confirm that the bike was, in fact, Lance ...

Seven hours of surgery and four teams of surgeons were needed to stabilize a Connecticut woman attacked by a pet chimpanzee, doctors at Stamford Hospital said Wednesday. Dr. Kevin Miller said Charla Nash, 55, remains in critical but stable condition after her friend's pet chimp, once featured in TV commercials for Coca-Cola and Old Navy, attacked her Monday. Nash, 55, had just arrived at the home of her friend, Sandra Herold, 70, when the chimp, named Travis, jumped on her ...

Kansas leaders Wednesday ended a standoff that had delayed tax refunds and state paychecks by agreeing to borrow $225 million from various state accounts, a spokeswoman for the governor's office said. Republican lawmakers approved moving money into the state's main account to pay the bills after budget cuts agreed to by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, spokeswoman Brittany Stiffler said. The state resumed processing income tax refunds on Wednesday -- they had been suspended last week because of low funds -- ...