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France keeps fracking ban

PARIS – France’s constitutional council upheld a ban on the energy extraction process known as fracking on Friday, two days after the European Parliament voted to require full environmental ...

Rights group accuses Syrian rebels of war crimes

BEIRUT – Syrian villagers described watching rebels advance on their homes, as mortars thudded around them. By the end of the August attack, 190 civilians had been killed, including children...

Nation/World Briefs

FISA court approves NSA phone program WASHINGTON – The secret U.S. court that governs surveillance of terrorist and foreign espionage targets is authorizing the National Security ...

North Dakota waits 11 days to tell public about oil spill

BISMARCK, N.D. – When a pipeline rupture sent more than 20,000 barrels of crude spewing across a North Dakota wheat field, it took nearly two weeks for officials to tell the public about it...

Libya PM says his abduction was attempted ‘coup’

TRIPOLI, Libya – Libya’s Western-backed prime minister on Friday said his brief abduction by gunmen this week was an attempted coup by his Islamist political rivals, using militias which he ...

Details lacking on Obamacare’s reception

ST. PAUL, Minn. – After more than a week in action, is a key feature of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul a success or a bust? Judging by the dearth of data, it’s virtually impo...

Nobel committee honors group working in Syria

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Efforts to eliminate chemical weapons won a Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for the global watchdog trying to destroy Syria’s stockpiles of nerve gas and other poisonous...

Air Force removes ICBM general

WASHINGTON – The Air Force said Friday it fired the two-star general in charge of its nuclear missiles in response to an investigation into alleged personal misbehavior. It was the second sa...

Talks continue to end crisis

WASHINGTON – Efforts accelerated in Congress on Friday to keep the U.S. Treasury from defaulting as early as next week and to end the partial government shutdown that stretched through an 11...

Mercury 7 astronaut Carpenter dies at 88

DENVER – Astronaut Scott Carpenter, the second American to orbit the Earth and first person to explore both the heights of space and depths of the ocean, died Thursday after a stroke. He was...

28 years in prison for corrupt ex-Detroit mayor

DETROIT – Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced Thursday to 28 years in prison for corruption, after a series of scandals destroyed his political career and helped steer a cris...

Boehner offers debt extension; White House says likely OK

WASHINGTON – Facing a fresh deadline, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that Republicans would vote to extend the government’s ability to borrow money for six weeks – but only if Pres...