WARSAW, Poland – A state institute has opened an investigation into whether communist-era security services in Poland and other former East bloc nations had a role in the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II, a spokesman said Tuesday. John Paul was shot and seriously wounded on May 13, …

NEW YORK – Two construction workers were rescued after they were trapped in wet cement for about 90 minutes on Tuesday, authorities said. The workers, who apparently had been pouring the cement at the site, were taken to the trauma unit at Lutheran Medical Center, where they were listed in …

NEW YORK – The jeweler known for putting diamonds on celebrities from Kanye West to Sir Elton John was arrested Thursday on money-laundering charges. Police said Yakov Arabov, known throughout the hip-hop world as Jacob Arabo or “Jacob the Jeweler,” was connected to a multistate drug and money-laundering ring. Arabov, …

WASHINGTON – New York City and Washington — the two cities hit hardest by the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks — are still not completely ready to respond to another major disaster, according to a Homeland Security Department report issued Friday. The security analysis also found that 10 months after …

Prologue | Translation | Analysis Prologue: Did Saddam Hussein’s inner circle and the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan actively court each other in hopes of forging an anti-American alliance in the region? Ray Robison, a former member of the CIA-directed Iraq Survey Group (ISG), examined efforts by Saddam Hussein to build …

NEW YORK – Many people think that creating a will or trust is unnecessary because their surviving spouse will automatically inherit everything. But this is true in only some states, and only if the assets were acquired during the marriage and were not gifts to or inheritances of one spouse. …

NASSAU, Bahamas – Bahamian authorities will decide whether to deport seven Cuban migrants the U.S. Coast Guard rescued from a remote island in the Caribbean country, officials said Friday. The migrants were still aboard a U.S. Coast Guard cutter Friday afternoon, but because they were rescued from Elbow Cay it …

NEW ORLEANS – Merck & Co. (MRK) included the idea that its painkiller Vioxx might increase the risk of heart attacks in the first draft of a paper submitted to a top medical journal but dropped it because a reviewer found the section “awkward,” a company executive testified. Alise Reicin, …

WASHINGTON – The following is a translated transcript of a Democratic response to President Bush’s State of the Union address given by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who spoke in Spanish. LOS ANGELES MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA: Good evening. My name is Antonio Villaraigosa. I’m Mayor of the City of Los …

JOLO, Philippines – A powerful explosion in a karaoke bar near a Philippine army camp killed one person and wounded about 20 Saturday on southern Jolo island, where American troops are staying for joint war exercises. A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Mark Zimmer, said there were no American casualties …