WASHINGTON – After being pummeled by senators over high oil and gasoline prices at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, the top executives of the nation’s five largest oil companies were summoned before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. In prepared testimony, the oil executives reiterated much of what they had …

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Hezbollah’s deputy leader said Thursday that the militant group will return things to normal in Lebanon after the government reversed key decisions that triggered days of bloody conflict. The comments by Sheik Naim Kassem came after a meeting between Hezbollah representatives and a high-powered Arab delegation that …

ANKARA, Turkey – The Turkish gunman who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II has applied for Polish citizenship and wants to live in the late pontiff’s country of birth when released from prison, his lawyer said Friday. Mehmet Ali Agca also wants to be transferred to a prison in …

Set the controls for the heart of the Sun, as Pink Floyd once sang. That’s exactly what engineers at Johns Hopkins University and NASA may be doing in 2015, if all goes well with the just-announced NASA Solar Probe. The spaceship, unmanned of course, will get to within 4.1 million …

RANGOON, Burma – A top U.N envoy traveled to Burma on Sunday to plead with the junta to accept more international aid for its cyclone survivors, amid mounting fears of starvation deaths, especially among children. John Holmes, undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, was received at the airport Sunday by Deputy Foreign …

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is recommending changes in the handling of troops’ remains, after it was revealed that a crematorium contracted by the military handles both human and animal cremations. A military official said there have been no instances or charges that human and pet remains were mixed. But officials …

NEW YORK – A woman and a man holding her baby while walking on the side of a New York highway have been run over by a driver who didn’t bother to stop. The baby flew out of the man’s hands but wasn’t struck by the car and suffered only …

TOKYO – A money-losing Japanese train company has found the purr-fect mascot to draw crowds and bring back business — tabby Tama. All the 9-year-old female cat has to do is sit by the entrance of western Japan’s Kishi Station, wearing a black uniform cap and posing for photos for …

RABAT, Morocco – Moroccan police have arrested one of nine convicts who escaped from prison in April and were linked to deadly 2003 terror attacks, the official MAP news agency reported Thursday. Police arrested Mohamed Chetbi and two men who helped him to hide out, the agency said. It did …

WASHINGTON – The head of the Federal Communications Commission said Friday he wants to regulate fees charged to cell phone users who cancel their wireless contracts early. At a news conference, FCC chief Kevin Martin would not say whether he endorses an industry plan to help consumers avoid “early termination …