NEW YORK – The nation’s retailers ushered in the post-Christmas shopping season on Tuesday by slashing prices even more on holiday items and stocking up on fresh merchandise. With the 2006 pre-Christmas season falling short of sales expectations for many merchants, the retail industry hoped that shoppers, armed with gift …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms burst into Red Crescent offices on Sunday and kidnapped more than two dozen people at the humanitarian organization in the latest sign of the country’s growing lawlessness. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in Iraq on his sixth visit since the 2003 invasion, …

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A British man charged with killing his wife and baby must remain locked up without bail, a judge ruled Tuesday, denying Neil Entwistle‘s request to return to his parents’ home in England pending his trial in the double slaying. Entwistle, 28, is accused of shooting his wife, …

NEW YORK – Mike Wallace, the hard-driving reporter who has been with “60 Minutes” since its start in 1968, said Tuesday he will retire as a regular correspondent on the show this spring. A television news legend who was the last person an accused wrongdoer would want to see on …

STAMFORD, Conn. – A judge ordered attorneys for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, convicted in the 1975 murder of a teenage neighbor, to identify two men they say have been implicated in the killing. Skakel, now 45, is seeking a new trial based on a claim by Gitano “Tony” Bryant, a …

BOISE, Idaho – Each year, endangered white sturgeon lay millions of fertilized eggs on the silty bed of the Kootenai River in the Idaho Panhandle. Yet experts estimate only 10 of the sturgeon hatched from those eggs survive. The white sturgeon, the largest freshwater fish in North America, has not …

NEW YORK – AOL said it plans to launch on Wednesday one of the biggest free video services on the Internet, serving up vintage shows and short clips backed by online advertisements. The service, called In2TV, will launch with four advertisers — Intel Corp. (INTC), Kia Motors Corp., Kraft Foods …

WASHINGTON – President Bush calls Joshua Bolten, his new chief of staff, a “creative policy thinker.” In more informal circles, he’s known as a budget cruncher who cruises around on a motorcycle. After getting a two-week crash course from former White House chief of staff Andy Card, who is stepping …

WASHINGTON – In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans’ Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage. Bush didn’t ask a single …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq’s Shiite prime minister declared Tuesday he will not be blackmailed into abandoning his bid for a second term, and the Kurdish president bowed to Shiite pressure to delay calling parliament into session until a deadlock is resolved over who should lead a unity government. In Washington, …