CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN AIR FORCE STATION, Colo. – Dr. Strangelove would have a heart attack: America’s vaunted underground war room deep inside this granite mountain is being retired. Not only that, but Russian military men have been inside the place. During the long nuclear standoff with Moscow, the nation’s super-secret nerve …

TOKYO/LOS ANGELES – With the year-end shopping season approaching, expectations are running high that Nintendo Co. Ltd. will repeat the success of its DS handheld machine next month with its new game console, the Wii. Nintendo has developed the Wii not to please hardcore gamers with lifelike graphics but to …

BOSTON – Boston and nine other cities will be trying out a new citizenship exam that tests applicants’ grasp of the American democracy. The current test is heavy on historical facts, and includes questions about the colors of the U.S. flag and the name of the form used to apply …

BEIJING – North Korea’s nuclear envoy sat down with top negotiators for the United States and China on Tuesday, an unannounced meeting aimed at reactivating stalled six-nation talks on persuading North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons. North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said before the talks with Assistant …

CHICAGO – Stop middle-schoolers from portraying a bunch of mobsters on stage? Fuggedaboutit! Italian-Americans upset over a suburban school play titled “Fuggedaboutit — A Little Mobster Comedy,” performed by “the Bada Bing Players,” lost their federal court bid Wednesday to halt this weekend’s production. The decision came a day after …

PATNA, India – They are India‘s new tax collectors. Dancing and singing to the beat of drums, about 20 eunuchs in bright saris began going from shop to shop, asking the owners to pay overdue municipal taxes in Patna, the capital of Bihar, one of India’s most impoverished and lawless …

LAGOS, Nigeria – Armed gunmen seized two expatriate oil workers — an American and a Briton — during a raid Thursday on a Norwegian oil services ship off Nigeria‘s southern coast, oil company officials said. The two were seized before dawn from a vessel belonging to Oslo, Norway-based Petroleum Geo-Services, …

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip – Israeli ground troops, tanks and armored vehicles advanced on two northern Gaza towns Wednesday in pursuit of Palestinian rocket squads, besieging a well-known Hamas lawmaker’s house and engaging militants in ferocious clashes, Palestinian officials said. A 22-year-old Palestinian was shot dead, security and medical officials …

BEIJING – Rising affluence has made about 60 million Chinese — equal to the population of France — obese, state media said on Monday. Xinhua News Agency quoted Pan Beilei, a deputy director with the government-affiliated State Food and Nutrition Consultant Committee, as saying that worsening diets had led to …

VATICAN CITY – A Roman Catholic priest faces excommunication for attending a ceremony to ordain a woman in the United States, a Vatican official said Friday. The Rev. Roy Bourgeois joined a June ceremony in Lexington, Kentucky, to ordain Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a member of a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. …