BAGHDAD, Iraq – Gunmen seized two Algerian diplomats Thursday — including the country’s top envoy to Iraq — in the latest attacks aimed at scaring away Muslim diplomats and undermining the U.S.-backed Iraqi government. The abductions brought to five the number of key diplomats from Islamic countries targeted in Baghdad …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Eight members of a Shiite (search) family, including a 2-year-old, were shot to death in their sleep early Sunday, police said. The father suspected it was a sectarian crime. Residents of the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Baladiyat (search) discovered the bodies early Sunday, said Col. Ahmed al-Alawi, …

WASHINGTON – Hurricane Katrina (search) showed the need for government and private health care providers to keep track of elderly and disabled residents and have detailed evacuation plans for them in place, advocates told senators on Wednesday. “Of all the tragedies in this Katrina episode, I think the most disgraceful …

WASHINGTON – Does the Web need an industrial-strength news search engine? Neal Goldman of Inform Technologies thinks it does and rolled one out Monday morning. Although he concedes Inform.com (search) still needs usability and development work, Goldman said the goal is to help visitors create their own newspaper with stories …

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A faulty ceiling fan sparked a fire that killed 73 greyhound racing dogs (search) at a private kennel, the state fire marshal’s office said Tuesday. Losses from Sunday’s blaze at ZEZ Kennels were estimated at $1 million, said Kim O’Brien, a secretary for the office’s arson and …

AUSTIN, Texas – Willie Nelson (search) opened up his central Texas ranch and private golf course Sunday, raising an estimated $170,000 for his friend Kinky Friedman (search), an independent candidate for Texas governor. Friedman, an author and entertainer, will need up to $5 million just to get his name on …

There are robberies gone wrong and then there are those that go so horribly wrong you end up feeling sorry for the criminal. After holding up a man in a parking lot on Sunday, a robber was hit five times by two vehicles, first by what cops think was the …

CHICAGO – Average fixed mortgage rates continue to hover at their highest levels in more than year, with the 30-year this week hitting 6.15%, Freddie Mac’s (FRE) latest survey showed Thursday. The 30-year rate has increased for seven weeks without pause, in step with gains in U.S. Treasury yields as …

RENO, Nev. – A woman was booted off a Southwest Airlines (search) flight for wearing a T-shirt that bore an expletive and images of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Lorrie Heasley (search) of Woodland, Wash., said she plans to press a civil-rights complaint …

WASHINGTON – Army National Guard (search) units are short of equipment at home partly because they have been told to leave such vital items as armored Humvees in Iraq for replacement troops, congressional investigators say. As of June, Army National Guard units had left overseas more than 64,000 pieces of …