WASHINGTON – Former Minnesota Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy, whose insurgent campaign toppled a sitting president in 1968 and forced the Democratic Party to take seriously his message against the Vietnam War, died Saturday. He was 89. McCarthy died in his sleep at assisted living home in the Georgetown neighborhood where …

AUSTIN – District Attorney Ronnie Earle on Monday asked a judge to halt Rep. Tom DeLay’s trial while prosecutors appeal one of three criminal charges that was dismissed against the former House majority leader. If senior Judge Pat Priest agrees, an appeal and delayed trial will further hinder DeLay’s hopes …

AMES, Iowa – Joe Hynek may get some guff for carrying a purse, but he says it’s all in the name of science: He has designed a solar handbag that can power small electronic devices like cell phones. Hynek, 27, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, …

CRAWFORD, Texas – President Bush plans to begin 2006 by visiting wounded troops at an Army medical center in Texas on New Year’s Day. Bush will stop at Brooke Army Medical Center on Sunday on his way back to Washington from a weeklong stay at his Texas ranch, said White …

WASHINGTON – Former U.S. Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham has sold his mansion to a publishing heir for $2.6 million, slightly more than he paid for it two years ago. Cunningham, who resigned from Congress after pleading guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors and others in exchange …

SEATTLE – Microsoft Corp. and MCI Inc. said Monday they’ll soon offer a service that lets customers place calls from their personal computers to regular phones. But the service will permit only outbound calls at first, even as rivals Yahoo Inc. and America Online Inc. allow instant messaging users to …

LONDON – Britain’s Hilton Group Plc. on Thursday agreed to sell its hotels to its U.S. namesake Hilton Hotels Corp for 3.3 billion pounds ($5.7 billion) in an expected deal leaving the UK group with its gambling business Ladbrokes. In mid-October, the UK Hilton (HG.L) first announced it had received …

TAMPA, Fla. – Ten years ago, American student Alisa Flatow boarded a bus headed to a Gaza Strip (search) beach resort for a much-needed break from her studies. At the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom (search), a young man sat in a van loaded with explosives. As the bus approached, …

CHICAGO – Nearly 50 years after 14-year-old Emmett Till’s (search) murder shocked a nation and galvanized the civil rights movement, his body will be exhumed as federal authorities attempt to determine who killed him, the FBI said Wednesday. Till’s body, buried in a cemetery in the Chicago suburb of Alsip, …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – An important Sunni cleric urged Iraq’s new president Friday to buck U.S. pressure and free thousands of suspected rebels, a sign the religious group most often associated with the Iraqi insurgency might be willing to work with the new government. But there was no letup in violence, …