TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Gov. Mitch Daniels (search) signed legislation Tuesday requiring many stores to keep cold medicines in a locked case or behind a counter if they contain ingredients used to make methamphetamine. The new law, approved unanimously by the General Assembly last month, places restrictions on the sale …

WASHINGTON – Sen. Arlen Specter (search), newly bald from chemotherapy treatments for Hodgkin’s disease (search), held himself up on Wednesday as Exhibit A for the possible benefits of embryonic stem cell research (search). A day after the House voted to overturn President Bush’s prohibition on federal funding for research using …

CHICAGO – Authorities painted over a yellow and white stain on a concrete wall of an expressway underpass that some believed was an image of the Virgin Mary after it was defaced, police said Friday. Authorities charged Victor Gonzalez (search), 37, of Chicago Friday morning with criminal damage to state …

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Floods that swept eastern Ethiopia (search) have killed 134 people, a senior government official said Monday, describing the floods as the worst to have hit eastern Ethiopia for 40 years. The number of people affected has also risen to more than 218,000, up from 105,000 people …

NEW YORK – Online casino Golden Palace has spilled $5,001 for Britney Spears’ (search) alleged home pregnancy test. “It’s hard to put a price on Britney Spears’ urine,” Golden Palace (search) spokesman Drew Black told The Associated Press Wednesday. Golden Palace says it purchased the test from Ottawa radio station …

PORTLAND, Ore. – A handful of times in the last few years, the members of the Oregon commission charged with determining who will get a license to teach in the state’s public schools have found themselves faced with an application from a former prostitute. But under state law, commissioners have …

When is it OK for one man to hug another? That’s the number one topic among e-mailers on Wednesday show. Can you believe it? On a day where Zarqawi (search) may be wounded, the Republicans are suddenly divided and Winky Wright tries to knock me out, our viewers want to …

VIENNA, Austria – Iran (search) is circumventing international export bans on sensitive dual-use materials by smuggling graphite and a graphite compound that can be used to make conventional and nuclear weapons, an Iranian dissident and a senior diplomat said Friday. Graphite has many peaceful uses, including steel manufacture, but also …

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Anti-Syrian leader Michel Aoun (search) returned Saturday from 14 years’ exile in France to crowds of cheering supporters, his return paved by the withdrawal of Syrian troops and the dropping of an arrest warrant against him. The one-time army commander and interim Lebanese prime minister strode onto …

A father’s longevity may influence his adult children’s blood pressure, say French researchers. However, maternal longevity doesn’t show the same pattern, say experts from INSERM, France’s national health and medical research agency. “These results indicate that there are dynamic and continuous processes linking paternal longevity to BP in adults,” say …