SAN FRANCISCO – Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trade in Wednesday’s session are Hewlett-Packard Co., Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and Applied Materials Inc. BEA Systems (BEAS) is expected to report first-quarter earnings of 10 cents a share, according to analysts polled by Thomson First Call. …

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Air Force Col. Pamela Ann Melroy will become the second woman to command a space shuttle mission when her crew heads to the international space station next year, NASA announced. Melroy, 44, follows in the footsteps of Eileen Collins, who charted a groundbreaking career as the …

PLYMOUTH, Ind. – The beer ad attracted attention — but not in the way Pabst Blue Ribbon had intended. A bartender called police because he thought a blinking red light was a bomb, resulting in the evacuation of 35 people from a resort hotel. Guests were allowed back in their …

Do you remember the bad old days at The New York Times when the paper of record was caught making up news stories in the form of lying reporter Jayson Blair? That wasn’t so long ago. In fact, that particular imbroglio led to the resignation of Blair’s editor and protector, …

RAFAH, Egypt – Hundreds Palestinian and Egyptian police formed human cordons on both sides of the Gaza-Egypt border Thursday to block a tide of Palestinians trying to get through after militants blasted a gaping hole in a cement wall near the crossing. The hole provoked several hours of pushing and …

WASHINGTON – USA Today acknowledged in a “note to our readers” Friday that it could not establish that BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the National Security Agency to provide it with customer calling records, as the newspaper had previously reported. But spokesman Steve Anderson said “this is an important story …

MASKIOT, West Bank – Israel has begun laying the foundations for a new Jewish settlement deep in the West Bank — breaking a promise to Washington while strengthening its hold on a stretch of desert it wants to keep as it draws its final borders. The construction of Maskiot comes …

AURORA, Ill. – A suburban Chicago teenager is facing felony harassment charges for threatening the life of a school official on MySpace.com, police say. The 14-year-old allegedly posted the threat on the social-networking Internet site at the beginning of the school year, but it wasn’t discovered by school officials until …

BRASILIA, Brazil – Hundreds of landless farmworkers armed with sticks and stones invaded Brazil‘s Congress on Tuesday, smashing windows and furniture to demand agrarian reform. The hour-long melee left injured 20 people — both demonstrators and congressional security guards. One guard suffered a fractured skull. About 300 members of the …

OMAHA, Neb. – New arrivals to this country must adopt American values and learn English, President Bush said Wednesday, pushing anew for his proposal to overhaul immigration rules. To gain passage during this midterm election year, Bush must win over many in his own party who are opposed to provisions …