WASHINGTON – The House ethics committee issued a 10-count list of alleged violations Thursday against convicted Rep. James Traficant and set a public hearing for next month. The charges allege that the Ohio lawmaker engaged in a “continuing pattern and practice of official misconduct,” including acceptance of kickbacks, encouraging the …

NEW DELHI, India – India made a conciliatory gesture to Pakistan on Wednesday, calling for joint monitoring of their disputed Kashmir frontier — a proposal that Pakistan played down as old and unlikely to work. Even as the United States and Britain sent top officials to pressure the nuclear-armed rivals, …

WASHINGTON – Consumer prices were flat in May, the best showing in five months, as lower costs for gasoline, clothes and cars eclipsed higher prices for medical care and air fares. The tame reading for the Consumer Price Index, one of the government’s most closely watched inflation gauges, came after …

WASHINGTON – Appearing at a fund-raiser for GOP Rep. Connie Morella of Maryland, President Bush said the vast majority of business executives are honest, upright people, but the Justice Department will hold them responsible if they “cook the books.” “Corporate America has got to understand there is a higher calling …

BERLIN – Hundreds of thousands of German fans in this soccer-crazy country were stunned, and sometimes in tears, after they gathered in downtown centers and bars to cheer on their national soccer team Sunday — only to see it lose the World Cup final to Brazil. As the crowd of …

A few years ago, I arrived at the beach house of a friend expecting to enjoy a weekend of socializing with the other guests. Instead, I sat on the backyard deck reading a magazine while the nine other people lounging on the deck chatted separately to persons unknown on their …

NEW YORK – Nicole Kidman, Anthony LaPaglia and George Lucas in thewarm intergallactic glare of The Foxlight. Remember that bet Nicole Kidman made for $10,000 that a certain male movie star would be married by age 40? Well, she lost. And she paid up. But the famous actor sent the …

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Leaders of a regional terrorist network with links to Al Qaeda met in Thailand earlier this year and agreed to target tourist venues like the Bali nightclubs where nearly 200 were killed, two security experts said Friday. Zachary Abuza, a security analyst who has written extensively on …

CAIRO, Egypt – A Saudi man at the center of a U.S.-Saudi diplomatic dispute over financing terrorism on Tuesday denied reports that he passed on Saudi government money to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers. Osama Basnan said he used money from Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of the Saudi ambassador …

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesian authorities detained four people in connection with the Bali bombings that killed nearly 200 people last month, police said Wednesday. Two men were picked up in Surabaya, the capital of East Java province, on Tuesday, another was detained in the capital, Jakarta, and the fourth in …