WASHINGTON – Skeptical senators from both parties swept aside the Bush administration’s optimistic defense of its strategy in Afghanistan Thursday, suggesting weariness over the campaign against the Taliban. Testifying for the administration before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Assistant Secretary of State Richard A. Boucher said “no one can tell …

THE PENTAGON – A request has been made by top commanders in Afghanistan to send 3,000 Marines to the country, FOX News has learned. The goal would be to have the Marines in the region by April, the time of year when offensive actions by the Taliban usually pick up …

WASHINGTON – The CIA has concluded that a Pakistani tribal leader’s network was behind the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, according to a U.S. intelligence official. The tribal leader, Baitullah Mehsud, is an extremist with strong ties to Al Qaeda and an alliance with Taliban. He heads …

TAMPA, Fla. – Artist Robert Rauschenberg, whose use of odd and everyday articles earned him regard as a pioneer in pop art but whose talents spanned the worlds of painting, sculpture and dance, has died, a his gallery representative said Tuesday. He was 82. Rauschenberg died Monday, said Jennifer Joy, …

Two new studies indicate that erectile dysfunction in men with type 2 diabetes may be a precursor to future heart disease and death. In the first study, researchers from Hong Kong recruited 2,306 men with type 2 diabetes. At the start of the study, just over one-quarter of the participants …

BAGHDAD – An Al Qaeda in Iraq front group warned Tuesday that insurgents were waiting for the right moment to retaliate against a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in the northern city of Mosul. Gunmen killed a policeman near his station in Mosul, when attackers opened fire with machine guns shortly before …

DILWORTH, Minn. – Fourteen-year-old Bishop Edens was suspended from school Friday because he wouldn’t stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, but he was quickly invited back once his principal learned that rule might be unconstitutional. The back-and-forth came on the second day of controversy at Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Junior High over the …

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas – A Starr County grand jury has indicted the police chief of the small South Texas town of La Grulla on a charge of soliciting sex from a minor. According to the indictment released Thursday, the grand jury believes Alfredo Hernandez tried to talk a girl …

PHOENIX – A state appeals court says two relatively new state school voucher programs are unconstitutional. The programs were designed to provide money to let foster and disabled children attend private schools. The 3-0 ruling Thursday by a Court of Appeals panel in Tucson reverses a trial judge’s decision that …

BAGHDAD – Shiite clerics offered sharply different visions Friday in the showdown between government forces and Shiite militias — one predicting that armed groups will be crushed in Baghdad and another calling for the prime minister to be prosecuted for crimes against his people. The contrasting views — given during …