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MOSCOW – For his first foreign tour as Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev this week heads east to China and not west to the old established powers. It’s a sign of how the two resurgent giants have buried Cold War rivalries and built a “strategic partnership” intended to serve as a …

WASHINGTON – The United States on Friday urged Israel to provide visas for eight Gazan recipients of the prestigious Fulbright scholarships. State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters that the U.S. is working to “revisit the issue” with Israel, after previously postponing the scholarships because Israel would not grant visas …

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration on Friday urged a federal appeals court to stop meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has that authority. The government seeks to reverse a lower court ruling that allowed Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium …

LOS ANGELES – Police identified the gunman responsible for shooting three people at a Los Angeles church festival as 33-year-old Fernando Diaz, Jr., FOX News confirmed on Sunday. Diaz opened fire at the St. John Baptist de la Salle Roman Catholic parish shortly before 11 a.m. Saturday, wounding three people, …

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – For eight years, President Pervez Musharraf dominated Pakistan and charmed the West as a straight-talking ally in the war on terror. Now his political foes are in the driving seat and the former army chief is a beleaguered figure, under mounting pressure to resign. Yet he retains …

CARACAS, Venezuela – Former major league pitcher Geremi Gonzalez, who won 11 games for the Chicago Cubs in 1997, was killed by a lightning strike in his native Venezuela on Sunday. He was 33. Emergency management official Herman Bracho said Monday that Gonzalez was struck by lightning at a beach. …

LOS ANGELES – Terminal operators say dock workers have started reporting for night shift duty at West Coast ports and after a daylong May Day work stoppage. Pacific Maritime Association spokesman Steve Getzug says longshore workers are lining up for evening shift assignments at dispatch halls at the ports of …

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s new parliament speaker says Tehran could impose new limits on its cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog. Iran’s former nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, was elected as parliament speaker Wednesday. Moments later, he told parliament that a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency was “deplorable.” …

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers are debating legislation to give national security officials full control over whether to move research of highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S. mainland near herds of livestock. The Bush administration requested the change, which would erode the role of the Agriculture …

KODIAK CITY, Alaska – A moderate earthquake has struck in the Gulf of Alaska, 90 miles southwest of Kodiak City. The U.S. Geological Survey says the 5.1-magnitude temblor struck at 4:50 a.m. AKDT, centered 344 miles south-southwest of Anchorage. There were no immediate reports of damage. The USGS says the …