story

Reacting to wide concerns over prescription drug safety, lawmakers Wednesday proposed a bill to reform the FDA by forming a new independent safety office inside the agency. The bill would give the office new powers to police the safety of drugs already on the U.S. market, including authority to recommend …

FORT CHAFFEE, Ark. – An Army soldier was fatally shot during a live-fire training exercise in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan (search), officials said. The soldier, whose name wasn’t immediately released, was shot Friday night and died later at a hospital at nearby Fort Smith (search). Authorities did not disclose …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Insurgents killed three members of Iraq’s security forces on Saturday by firing from speeding vehicles at army soldiers and policemen in the northern city of Kirkuk (search), officials said. The gunmen killed one policeman and two soldiers as they headed to work in two separate drive-by shootings, …

The nation’s largest physician’s group issued a call for higher Medicare payments Tuesday, even as policy makers and beneficiaries struggle with rapidly rising costs in the program. The American Medical Association warns that a 4 to 5 percent cut in Medicare payments scheduled to go into effect January 2006 will …

LEESBURG, Va. – A man convicted in the nation’s first felony case against illegal spamming (search) was sentenced to nine years in prison Friday for bombarding Internet users with millions of junk e-mails. However, Loudoun County Circuit Judge Thomas Horne delayed the start of Jeremy Jaynes‘ (search) prison term while …

LOS ANGELES – Sex, betrayal and bloodshed were the order of a fateful day for the lost souls of “Lost.” With the season drawing to a close this month, “Lost” put several of its airline-crash castaways in the line of fire and proved it hasn’t run out of plot twists …

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – Villagers burned incense and floated offerings to the spirits, hoping to ward off an eruption of Mount Merapi, but activity at the volcano intensified on Monday — with one blast sending ash, rock and gases more than two miles down the slope. A scientist warned on …

The videotape of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi trying to fire a gun — and having trouble with it — is now playing out in the Arab world. This was the raw tape of the Zarqawi video propaganda session in which he was to portray himself as the Arab superhero slaying the …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – An American soldier was killed Monday in a roadside bombing southeast of Baghdad and another U.S. trooper died the day before in a clash in northern Iraq, the U.S. command said. The soldier from Multinational Division-Baghdad died about 11:10 a.m. in the blast but his name was …

NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana emergency crews discovered they still had trouble communicating with various agencies during a two-day mock hurricane evacuation, officials said Wednesday. But the drill also suggested that distribution of food, water and ice would go more smoothly if disaster strikes again. As the state prepares for the …