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MINNEAPOLIS – Pilots reached a tentative pay-cut deal with Northwest Airlines Corp. on Friday, a major step toward ending a showdown that put the bankrupt airline’s future in doubt. The Northwest branch of the Air Line Pilots Association announced the agreement but didn’t release details. The deal would still have …

TOKYO – Bottom-line profits of $10 billion. A cash pile of $15 billion. A string of record sales stretching over seven years. With stats like that, it’s hard to imagine anything that could rile Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Japan’s top car maker, which could soon unseat General Motors Corp. (GM) …

NORWALK, Ohio – The woman accused of locking some of her 11 adopted, special-needs children in cages cried on the witness stand Wednesday as she denied that she and her husband were cruel to his biological children or that he touched a daughter inappropriately. Sharen and Michael Gravelle have pleaded …

WASHINGTON – The Senate has agreed to put an additional $1 billion this year into a program to help poor people with energy costs, but only after overcoming resistance from warm state senators who said those suffering from summer heat weren’t getting their fair share. The additional spending would increase …

BOSTON – A homeless man sleeping in a park was attacked early Sunday by two men who kicked him in the stomach and then set him on fire, police said. No arrests were made and police gave no indication of what might have motivated the attack. The 30-year-old homeless man, …

SAN FRANCISCO – A microscopic worm may be the key to heart-friendly bacon. Geneticists have mixed DNA from the roundworm C. elegans and pigs to produce swine with significant amounts of omega-3 fatty acids — the kind believed to stave off heart disease. Researchers hope they can improve the technique …

NEW YORK – Angelina Jolie (search), the tattooed actress and U.N. goodwill ambassador, is the new face of luxury apparel label St. John (search). Jolie also will be the voice behind the company’s new charity created in support of children’s issues and causes, it was announced Thursday. “Angelina Jolie embodies …

INDIANAPOLIS – Many black youths fall under a spell of “gangster mentality,” preventing them from becoming leaders and making a positive impact in politics, the Rev. Al Sharpton said. The civil rights activist faulted Hollywood and the record industry for making “gangsterism” seem cool and acceptable. “We have got to …

WASHINGTON – New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was headed for a public showdown Thursday with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld after he reversed course at the last minute and said he would testify before a Senate committee. Clinton, D-N.Y., had criticized Rumsfeld in a letter and at a hearing …

GENEVA – Researchers have developed a video-display technology that can produce an unlimited range of colors by flexing tiny artificial “muscles” that generate different shades by expanding and contracting in response to electricity. The flexible material allows individual pixels — the dots that make up an image on a screen …