10/1/2009 7:24:00 AM
The two parties met during a lunch break at Thursday's seven-nation talks in Geneva. It is the first known direct high-level meeting between American and Iranian officials in years.
10/1/2009 6:50:00 AM
Rescue workers raced to pull survivors in Padang from the rubble of buildings felled by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake. Thousands of people were thought to be trapped. Another earthquake hit the region Thursday, causing damage but no reported fatalities.
10/1/2009 5:48:00 AM
Consumer spending, propelled by the wildly popular Cash for Clunkers auto sales program, shot up 1.3 in August, the largest amount in nearly eight years. But personal incomes continued to lag, edging up 0.2 percent.
10/1/2009 5:38:00 AM
First-time claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week, after three weeks of declines. Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 17,000, to a seasonally adjusted 551,000. Wall Street economists expected an increase of 5,000.
10/1/2009 5:10:00 AM
Comcast Corp. calls reports that it has agreed to buy NBC Universal for $35 billion "inaccurate." But the Cable TV giant stopped short of quashing speculation it was interested in NBC Universal.
10/1/2009 3:43:00 AM
Camp Bucca, the largest U.S. prison camp in Iraq, closed this month. The U.S. military repeatedly held Ali Omar al-Mashhadani at the camp. The journalist, who worked for the BBC, Reuters and NPR, says he suffered psychological abuse during his detentions.
10/1/2009 3:11:00 AM
A senior U.S. official in Geneva calls the meeting of six Western nations with Iranian envoys the beginning of an "extraordinarily difficult process" and says Iran must address suspicions about its nuclear aspirations. Iranians, however, want wide-ranging talks and insist they won't discuss the issue if it veers beyond a general conversation about nuclear technology.
10/1/2009 1:59:00 PM
When former President Jimmy Carter celebrates his 85th birthday on Thursday, it will coincide with the reopening of his library and museum in Atlanta. After a $10 million renovation, the library includes an area that focuses on Carter's life post-presidency. He's had quite a bit of time to reshape his image after leaving the White House.
10/1/2009 6:14:00 AM
The Obama administration recently proposed new rules for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from cars. Now it's proposing to reduce heat-trapping pollution from power plants and other large facilities. Some say the proposal would be good for the planet and for businesses because it targets new plants. Critics question an exemption to small farms and other businesses.
10/1/2009 6:07:00 AM
Bank of America says its embattled Chief Executive Ken Lewis will step down at the end of the year. Lewis is one of the most powerful and influential figures in the banking business. But he has spent the past year taking heat for his bank's controversial acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
10/1/2009 5:43:00 AM
President Obama says Afghanistan is a war of necessity. Now he has to decide how to fight it. At the White House Wednesday, he met with his Afghanistan war council. They are reviewing the policy options for Afghanistan. Military commanders pressed for more troops while other advisers expressed skepticism.
10/1/2009 5:17:00 AM
The International Olympic Committee will decide Friday whether Chicago or one of its competitors will host the summer Games of 2016. Lobbying is intense at the IOC meeting in Copenhagen. First Lady Michelle Obama has been meeting privately with delegates as she campaigns for her hometown. President Obama will star in the city's final presentation.
10/1/2009 5:15:00 AM
For years, the war in Afghanistan got little attention from Congress as lawmakers battled over the Iraq war. But Iraq has increasingly become the forgotten war on Capitol Hill. Republican lawmakers say President Obama should accept the recommendation for additional troops made by his top commander there. Some key Democrats, meanwhile, express doubts about that war.
10/1/2009 4:10:00 AM
Representatives of six world powers sit down in Geneva with diplomats from Iran for rare face-to-face talks on Iran's nuclear program on Thursday. Iran says it won't discuss what it calls its nuclear "rights" and insists its program is only for peaceful energy production.
10/1/2009 3:00:00 AM
Penske Automotive Group has walked away from the deal, unable to find a manufacturer to make Saturns. General Motors says it will stop making Saturns and close down the brand. Some dealers say this didn't have to happen. They say Saturn could have been a shining star in the GM lineup, had the company not starved the division of new products. Others say blaming GM won't do any good.
10/1/2009 7:16:04 AM
At least 770 people are now known to have died in the earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
10/1/2009 6:19:39 AM
World powers begin talks with Iran over its nuclear programme, days after it was accused of hiding a second uranium plant.
10/1/2009 7:36:07 AM
Britain's Serious Fraud Office says it will press for defence giant BAE to be prosecuted over bribery allegations.
9/30/2009 8:48:48 PM
Vast lines of soldiers and missile launchers parade through the Chinese capital, Beijing, marking 60 years of Communist rule.
10/1/2009 6:08:32 AM
Forces in Afghanistan will have to adopt a "dramatically different" strategy to ensure success, the top US general there says.
10/1/2009 6:08:21 AM
The global economy is expanding again and financial conditions have improved significantly, says the International Monetary Fund.
10/1/2009 3:58:02 AM
A major relief operation gathers pace after a Pacific tsunami killed at least 149 people in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.
10/1/2009 1:11:25 AM
The US government urges all internet users to play their part in protecting the network from cyber attack.
9/30/2009 2:07:44 PM
Babies starved of oxygen at birth have a much lower risk of brain damage if they are given mild hypothermia, research suggests.
10/1/2009 6:42:05 AM
Geologists in southern India say they have found hundreds of dinosaur egg clusters which could be about 65 million years old.
10/1/2009 4:32:22 AM
A book about gay penguins beats Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials on a list of books US citizens tried to ban.
10/1/2009 3:27:14 AM
New Ferrari signing Fernando Alonso says he would like to win multiple world titles for the team he will join in 2010.
10/1/2009 4:19:00 AM
The hosts of the 2016 Olympics will be decided in an election ceremony on Friday, with Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo bidding for the Games.
10/1/2009 4:00:35 AM
It is 60 years since the Communist Party came to power in China. Send us your thoughts.
10/1/2009 7:30:32 AM
A Plymouth nursery worker and her two co-defendants plead guilty to a number of child sex abuse charges.
10/1/2009 7:30:43 AM
Harriet Harman accuses the Conservatives of "arrogance" and says Labour will fight to win as she closes their conference.
10/1/2009 5:50:12 AM
A woman who requested no treatment left doctors powerless to help when she swallowed anti-freeze, an inquest hears.
10/1/2009 6:31:59 AM
First Minister Rhodri Morgan will be standing down as Labour's top man in Wales later this year after nearly a decade.
10/1/2009 2:09:36 AM
A nude photo of actress Brooke Shields aged 10 is removed from a Tate Modern exhibition following a police inquiry.
10/1/2009 4:38:39 AM
No 10 says Gordon Brown is "open minded" about sending more troops to Afghanistan - but sets out conditions for an increase.
10/1/2009 5:35:36 AM
Decoding China's pomp and ceremony
9/30/2009 5:19:13 PM
Malawi boy whose windmills could fan Africa's destiny
10/1/2009 5:36:13 AM
Striking images from around the world
10/1/2009 3:27:14 AM
Violence blights lives of indigenous Colombians
10/1/2009 12:48:46 AM
Rating Robbie Williams's comeback album
9/28/2009 4:02:26 AM
What will Cameron do if Irish voters back Lisbon Treaty?
10/1/2009 7:08:47 AM
Two Islamist groups, previously working together in Somalia, battle for control of the southern port of Kismayo.
9/30/2009 10:38:41 AM
Peruvian ex-President Alberto Fujimori has been sentenced to six years in jail for corruption by a court in Lima.
9/30/2009 9:27:07 PM
The Vietnamese death toll from Typhoon Ketsana jumps to 85, as a new storm heads toward the Philippines.
10/1/2009 4:01:12 AM
Romania's coalition government collapses after the Social Democrats resign over the sacking of a minister.
10/1/2009 2:16:55 AM
The party of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki unveils its new political bloc to contest January's general election.
10/1/2009 3:24:39 AM
The brother of Pakistan's new Taliban leader is killed in a clash with security forces in the north-west, officials say.
10/1/2009 2:42:27 AM
The unemployment rate across the 16 countries that use the euro rises again as the effects of the recession continue to be felt.
9/30/2009 4:17:06 PM
Mothers who smoke in pregnancy put their children at greater risk of psychotic symptoms like hallucinations, a study suggests.
10/1/2009 6:21:44 AM
A court in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) grants bail to Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja who is accused of raping his maid.
9/30/2009 11:47:29 AM
The major earthquake in Sumatra in 2004 may have weakened California's San Andreas fault 8,000km away.
9/30/2009 5:20:06 PM
A global study of broadband puts the UK 25th out of 66 countries in terms of the quality and reach of its broadband networks.
AP - Rescue workers used excavators Thursday to pull out victims, some screaming in pain, from the heavy rubble of buildings felled by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 531 people. The death toll was expected to rise.
AP - A senior U.S. official met Iran's top atomic negotiator for face-to-face talks on Thursday ? the first such encounter in years of big-power attempts to persuade Tehran to freeze a program that could create nuclear weapons.
AP - Consumer spending, propelled by the wildly popular Cash for Clunkers auto sales program, shot up in August by the largest amount in nearly eight years even though personal incomes continued to lag.
AP - Samoans searched flattened homes and debris-filled swamps, while dazed survivors told of being trapped underwater or flung inland by a tsunami that ravaged towns and killed at least 150 people in the South Pacific.
AP - Historic health care legislation could be on the floor of both houses of Congress as early as mid-October as Democrats work to answer President Barack Obama's call for greater protections for those who have unreliable insurance or no coverage at all.
AP - For those who expected General Motors' once-funky Saturn brand to live on with a new owner, there has been a sad twist. Saturn, once billed as a different kind of car company, appears as dead as Pontiac and Oldsmobile.
AP - President Barack Obama is confronting a split among his closest advisers on Afghanistan, reflecting divisions in his own party over whether to send in thousands more U.S. troops and complicating his efforts to adopt a war policy he can sell to a public grown weary of the 8-year-old conflict.
AP - A former prosecutor says he made up a story he told a film crew about advising a judge handling Roman Polanski's sex case to send the director to prison.
AP - All those blown saves didn't seem to matter when Brad Lidge jogged in from the bullpen to get the final out and set off another celebration. Kyle Kendrick pitched three scoreless innings in relief of Pedro Martinez, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros 10-3 Wednesday night to clinch their third straight NL East crown.
Reuters - The United States said it held the highest level direct talks with Iran in three decades on Thursday to try to put to rest Western suspicions Tehran is planning a nuclear bomb.
Reuters - Rescue teams struggled on Thursday to reach scores of people trapped under debris and survivors pleaded for aid after a powerful quake hit the Indonesian city of Padang, possibly killing thousands.
Reuters - China celebrated its wealth and rising might with a show of goose-stepping troops, gaudy floats and nuclear-capable missiles in Beijing on Thursday, 60 years after Mao Zedong proclaimed its embrace of communism.
Reuters - The insurgency in Afghanistan is growing and the success of the campaign against the Taliban cannot be taken for granted, General Stanley McChrystal, the head of U.S. and NATO troops, said on Thursday.
Reuters - Rescuers pulled bodies from the mud and twisted rubble and fished bloated corpses from the South Pacific off Samoa Wednesday as the death toll from a series of tsunamis climbed further.
Reuters - A U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday adopted a measure aimed at rewarding healthy behavior in a sweeping healthcare overhaul sought by President Barack Obama as lawmakers pushed to complete the legislation.
AFP - Indonesia said on Thursday it fears thousands have died in a major earthquake as exhausted rescue workers clawed through mountains of rubble with their bare hands in a race to find survivors.
AFP - A US envoy held one-on-one talks with Iran's top nuclear negotiator for the first time Thursday during a critical meeting with five other world powers hoping to convince Tehran to freeze its atomic drive.