GEORGETOWN — After weeks of avoiding media inquiries, State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin addressed questions about enrollment of his Georgetown property in a tree growth program that detractors argue gives the state official inappropriate tax breaks. Poliquin addressed the issue during a Capitol for a Day event Thursday night in Madison. Scrutiny of Poliquin’s enrollment in the […]

DUBLIN (AP) — The outlawed Irish Republican Army has apologized for its 1973 killing of a 9- year- old boy who stumbled across an IRA bomb while playing in his back yard. The IRA issued its statement today after the victim’s parents called on Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, to tell […]

HAVANA ( AP) — Cuban state media says a pair of senior U.S. senators have met with Cuban President Raul Castro in the first such highlevel meeting between the Cold War enemies in nearly a year. Communist Party daily Granma reported that Sens. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, and Richard Shelby, a Republican from […]

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden’s newborn princess and future monarch has a name: Estelle Silvia Ewa Mary. King Carl XVI Gustaf announced his granddaughter’s name, and said the baby girl, who was born Thursday to Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel, will receive the title Duchess of Ostergotland, a province in southeast Sweden. As Victoria’s first- […]

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan made its first public appeal today for the Taliban to participate in peace talks with the Afghan government, a potentially significant move given Islamabad’s perceived influence over the militants. The Pakistani prime minister’s call will be welcomed by Afghanistan and the United States, which have long demanded Islamabad push Taliban leaders […]

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s al-Qaida branch has claimed responsibility for the latest wave of bombings and other attacks that killed dozens in Baghdad and across the country, raising concerns over the government’s ability to provide security after the U.S. troop pullout. The Islamic State of Iraq said in an Internet message late Thursday that it […]

AMSTERDAM ( AP) — A Dutch prince struck by an avalanche while skiing offtrail in Austria last week suffered massive brain damage and may never regain consciousness, his doctors said today. Johan Friso, 43, is the second of Dutch Queen Beatrix’s three sons. Dr. Wolfgang Koller, head of trauma at the Innsbruck hospital where Friso […]

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — The United States, Europe and Arab countries were set today to back a proposal for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step aside and allow in humanitarian assistance to end a brutal crackdown against opponents. American, European and Arab officials are meeting in a major international “Friends of Syria” conference in Tunisia […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The reviews are in, and Mick Jagger sizes up President Barack Obama’s singing of the blues this week as “courageous.” The Rolling Stones frontman says the president did pretty well when he joined in during a White House blues concert earlier in the week. And Jagger said in an AP interview Thursday […]