SAN DIEGO Seven Marines were killed late Wednesday in a collision of two helicopters near Yuma, Ariz., during night training exercises, the Marine Corps said today. Lt. Maureen Dooley with Miramar Air Base in California said the service members with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing were based at Camp Pendleton north of San Diego. The […]

BEIJING (AP) — The United States and North Korea resumed talks today delayed by the death of North Korea’s longtime leader Kim Jong Il two months ago, with the U.S. envoy saying he and his counterpart covered U.S. food aid and other topics. The discussions — the first since Kim’s death — are to continue […]

BEIRUT (AP) — Warnings from Syrian activists of a humanitarian catastrophe in Homs grew more desperate today as government forces resumed shelling an opposition stronghold in the restive central city, where hundreds have died in a weekslong siege. About 30 people, including two Western journalists, were killed in shelling on Wednesday — most of them […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking unemployment aid was unchanged last week and the four-week average of applications fell to its lowest point in four years. The figures add to evidence that show the job market is improving. Applications stayed last week at a seasonally adjusted 351,000, the Labor Department said today. That’s […]

BREMERTON, Wash. (AP) — All available officers searched early today for the person who shot and killed a Washington State Patrol trooper during a traffic stop about 20 miles west of Seattle across Puget Sound. The trooper had stopped a pickup around 1 a.m. today on Highway 16 near Gorst and radioed the location and […]

BOOTHBAY HARBOR (AP) — A giant 27-pound lobster has been caught off the Maine coast, but it won’t be going into a pot of boiling water. Cushing shrimp fisherman Robert Malone caught the monster crustacean in his nets Friday, said Maine State Aquarium Director Aimee Hayden-Rodriques. Malone gave it to the Department of Marine Resources […]

MESA, Ariz. (AP) — A bitter and often personal debate behind them, Republicans Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney are shoring up their campaigns in different ways ahead of a series of crucial presidential primaries. Romney is paying the most attention to Michigan, his birthplace and the site of an unexpectedly tight race with Santorum, by […]

BAGHDAD (AP) — A rapid series of attacks spread over a wide swath of Iraqi territory killed at least 50 people today, targeting mostly security forces in what appeared to be a vicious strike by al-Qaida militants bent on destabilizing the country. The apparently coordinated bombings and shootings unfolded over four hours in the capital […]

KATMANDU, Nepal He has never worked outside the home or seen a doctor, and until Wednesday, he had never left his remote mountain village in western Nepal. So 72-year-old Chandra Bahadur Dangi only recently learned he might be the world’s shortest man. Dangi says he’s only 22 inches (56 centimeters) tall — about the size […]

SAN MATEO, Calif. (AP) — Tom Martinez, the longtime personal coach to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, has died. He was 67. Brady said in a statement posted on his Facebook page Wednesday that he is “deeply saddened by the passing of my coach, mentor and friend.” “Coach Martinez’s invaluable assistance and support will […]