Unhappy with today’s health care? Think of what it was like to be sick 200 years ago. No stethoscopes, antibiotics, Xrays or vaccines. Bloodletting was a common treatment. If you had a heart attack or a stroke, doctors put you in bed and hoped for the best. If you needed surgery, you got a few […]

Galveston’s Bolivar Ferry, Texas’ version of the famous New York Staten Island Ferry, may be the best tourist bargain in the Lone Star State. It’s free, and the roughly 20- minute ride each way between Port Bolivar and Galveston is an entertaining diversion from the beaches and historic districts that are the biggest local tourist […]

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s the dreaded sound at any live performance — a ringing cellphone. That’s what happened Tuesday night at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall during the final movement of Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony by the New York Philharmonic. Maestro Alan Gilbert was forced to stop the orchestra until the phone was silenced. […]

NEW YORK (AP) — It was only a few nights after the Occupy protesters began sleeping in his church sanctuary when Pastor Bob Brashears realized that his laptop was missing. The refugees from Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park had found their way to his cavernous Presbyterian church on a cold winter evening, hoping to stay for a […]

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban’s political wing is ready to enter peace talks to end the war in Afghanistan, but the insurgents will in the meantime continue their armed struggle, the group said today. The militant movement’s emailed statement suggests that efforts to bring Afghan factions to the table are gathering momentum, but also […]

PORT- AU- PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitians are marking the second anniversary of the devastating 2010 earthquake with church services throughout the deeply religious country. Women in white dresses and men in dark suits walked to church through streets were unusually quiet on what is a national holiday of remembrance. Memorial services were planned at […]

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama judge has scheduled a hearing in Birmingham on whether to sign a court order declaring Natalee Holloway dead more than six years after the 18- year- old woman disappeared in Aruba. This afternoon’s hearing was scheduled before a suspect questioned in Holloway’s disappearance, Joran van der Sloot, decided to […]

WASHINGTON ( AP) — Retail sales barely rose in December, but the gain was enough to lift sales to a record level for 2011. It marked the largest annual increase in more than a decade. Sales inched up 0.1 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted $400.6 billion, The Commerce Department said today. It was […]

Afghan President Hamid Karzai today condemned as “ completely inhumane” a video that purports to depict four U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters. Pentagon officials said commanders believe they have identified the men’s unit and that it is back in the United States. The Marine Corps said Wednesday it was investigating the […]