PRETORIA, South Africa ( AP) — Martha Mahlangu can’t bear to visit the prison where her son, an antiapartheid guerrilla, was hanged. But she says it’s important that other South Africans see the gallows the government opened as a monument Thursday. The new memorial recreates the place where political prisoners like Solomon Mahlangu climbed the […]

LONDON ( AP) — An unpublished Charlotte Bronte manuscript has sold for a record $1.1 million at auction, more than double the expected price, Sotheby’s auction house said Thursday. The Young Men’s Magazine, Number 2, was written in 1830 — when the author was 14, 17 years before she wrote “Jane Eyre.” It is set […]

PARIS (AP) — As French president, Jacques Chirac was called all sorts of names, not the least for his vociferous opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Now, he has a moniker that will stick: Convicted criminal. The avuncular 79-year-old on Thursday became France’s first former leader to be convicted since Marshal Philippe Petain, who […]

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) — The Air Force said Thursday it was investigating a photograph of a group of airmen posing with another airman pretending to be dead and lying in an open casket with a noose around his neck. Written at the bottom of the photo are the words: “ Da Dumpt, Da Dumpt […]

The Boston Red Sox want Jason Varitek back. It might not be as a player, though. Two days after signing free agent Kelly Shoppach — giving the Red Sox a full complement of three catchers who are expected to be on the major league squad — general manager Ben Cherington said the team is still […]