BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — Snooty the manatee was born when Harry S. Truman was president, Columbia records had just released its 33 1/3 LP format, and people were still talking about how the NBC television network had broadcast Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in its entirety. Life in America, of course, has changed. But Snooty is still […]

LONDON (AP) — He may be royal, but when it comes to paternity leave Prince William is in the same boat as everyone else. Like thousands of other new fathers in Britain, he will get two weeks off when his child is born. Along with British society, the royal family has been gradually modernizing its […]

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (AP) — Three more defendants have been added to a class-action lawsuit over the oil train derailment that killed 50 people in Quebec, a team of lawyers announced Thursday. The lawsuit, originally filed against U.S.-based Montreal, Maine & Atlantic railway and its employees, has been amended to include Irving Oil, World Fuel Services […]

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — After Palestinian leaders demanded further guarantees before restarting talks with Israel, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed his ideas with the chief Palestinian negotiator in Amman today. A stormy, high-level meeting of senior Palestinian leaders called to discuss Kerry’s latest peace proposal ended with a decision early today to demand […]

KIROV, Russia (AP) — A Russian court today released opposition leader Alexei Navalny from custody less than 24 hours after he was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to five years in prison. The release came after a surprise request by prosecutors, who said that because Navalny is a candidate in this fall’s Moscow mayoral race […]

GENEVA (AP) — Scientists at the world’s top lab for particle physics say they’ve witnessed an extremely rare event that adds certainty to how they think the universe began. Physicists Pierluigi Campana and Tiziano Camporesi, leaders of the two main teams of scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, say they measured a particle […]

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan official says a bomb blast has killed five children and a woman related to a Taliban commander. The children were playing with the bomb that the insurgent left inside his home. Paktika governor’s spokesman Mokhlis Afghan said today that the incident occurred in the Mata Khan district inside the […]

HAMPTON, Va. Navy corpsman Jason Martines earned his chops on the Afghan battlefield, patching together wounded Marines in the war-ravaged Helmand Province. Army medic Mathew Vance witnessed the birth of homemade bomb attacks as a convoy medic during his first tour in Iraq. On his second deployment, he worked on a trauma helicopter, perfecting his […]

AUGUSTA — Maine Attorney General Janet T. Mills joined the Department of Defense, Pine Tree Legal Assistance, the Federal Trade Commission and other state and federal organizations to celebrate the first annual Military Consumer Protection Day on Wednesday, July 17. Military Consumer Protection Day was a joint initiative to empower active duty and retired service […]

The Department of Defense announced two deaths in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Marine Lance Cpl. Benjamin W. Tuttle, 19, of Gentry, Ark., died July 14 at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center following a medical evacuation from the aircraft carrier the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) during a scheduled port visit in the 5th Fleet Area […]