LONDON British author Richard Adams, whose 1972 book “Watership Down” became a classic of children’s literature, has died, according to his daughter. He was 96. Juliet Johnson told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Adams died in Oxfordshire, England on Christmas Eve after getting progressively weaker in recent weeks. “He died of what used to […]

BOSTON It was the year of Rhode Iceland and Rattlesnake Island. Of 40-year-old Twinkies, clown wars and pizza offered as ID. And let’s not forget this udder nonsense: texting cows. File 2016 in New England under “W’’ for wacky. Your guide to some of the weirder stories that left us scratching our heads, laughing out […]

NORRISTOWN, PA. Bill Cosby is starting 2017 in a legal dragnet that has only tightened around him since his stunning arrest a year ago. Cosby was charged with aggravated sexual assault on Dec. 30, 2015, just days before the 12-year statute of limitations would have run out over a 2004 encounter at his estate near […]

WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to name China a currency manipulator on his first day in the White House. There’s only one problem – it’s not true anymore. China, the world’s second-biggest economy behind the United States, hasn’t been pushing down its currency to benefit Chinese exporters in years. And even if it were, […]

RENWICK, Iowa Once-bustling Renwick, Iowa, lost its grocery, hardware store, school and Ford dealership years ago, but when its sole bar closed last June, it seemed to some residents there wasn’t much of a town left. So a group of seven friends and spouses who had met for beers at the bar for decades took […]

Children whose moms took high doses of fish oil during their last three months of pregnancy were less likely to develop chronic wheezing problems or asthma by age 5, finds a study that suggests a possible way to help prevent this growing problem. Asthma cases have been rising in developed countries, while consumption of omega- […]