BAGHDAD, Iraq – Under U.S. pressure to end a crippling stalemate, Iraq’s prime minister-designate on Tuesday proposed a 36-member Cabinet — including three deputy premiers from Iraq’s main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions. Many here believe the monthslong impasse over the makeup of a new government has emboldened insurgents, who …

LONDON – Oil prices held near $52 on Wednesday as a U.S. government report showed crude stocks falling for the first time in 10 weeks and gasoline inventory dropping ahead of peak summer driving demand. U.S. light crude eased 19 cents to $52.10 a barrel, barely $6 below the record …

POLGAHAWELA, Sri Lanka – A passenger train rammed into a bus that tried to dash through a railroad crossing Wednesday, killing at least 35 people and injuring another 60. Witnesses said people, some of them on fire, jumped out of windows after the crash. All the dead and injured were …

METHUEN, Mass. – Four men who made headlines by claiming they dug up buried treasure worth as much as $125,000 from one of their yards were charged Friday with stealing the cache of old currency while doing a roofing job at someone’s home. The arrests came after the men made …

CHICAGO – Athletic shoe maker Reebok International Ltd. (RBK) on Monday posted higher quarterly profit as acquisitions and a weak U.S. dollar boosted sales, and said it was on track to meet 2005 financial targets. Net income for the first quarter rose to $43 million, or 70 cents per share, …

MILWAUKEE – Seventeen white, male police lieutenants were awarded nearly $2.2 million by a jury that concluded they were not promoted because of discrimination. The jury found last week that former police chief Arthur Jones (search) had promoted less-qualified women and minorities to captain, ahead of the plaintiffs. The former …

WASHINGTON – Senate Republican leaders are considering whether to seek Democratic support for Social Security legislation without the personal accounts (search) sought by President Bush, aiming to restore them later, officials said Thursday. Any such move would mark a tactical shift and could anger the White House, which is in …

NEW YORK – Few musicians can boast the level of success that Billy Idol (search) attained in the ’80s and early ’90s. Unfortunately, the “live hard and die young” punk rock ethos doesn’t come with a middle-age survival guide. “When you’re young you never think you’ll be a 50-year-old rocking …

WASHINGTON – President Bush pushed for immigration legislation on the eve of the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo. “You may have noticed this celebration is not on the Cinco de Mayo,” Bush said about the holiday, which celebrates Mexican troops’ defeat of a French army on May 5, 1862. “It’s …

LEAD, S.D. – The Homestake Gold Mine is played out, but state officials think there’s billions of dollars worth of pay dirt left in its 8,000-feet-deep maze of shafts and tunnels. Cosmic pay dirt. South Dakota is trying to convince the National Science Foundation that the nation’s deepest mine, one …