Where’s the beef? Just forget it — and the chicken and fish, too. Researchers have found that people who stuck to a vegetarian diet for at least one year lost more weight than those on a standard low-fat diet. And they shed considerably more excess flab than those who didn’t …

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – After years of painstaking research, scientists say they have unleashed a baby boom among one of the world’s most beloved but endangered animals, China’s giant panda. A bit of panda porn has helped too, they say. “It works,” enthuses Zhang Zhihe, a leading Chinese expert, about …

WASHINGTON – Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry insisted on Sunday his “botched joke” about President Bush’s Iraq policy would not undermine a possible White House campaign in 2008. “Not in the least,” Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, said when asked if the furor over his comment had caused him …

SANTA FE, N.M. – Gov. Bill Richardson has asked President Bush to come to the aid of an illegal immigrant who has taken refuge in a Chicago church to avoid being deported to Mexico. Richardson has followed Elvira Arellano’s case in news reports and considers her family’s plight a “perfect …

LONDON – Michael Jackson will perform “Thriller” from his famed 1982 album in a rare public appearance at the World Music Awards next week, organizers said Wednesday. The 48-year-old reclusive pop star will receive a Diamond Award, given to artists who sell more than 100 million albums, at the Nov. …

LONDON – Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday he opposed the death penalty for Saddam Hussein but that the deposed Iraqi leader’s trial had reminded the world of his brutality. Asked about Saddam’s sentence at his monthly press conference, Blair noted that Britain opposed the death penalty “whether it’s Saddam …

MARSHALL, N.C. – Nobody puts Rebecca Willis in a corner. A small mountain town has agreed to pay $275,000 for banning her from a community hangout after residents complained about her dirty dancing. Willis, then 56, was told to stay away from the Marshall Depot community center eight years ago. …

OMAHA, Neb. – A Texas man arrested on suspicion of first-offense drunken driving posted a $200 bond and walked out of a Nebraska jail without facing a judge. Only this wasn’t his first DUI arrest, or second, or even his third. It was 44-year-old Robert Hood’s fourth DUI arrest in …

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – Authorities are looking for a group of men who staged a violent robbery at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Delray Beach. Police spokesman Jeff Messer says four people were shot Wednesday night but are expected to recover. Witnesses say as many as four armed men burst into …

TORONTO – A Canadian TV journalist was stabbed during her October abduction in Afghanistan and held nearly four weeks in an underground warren by a family of kidnappers seeking ransom for her release. But, in an interview broadcast Wednesday, Mellissa Fung, a 35-year-old reporter with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., credited …