SAN FRANCISCO – For nearly a year, six Chinese crew members on a ship that crashed into the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge — creating the bay’s worst oil spill in nearly 20 years — have been detained by federal authorities. The sailors are being held as material witnesses in the …

LONDON – Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs. “This technique has great promise,” said Dr. Eric Genden, who did a similar transplant in 2005 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. That operation used …

This is a rush transcript from “Hannity & Colmes,” November 12, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Joining us now the author of the new book, “Defiant Dads: Father’s Rights Activists in America,” my wife, Jocelyn Crowley. JOCELYN CROWLEY, …

BEIJING – A Chinese medical researcher and businessman was executed Friday on charges of spying for Taiwan, his family said. Ran Chen, who has Austrian citizenship, said her father’s execution by gunshot was confirmed at 5 p.m. via the Austrian embassy in Beijing. “Today, our beloved father, Wo Weihan, was …

WASHINGTON – District of Columbia police say they have arrested a Secret Service officer during a prostitution sting. WUSA-TV reports D.C. police Inspector Brian Bray says his squad was conducting a prostitution sting around 11th and K streets in northwest Washington early Saturday. He says a marked Secret Service Uniformed …

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers waded gingerly Tuesday into a complex debate over how to overhaul the regulatory structure overseeing the U.S. financial system, promising stricter rules governing risky financial products that are seen as responsible for the current financial crisis. It’s likely to involve the creation of a special committee to …

ALBANY, N.Y. – Some upstate New York residents could be without electricity until the weekend as utility crews continue repairing power lines damaged by this week’s snow storm. New York State Electric & Gas officials say about 9,000 customers remained without power Thursday morning, all in the Catskills region. About …

Ashley Barrett-Carter weighed 263 pounds when she entered Sgt. Ryan Memolo’s Army recruiting station about one year ago, the Dallas News reported Tuesday. Barrett-Carter wanted to join the Army and serve her country, but first, Memolo told her she had to lose 100 pounds. “I’ll never see her again,” Memolo …

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration is pledging to do whatever it takes to battle a severe financial crisis that is threatening to push the country into a steep recession. But even with the aggressive steps the government has already taken, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says it will take time before …

ROME – Italian prosecutors on Saturday accused an American student of fatally stabbing her British house mate in a Satanic rite and asked a court to put an alleged African accomplice in prison for life, defense lawyers said. The American, Amanda Knox, 21, proclaimed her innocence at the closed-door hearing …