Gay and lesbian couples are getting legally married in the south-east of the US for the first time, with the practice crossing into a conservative region that has long stood against same-sex marriage.

Singer calls its quits after 36 years.

Salix Pharmaceuticals has agreed to buy the patents to some drugs for gastrointestinal diseases from Cosmo Pharmaceuticals for about $2.7bn (€1.98bn) in stock in a deal that will allow the US company to move to Ireland and lower its tax bill.

Is this cute and adorable, or the most godawful annoying video ever made? Our office is divided…

A woman who snatched a three-week-old baby from a hospital more than two decades ago and raised the child as her own was jailed for 12 years.

A woman who snatched a newborn from a hospital more than two decades ago and raised the child as her own was yesterday senten-ced to 12 years in prison.

George Mackay Brown: The Wound and the Gift

A woman who raised a child kidnapped 23 years ago from a New York hospital was in custody today after surrendering on a probation violation charge.

In the largest single strike at Mexican drug operations in the US, authorities arrested more than 300 people in a sting that demonstrates a young cartel’s vast reach north of the border.

FALLEN financier Bernard Madoff has plunged from his Manhattan penthouse to the lower bunk of a cell he shares with a drug offender at a federal prison.

Republican John McCain’s economic plan “amounts to a full-throated endorsement of George Bush’s policies”, his Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama said today.

Barack Obama moved a step closer to clinching the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination today with a strong performance in the last major contests of the US primary season.

Prosecutors in Raleigh, North Carolina today dropped all charges against the three Duke University lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a stripper at a party.

A leading US medical firm has quietly recalled hundreds of human tissue products destined for transplants around the nation that were supplied by a North Carolina broker believed to have a tainted history.

Cairo police have detained an Egyptian biochemist sought in the probe into last week’s London bombings and are questioning him, a government official said today.

A US national guardsman who pleaded guilty to killing a 17-year-old Iraqi soldier said he shot the young man after they had consensual sex in a guard tower, a newspaper reported today, citing court-martial records.

Two women whose testimony in a child molestation case put a man behind bars for 20 years have recanted, with one saying her grandmother pressured them to finger the wrong man to protect a cousin.

Two women whose testimony in a child molestation case put a man behind bars for 20 years have recanted, with one saying her grandmother pressured them to finger the wrong man to protect a cousin.

A brother and sister who sent junk email to millions of America Online customers have been convicted in the first felony prosecution of internet spam distributors in the United States.

VOTERS trying to beat the US election day rush turned out early in such large numbers in many precincts that they created their own crowds, standing in long lines that snaked down the street, sometimes before the polling places even opened.

Voters trying to beat the rush turned out early to cast ballots in many precincts as the US presidential election day opened.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush yesterday dismissed freshman Senator John Edwards’ credentials to be vice president while Democratic challenger John Kerry and his running mate rallied voters in battleground states.

A CIA contractor, charged with fatally assaulting an Afghan prisoner, was fired from a police force after an assault 14 years ago and a series of run-ins with wives and neighbours, authorities and acquaintances said yesterday.

A CIA contractor, charged with fatally assaulting an Afghan prisoner, was fired from a police force after an assault 14 years ago and a history of run-ins, authorities and acquaintances said today.

A contractor working for the CIA has been charged in connection with the beating to death of a prisoner in Afghanistan – the first civilian to face criminal charges related to US treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A contractor working for the CIA was indicted today in connection with the beating to death of a prisoner in Afghanistan – the first civilian to face criminal charges related to US treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Vietnam war hero John Kerry today emerged as the man who will challenge George W Bush for the White House at the presidential election.

John Kerry cemented the Democratic presidential nomination, driving John Edwards from the race with a string of triumphs on what has been dubbed “Super Tuesday”.

A man who offered a lift in his car to a man he had been drinking with, and then shot him and dumped his body in a river was executed by injection today.

Ruben Studdard outsang Clay Aiken early today to become the new American Idol.

US Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, a first-term Democrat, said yesterday he plans to run for the White House in 2004.

THERE is certainly something biblical, if not apocalyptic, about the current global extremes of fire and ice.

Two flight attendants on the doomed American Airlines plane that crashed into New York’s World Trade Centre on September 11 relayed vital details that helped the FBI identify the terrorists responsible.