State-owned bank reports a loss of £724.2m for the first six months of 2009, compared with last year's loss of £585.4m.

A parliamentary committee calls for an independent inquiry into allegations of UK complicity in the torture of terrorism suspects.

John Yettaw, the US man on trial with Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, has been taken to hospital after suffering seizures, sources say.

Australian police arrest four people after uncovering what they say was a terror plot linked to a Somali Islamist group.

Former US President Bill Clinton is in North Korea on a surprise trip, apparently to discuss the fate of two jailed US reporters.

Mexican authorities say they have arrested at a church service one of the country's main traffickers of synthetic drugs.

President Uribe is to tour South America to try to ease concerns about a plan to increase the US military presence in Colombia.

Former US President Bill Clinton is in North Korea on a surprise trip, apparently to discuss the fate of two jailed US reporters.

WASHINGTON - People attacked because of their sexual orientation or gender would receive federal protections under a Senate-approved measure that significantly expands the reach of hate crimes law.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Most state government workers are staying home for the second time this month while Gov.

WASHINGTON - Sonia Sotomayor's success at her Supreme Court confirmation hearing has some Republicans in a tight spot

COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford shed his fiscal conservatism on several taxpayer-funded international trips

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Explosions ripped through two luxury hotels in Jakarta Friday, killing eight and wounding at least 50 more

SANTA CLARITA — Authorities say a woman walked into a Los Angeles County sheriff's station and shot and killed herself.

WASHINGTON – Finally joining the Senate, Democrat Al Franken envisions playing the "people's proxy" during Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court hearings. Franken, awaiting "an awfully emotional"

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Sarah Palin says she's not a quitter, she's a fighter, but adds that, politically speaking, "if I die, I die. So be it."

WASHINGTON – A law recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere has gone into effect in the District of Columbia.

GAFFNEY, S.C. – People terrorized by a serial killer who shot five people to death in their small community were relieved after police said they killed the man responsible

PARIS – French tennis player Mathieu Montcourt, who was recently banned for betting on matches, has died. He was 24.

Obama was wrapping up a two-day stay in Russia,

URUMQI, China – The government imposed a curfew Tuesday night in this regional capital of western China after mobs of Han Chinese with meat cleavers and clubs roamed the streets looking for

After one of the longest sunspot droughts in modern times, solar activity picked up quickly over the weekend.