KABUL, Afghanistan – The battle in the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province Wednesday and Thursday left a reported 60 enemy fighters and 16 Afghan police dead, the coalition said Friday. Twenty police were wounded. CountryWatch: Afghanistan Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces killed a reported 60 militants in a …

RICHMOND, Va. – Judge J. Michael Luttig has resigned from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to accept a job as senior vice president and general counsel for Boeing Co. (BA), the company said Wednesday. Luttig, 51, a conservative judge, had been mentioned last year as a possible nominee …

LAGOS, Nigeria – Gunmen kidnapped at least two foreign oil workers from a bus in southern Nigeria Thursday, a day after a U.S. oil worker was killed in the same city, a hub of this country’s oil industry. Two foreign nationals were seized as they rode to work in Port …

CHICAGO – America may be the world’s superpower, but its survival rate for newborn babies ranks near the bottom among modern nations, better only than Latvia. Among 33 industrialized nations, the United States is tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with a death rate of nearly 5 per 1,000 …

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – A U.S.-Mexico border that’s impossible to sneak across could devastate impoverished Mexican and Central American communities that depend on the millions of dollars that undocumented migrants send home to loved ones. But those trying to slip into the United States say they aren’t worried about President …

SHANGHAI, China – A powerful typhoon roared toward China’s southern coast, forcing the evacuation of more than half a million people and the cancellation of dozens of flights, the government said Thursday. Typhoon Chanchu‘s eye was picking up speed and was expected to hit Guangdong province, one of China’s biggest …

SAN DIEGO – The vast majority of people caught smuggling immigrants across the border near San Diego are never prosecuted for the offense, demoralizing the agents making the arrests, according to an internal Border Patrol document obtained by The Associated Press. “It is very difficult to keep agents’ morale up …

QOM, Iran – Iran said Tuesday it had found uranium ore at three new sites in the center of the country, an announcement that appeared designed as a fresh challenge to the drive by the United States and allies to curb Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran already has considerable uranium resources …

WASHINGTON – A debate over whether to keep certain interrogation techniques secret is holding up the release of a long-awaited military manual on the treatment of detainees. Coming more than two years after photographs surfaced showing U.S. troops beating, intimidating and sexually abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, the …

KEY WEST, Fla. – A 13-year-old boater was arrested Monday after authorities said he hit and killed a 6-year-old snorkeler, then sped away. The 6-year-old was snorkeling off Key West with his father and a sibling next to their 22-foot motorboat when he was struck, said Lt. Steve Acton of …