JERUSALEM – Israel clamped an open-ended closure on the West Bank and Gaza Tuesday, banning virtually all Palestinians from Israel in a first response to a suicide bombing that killed five Israelis outside a shopping mall. Israeli officials also said the army would target Islamic Jihad operatives in the West …

WASHINGTON – The fate of one certain appropriations bill on Capitol Hill could turn on something that costs practically nothing. The issue isn’t about money, but rather, some behind-the-scenes infighting over a federal property in Georgia. In what seemed like a nice thing to do, the House of Representatives began …

HOUSTON – The mistrial in the first federal trial over Merck & Co.’s (MRK) painkiller Vioxx was caused by a lone holdout on the jury who believed the company was at fault in the death of a Florida man, the Houston Chronicle reported on Tuesday. The U.S. judge hearing the …

LONDON – Ancient tools found in Britain show that humans lived in northern Europe 200,000 years earlier than previously thought, at a time when the climate was warm enough for lions, elephants and saber-toothed tigers to also roam what is now England. Scientists said Wednesday that 32 black flint artifacts, …

WASHINGTON – Three growing entitlement programs consumed nearly half of all federal spending in 2004, and budget analysts expect them to make up an even bigger share in the future. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid accounted for more than $1 trillion in the 2004 budget year, according to the Consolidated …

WASHINGTON – The Homeland Security Department, created in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has failed to fulfill 33 of its own pledges to better protect the nation, according to a report released Tuesday by House Democrats. The report concludes that gaps remain in federal efforts to secure an …

DAMASCUS, Syria – The leader of Hamas said Wednesday that his Palestinian militant group will not renew a truce with Israel when it expires at the end of the year and accused the Jewish state of violating the agreement that has greatly reduced violence. Khaled Mashaal, whose group has carried …

WASHINGTON – The House is to vote next week on legislation that strengthens border security and requires workplace enforcement of immigration law but does not offer a guest worker program, a goal of President Bush and many in Congress. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who crafted the bill, …

WASHINGTON – FEMA’s top official was told more than a year before Hurricane Katrina that the agency’s emergency response teams were unprepared for a major disaster and were operating under outdated plans, documents show. Additionally, e-mails obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press indicate that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff tried …

LOS ANGELES – The U.S. housing market will see a sustained decline next year, causing a drag on the nation’s economy but falling short of triggering a recession, according to a new UCLA economic report. “We expect housing to start slowing the economy this quarter or the next,” Edward Leamer, …