WASHINGTON — Sonia Sotomayor has gained admission to the Marble Palace. Now she has to figure out how the Supreme Court works.When do you speak up? How do you find your way around a building torn apart by renovation? If someone knocks at the door while the justices are meeting in their private conference room, who answers? (Note to the newest...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday voted to approve Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice over nearly solid Republican opposition, paving the way for a historic confirmation vote next week.The panel voted 13-6 in favor of Sotomayor, with just one Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina,...

NEW YORK, Aug. 8 -- A small plane collided with a tourist helicopter over the Hudson River on Saturday on a crystal-clear summer afternoon, ripping the rotor blades from the helicopter and severing one of the plane's wings, sending both aircraft plunging into the murky water and killing all nine people on board.Witnesses to the crash described...

Nine people were killed today after a sightseeing helicopter carrying Italian tourists collided in mid-air with a small plane near New York and crashed into the Hudson river.Eyewitnesses saw a wing come off the plane during the collision just after noon US time and watched as the helicopter "fell like a stone" into the river.Five Italian...

NEW YORK -- CC Sabathia signed on for the big East Coast dollars expecting to loom large as the ace of the Yankees' rotation. Amid tantalizing glimpses of that potential, he expressed confidence that the best was still to come.If Saturday provides any indication, the Yankees have plenty to be excited about down the stretch. Sabathia hurled...

NEW YORK - As the pitch roared off the bat, Junichi Tazawa turned to look. He stood there, staring out toward left field, where the ball was headed toward the bullpen just over the fence. He watched the ball settle, as the Yankees spilled out of their bullpen and as Alex Rodriguez followed Derek Jeter around the bases.Photo galleryPhotos...

It seemed like a no-brainer.Why doesn't the Obama administration want to pour even more federal stimulus money into the Cash for Clunkers program? It has been wildly successful, swallowing the first $1 billion chunk of federal money in one big, ravenous, consumer-driven gulp.The program now is getting ready to chomp throw $2 billion more...

A British embassy worker put on trial by the Iranian authorities was today reported to have admitted that information collected by the embassy on the unrest after the disputed presidential election was sent to Washington.The Foreign Office expressed its "outrage" as Hossein Rassam, the embassy's chief political analyst, appeared in court...

Pakistan's interior minister has challenged the Taliban to prove their leaders are still alive, after reports that two of them have been killed.Rehman Malik told the BBC officials had non-physical evidence that the top commander, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a US missile attack on Wednesday.He said intelligence suggested a shoot-out later...

B EJI, Indonesia | The police in Indonesia said Saturday that they had foiled plans by an Islamist group to assassinate the president. However, authorities declined to confirm news reports that they had killed Southeast Asia’s most-wanted terrorism suspect in a separate raid.Police said that until DNA tests were complete, they could not confirm...

One of South-East Asia's most wanted terror suspects is reported to have been killed by Indonesian police.An official in Jakarta and local TV say Noordin Mohamed Top died when police stormed his hideout in central Java after a 17-hour siege.Bodies were seen being removed from the house but police have not confirmed Noordin was one of those...

You don’t need a Goldman Sachs connection to invest in Coda Automotive, an electric car start-up based in California, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.Coda recently announced that it had raised $24 million, with an undisclosed portion coming from its new advisory board member, Henry M. Paulson, the former Treasury secretary, who, before that...

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson talked often to the head of Goldman Sachs at the height of the credit crisis but did not actively seek to help the bank he once ran, a spokeswoman for Paulson said on Saturday. The New York Times on Saturday reported records of two dozen conversations between Paulson...

Sonia Sotomayor, who once suggested that a wise Latina would make a better judge than a white man, was confirmed yesterday as the first Hispanic justice on the US Supreme Court.Judge Sotomayor won the vote in the US Senate by 68-31, with nine Republicans crossing the aisle to vote with the majority Democrats. The decision reflected the growing...

"The information I have is that Mehsud has been killed, but we are doing ground verification for 100 percent confirmation," said Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan's foreign minister.Information from the region suggests Mehsud is dead, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told CNN. He said DNA evidence is still needed for confirmation.The Taliban...

WASHINGTON — The Senate approved providing another $2 billion for the “cash for clunkers” program on Thursday night, keeping it alive through the month of August.Skip to next paragraphMark Lennihan/Associated PressA crane lifts a vehicle onto a junk heap in Medford, N.Y. Many scrapped vehicles are from the “cash for clunkers” program.Roll...

WASHINGTON - US PRESIDENT Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday expressed concerns about fresh tensions between Russia and Georgia in telephone calls with the leaders of the rival ex-Soviet states.The White House said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called Mr Obama to wish him a happy 48th birthday, and that the leaders...

They didn't want a pitchers' duel Thursday night at the new Yankee Stadium, they didn't want to see Mo Rivera, didn't want any drama. They wanted a beatdown and they wanted payback and that is exactly what they got, first off a shell of a once-great pitcher named John Smoltz and then against Billy Traber, who was in the minors a few days...

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan -- Pakistan's Taliban chief Bailtullah Mehsud, who led a violent campaign of suicide attacks and assassinations against the Pakistani government, has been killed in a U.S. missile strike, a Taliban commander and aide to Mehsud said Friday."I confirm that Baitullah Mehsud and his wife died in the American missile...

If you ever wondered what is to blame for the world's sluggish reaction to climate change, wonder no longer. The American Psychological Assn. has concluded in a 225-page report that the culprit is......human behavior.That's right! Human behavior. Read all about it here. The panel of eight psychologists is slated to present its findings at...

Eat less — a lot less — and live a lot longer. Or so the theory goes.Proponents of caloric restriction argue that taking in the minimum number of calories your body needs — packed with enough nutrients to keep you firing on all cylinders — will delay the aging process and extend your lifespan beyond that of Jeanne Calment, who lived 122 years...

Human tests of a potential swine flu vaccine have begun, a spokesperson for Novartis said Wednesday, as other drug companies also prepared to start trials.Novartis is testing a vaccine in a yearlong trial of 6,000 people of all ages in Britain, Germany and the United States, said Novartis spokesman Eric Althoff."We initiated clinical trials...

The Senate reached a deal on saving the dwindling "cash for clunkers" program late Wednesday, agreeing to vote on a plan that would add $2 billion to the popular rebate program and give car shoppers until Labor Day to trade in their gas-guzzlers for a new ride.Following lengthy negotiations, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Democrats...

Warmer temperatures and earlier melting of sea ice are causing polar bears to go hungry. The number of undernourished bears has tripled in a 20-year period.Photo: More polar bears going hungryThis undated photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a sow polar bear resting... ExpandThis undated photo provided by the U.S. Fish...

If the most dire climate predictions come to pass, the Arctic ice cap will melt entirely, and polar bears could face extinction.Polar BearsOn May 14, the U.S. Department of the Interior declared polar bears "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.(Getty Images)So why not pack a few off to Antarctica, where the sea ice will never run...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two senior Obama administration officials described on background how former President Bill Clinton's mission to Pyongyang to secure the release of two U.S. journalists imprisoned by North Korea evolved:Freed journalist Euna Lee is followed by Laura Ling as they step off their plane Wednesday in California.Freed journalist...

Police officers stand at the front door of an LA Fitness location in Bridgeville, Pa. on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009. A Pittsburgh television station says a shooting at the suburban health club has left four people dead, including the shooter. (AP Photo/Tribune Review, Joe Appel)By Genaro C. ArmasAssociated Press Writer / August 5, 2009E-mail this...