PLANO, Texas – A minister arrested in an Internet sex sting has resigned his position at a Dallas-area megachurch, its pastor said Saturday. The Rev. Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, said during services Saturday that the church accepted Joe Barron’s resignation, effective immediately. Barron was charged Friday with …

KABUL, Afghanistan – A homicide car bomb attack against a NATO convoy Saturday killed two soldiers and wounded four others, while fighting in the south killed 16 Taliban militants, officials said. The bomb attack in the eastern city of Jalalabad hit a contingent of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, the …

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – A moderate earthquake shook a mountainous area of California early Thursday, just hours after a quake some 230 miles to the southeast. The U.S. Geological Survey said the 4.4-magnitude quake was centered 12 miles from the resort town of Lake Isabella. There were no immediate reports of …

Des Moines, Iowa – Several fully loaded barges broke loose on the flood-swollen Mississippi River, striking two key bridges and forcing a halt to highway and railroad traffic early Thursday. Three of the five barges that came loose hit the U.S. Highway 34 bridge that connects Burlington, Iowa, and Gulfport, …

SKOWHEGAN, Maine – This castle of confinement could be yours, if the price is right. The Somerset County Jail in downtown Skowhegan is for sale. It has a price tag of $200,000. “It’s an interesting building. It could be used for many, many things,” said Philip Roy, chairman of the …

MELBOURNE, Australia – The widow of television’s “Crocodile Hunter” reached a confidential settlement Wednesday with creditors who claimed the family’s zoo owed them $2.3 million. Alyssa Treasury Services, a debt recovery agency, had sued Australia Zoo — the wildlife park that was operated by Steve Irwin and his wife, Terri …

BEIJING – Five more children have died of hand, foot and mouth disease in China, bringing the death toll to 39 since late March, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday. A girl died in eastern Anhui province from enterovirus 71, a virus that causes a severe form of the …

Some countries seem to never have to leave home to fight a war. Take Mexico. President Felipe Calderon has just sent thousands more troops into the northern state of Sinaloa to fight the drug cartels, which evidently have taken over both the Mexican side of the border with the United …

A virus that has sickened close to 10,000 children in China is not a threat to the Olympians who will be heading to the country, the World Health Organization has said. Although the outbreak is another headache for China’s Communist government as it prepares to host this summer’s Olympic Games, …

CRAWFORD, Texas – President Bush, defending his record and his rhetoric, said Saturday that his administration has been “clear and candid” about the nation’s economy. “We saw the economic slowdown coming, we were up front about these concerns with the American people, and we’ve been taking decisive action,” Bush said …