THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the dramatic collapse of two cranes onto a row of houses in a central Dutch city that briefly buried one man under rubble. The probe was announced Tuesday, a day after two towering cranes parked on a floating pontoon …

WARSAW, Poland – Poland’s president-elect, who takes office on Thursday, says he wants to see NATO bases in Poland and will talk to European Union partners about including Poland in Ukraine peace talks. Andrzej Duda, previously a member of a conservative opposition party, says the ruling Civic Platform hasn’t done …

GOWANDA, N.Y. – Military officials say medals have been posthumously authorized for a soldier from western New York who died while a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II. Army officials notified Barbara Hutchinson of Gowanda last month that her cousin, Pvt. Carroll Heath, was entitled to nine decorations, …

CANBERRA, Australia – Australian government lawmakers on Monday elected a new speaker of the House of Representatives after the previous speaker resigned over an expense scandal that has damaged Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s conservative government. The new speaker Tony Smith defeated his nearest challenger Andrew Southcott in a ballot of …

STAATSBURG, New York – Authorities in New York say the body of a man found in the Hudson River after a kayaking accident is that of the boyfriend of Annie Lennox’s daughter. Dutchess County Sheriff’s Capt. John Watterson says an autopsy conducted Tuesday confirmed the body is that of 32-year-old …

SAN FRANCISCO – Police are searching for a woman who emerged from the icy bay water Wednesday morning wearing a soaking wet black dress and no shoes after she either jumped or fell from the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge trying to evade police in a stolen car. California Highway Patrol …

A bust of the Supreme Court chief justice who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott opinion affirming slavery will likely be removed from City Hall in Frederick, Maryland, after a majority of elected officials said they support relocation. Three of Frederick’s five aldermen say they support moving the sculpture of Roger …

YAOUNDE, Cameroon – Cameroon’s president says his country will contribute 2,450 troops to a five-nation army to fight the Nigeria-based Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, nearly tripling his initial pledge. President Paul Biya announced the new troop total in a statement Friday night. At a meeting in Cameroon in February, …

The French armored personnel carrier carrying a team of American diplomats and French soldiers was traveling on a muddy mountain “road” leading into Sarajevo when tragedy struck: Without warning, the vehicle lurched to the right, and then seemed to teeter for a moment before beginning a deadly series of rollovers. …

ACCRA, Ghana – Ghana’s health minister says the government is going to bring in about 170 Cuban doctors to work in health facilities amid a doctors’ strike. Health Minister Alex Segbefia said Wednesday that several people have died without proper emergency attention. The doctors, who are members of the Ghana …