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WASHINGTON – President Bush is prepared to seek a Middle East peace on an “accelerated basis” now that there is an elected government in the Palestinian territories and violence has declined, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (search) said Friday. A day after meeting with Bush, Abbas praised Bush’s efforts to capitalize …

WASHINGTON – While President Bush spoke in Milwaukee, Wis., on Thursday to push his plan for personal investment accounts for Social Security recipients, a chief adviser fought what he says are Democratic misrepresentations of his support for the plan. Bob Pozen (search), the man who authored the “progressive indexing” proposal …

TIRANA, Albania – Search teams recovered the bodies Friday of nine Americans killed when a U.S. military aircraft crashed in mountainous southern Albania during a joint exercise, Albanian military authorities said. The C-130 airplane (search) crashed Thursday night near the remote village of Rovie, in the Drizez Mountains, 60 miles …

GAUHATI, India – An elephant went berserk in a busy shopping area in northeastern India on Monday, killing two people and injuring two, a forest guard said. The elephant trampled the victims after its keeper failed to control it in the city of Gauhati (search), the capital of Assam (search) …

Watch “The Big Story” weekdays at 5 p.m. ET New York Republicans are kicking off at least two campaigns to “Stop Hilary” Clinton from re-election in 2006. So will these campaigns have an impact? Stephen Minarik, the man behind one of these campaigns and the New York GOP chair, and …

NEW YORK – Applications for U.S. home mortgages increased last week as purchasing and refinancing activity rose despite higher interest rates on fixed loans, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association (search) said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity increased 6.1 percent to 683.6 in …

It was in the summer of 2001 when a top secret message was delivered to Farid Solemani (search). “We received news from a very valuable source within the Iranian regime,” said Solemani, who worked for more than a decade to expose Iran’s nuclear program. That message, if true, was explosive …

FORT RUCKER, Ala. – An Army officer was acquitted by a military judge Wednesday of raping a soldier in her barracks room, a claim the defense said she concocted to keep from being sent to Iraq. First Lt. Mike Hall (search), 35, had testified in his court-martial that a night …

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA’s work force is graying and the agency lacks a long-term plan for luring qualified workers to help send astronauts to the moon and Mars, a National Research Council report says. “NASA doesn’t have a lot of people leaving, so what’s been happening is they’re aging …

MADRID, Spain – Spain will send a delegation to Bolivia for discussions following the Latin American country’s move to nationalize its oil and gas resources, a government official said Wednesday. Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos agreed to send the “political and technical” team during a telephone conversation with Bolivian President …