ST. LOUIS – No way was Rick Jones going to be a couch potato. An athlete and youth coach who works out regularly, Jones dreams of someday hiking the Grand Canyon. A painful, arthritic hip started to slow him down, but at 52, he refused. Then he heard about a …

ZAMZAM, Sudan – Armed with heavy automatic rifles and a rocket launcher, 18 African Union peacekeepers warily patrol Zamzam, a sprawling camp of thatched huts and makeshift tents where some 40,000 people have sought refuge from Darfur‘s violence. Their numbers were no match for the thousands of armed men in …

WASHINGTON – A prosecutor said Monday that a Bush administration official chose the interests of lobbyist Jack Abramoff over those of the public and should be convicted of covering up what he had done. David Safavian, the former chief of staff at the General Services Administration, “was trying to hide …

This is a partial transcript of “The Big Story With John Gibson,” June 13, 2006, that has been edited for clarity. JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO, GUEST HOST: Resetting our top story Tuesday: President Bush surprised Iraqi leaders and U.S. troops by arriving in Baghdad’s Green Zone. The trip comes less than …

SAN’A, Yemen – The father of a Yemeni detainee found hanged in his Guantanamo cell said Sunday he will only receive his son’s body for burial once an international investigation is launched into the death. Salah al-Aslami, 28, and two Saudi inmates committed suicide in separate cells at Guantanamo on …

ORLANDO, Fla. – Imagine a drive-in movie screen that floats 1,000 feet in the air — and travels 15 mph. An Orlando-based blimp company called The Lightship Group has effectively made one, and it could be coming to a night sky near you. The company recently received Federal Aviation Administration …

WASHINGTON – In a defeat for President Bush, Republican congressional leaders said Tuesday that broad immigration legislation is all but doomed for the year, a victim of election-year concerns in the House and conservatives’ implacable opposition to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. “Our number one priority is to secure …

NEW ORLEANS – The AFL-CIO plans to invest $700 million in housing and other projects to help rebuild this city left staggered by housing shortages and other infrastructure problems after Hurricane Katrina. The money will come from the union federation’s pension fund and its lenders — investments that should make …

NEW YORK – A federal judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors unconstitutionally pressured the accounting firm KPMG into cutting off legal fees for 16 former employees charged with setting up illegal tax shelters. In a harshly worded opinion, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan offered strong criticism of a Justice Department …

BEIJING – The trial of a Chinese researcher for The New York Times who is accused of fraud and leaking state secrets ended Friday after one day, his lawyer said. A lawyer for Zhao Yan said the closed trial concluded after an eight-hour session at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate …