By Raviya Ismail McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) BAGHDAD _ U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Baghdad Sunday for an unannounced visit one day after the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened an all-out war against the Iraqi government.

By Raviya H. Ismail McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) BAGHDAD _ Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki criticized neighboring countries Tuesday as not doing enough to help Iraq root out militancy and pledged to continue his campaign against rogue Shiite Muslim militias.

By Saeed Shah McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan _ Pakistan’s new government is negotiating a peace deal with militants in the Taliban-controlled Waziristan region, the rugged mountainous area that’s thought to be Osama bin Laden’s refuge.

By Eric Ferreri McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) RALEIGH, N.C. _ In groups of 32, protestors around the nation will lie on the ground for three minutes Wednesday, an attempt to bring light to gun laws they say are too lax. This will occur at least 80 times in 33 states, and the choice of the day _ one year after a ...

By Robert S. Boyd McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) Jim Bergquist, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, holds a keyboard to control the world’s most accurate clock. It’s based on the “ticks” produced by a single atom of mercury contained at near-absolute zero temperature in the silver cylinder. (Geoffrey Wheeler/NIST/MCT) WASHINGTON _ As scientists learn ...

By Bruce Japsen Chicago Tribune (MCT) CHICAGO _ Social Security numbers, pharmacy records and other personal health data from about 130,000 people covered by health insurance giant Wellpoint Inc. were left open for possible breach on the Internet, the health insurance giant confirmed Tuesday.

Akron Beacon Journal (MCT) AKRON, Ohio _ Eagles rocker Joe Walsh has funded the first performance-based scholarship in Kent State University’s College of the Arts. The $50,000 award will underwrite an annual $10,000 scholarship for the next five years for one or more incoming freshmen. The former KSU student told the Akron Beacon Journal in 2001 that his two years ...

By Emily Ramshaw The Dallas Morning News (MCT) AUSTIN _ Child Protective Services officials investigating abuse at a West Texas polygamist compound fired back on Tuesday against accusations that they wrongfully separated women from the compound from their children _ saying they have been unable to get information out of the kids in the current environment.

By Tim Johnson McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) URUMQI, China _ The International Olympics chief said Thursday that the Summer Games scheduled for August in China are in “crisis” amid protests following the Olympic torch, and the sense of emergency surrounding the games grew Thursday when China declared that it had smashed a Muslim terrorist ring that was plotting to kidnap Olympic ...

By Joel Greenberg Chicago Tribune (MCT) JERUSALEM _ Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is getting a cool reception in Israel, where he arrived on Sunday at the start of a nine-day Middle East tour that he said would likely include a meeting with Hamas leaders in Syria. Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who brokered the first Arab-Israeli peace accord, ...