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, ...

By Hannah Allam McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) BAGHDAD _ Iraqi forces who were conducting raids on militants Monday in the southern port city of Basra freed a British journalist who’d been held hostage for two months, the Iraqi military announced.

By Tim Johnson McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) BEIJING _ Bristling at criticism in the run-up to the Summer Olympics, China is lashing back at its foreign critics _ by name. Earlier this week, the state Xinhua news agency called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “disgusting.” And on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu lambasted a CNN commentator, Jack Cafferty, for his “vicious” ...