WASHINGTON – President Bush gave a boost Tuesday to Croatia‘s aspirations to join NATO, saying it should be admitted to the Western alliance within two years. Bush said he would recommend the 2008 timetable when he attends a NATO summit next month in Riga, Latvia. He also said he supports …

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said Friday it is on schedule to deliver the new Windows Vista operating system and agreed to changes in several key sectors in an attempt to soothe European and Korean antitrust worries. The Redmond, Wash., software company said it still plans to deliver the …

WASHINGTON – Political donors no longer have to wait through the coy posturing or Hamlet-like indecision of would-be presidential candidates to contribute money to their potential campaigns. Starting this week, ActBlue, a political action committee devoted to raising money through the Internet for Democratic candidates, will become a repository for …

NEW YORK – Firefighters extinguished an apartment blaze only to discover the body of a man who had been bound with duct tape before being set aflame, police said Tuesday. Officials had not been able to identify the man, who was found late Monday evening when firefighters responded to a …

CHARLESTON, S.C. – One thing on the Charleston NAACP’s wish list this holiday season is more black Santas. “People don’t want to talk about it. Santa is never black,” said Dot Scott, president of the Charleston branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She said children …

CAIRO, Egypt – Egypt’s president came out strongly against hanging Saddam Hussein, saying in remarks published Thursday that it could make Iraq explode into more violence. The statement from President Hosni Mubarak of Eygpt broke an uneasy silence among Arab leaders over Sunday’s verdict by an Iraqi court, which convicted …

This is a partial transcript of “The Big Story With John Gibson,” November 1, 2006, that has been edited for clarity. JOHN GIBSON, HOST: Tonight’s big talker story: Donald Trump is in trouble. The real estate mogul has offended his neighborhood or neighbors in the chic oceanside town of Palm …

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. – Autopsies on the bodies of four women found in a drainage ditch behind a string of seedy motels just outside Atlantic City determined that two were murdered — strangled by a rope or cord — but the other two bodies were too badly decomposed for …

BOSTON – A Boston businessman’s proposal to build a 1,000-foot, 75-story glass-and-steel building that would tower over all others is a bold move in a city that favors colonial era church steeples over skyscrapers. Steve Belkin’s proposed tower would top the city’s current tallest building by more than 200 feet …

BAGHDAD – Despite reports that Syria denounced a violent U.S. Special Operations raid that took place near the Iraq border last week, intelligence officials in Damascus may have approved the attack, the London Times reports. The operation, which was intended to be fast and bloodless, was meant to target Al …