It’s showdown time on Benghazi: South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has put a hold on all Obama administration executive branch nominees until the White House lets the Benghazi survivors testify before Congress. If he succeeds, we might finally find out what happened September 11, 2012. But if Senator Graham’s effort …

BEIJING – A lawyer says a trial against three Chinese activists has been aborted after the defense demanded that no member of the ruling Communist Party should be on the bench to hear charges against the defendants of inciting to subvert state power. Lawyer Zhang Xuezhong said Friday that his …

BERKELEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. – Authorities say a teenager was killed when a stone slab weighing about 650 pounds fell on him outside a southern New Jersey business that makes countertops. Ocean County prosecutors say the 17-year-old was found at about 6:40 a.m. Saturday at Stone N’ Counters South LLC in …

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Miguel Facusse, a wealthy Honduran businessman involved in a two-decade fight with poor farmers who invaded his palm plantations on the Atlantic coast, died Tuesday in the capital, his family said. He was 91. The family did not report the cause of death for Facusse, who was …

FLINT, Mich. – Relatives of a former U.S. Marine held in an Iranian prison since 2011 say they’re traveling to Vienna to press for his release as diplomats meet to discuss limits on Tehran’s nuclear program. In a statement released Thursday, Amir Hekmati’s family says his father’s health is deteriorating. …

TOLEDO, Ohio – Ownership of secret recipes and ingredients from an Ohio restaurant made famous on the TV series “M-A-S-H” is at the center of a legal dispute between a grandson of the original owner and the current ownership group. The (Toledo) Blade reports (http://bit.ly/1JlijZi ) that Tony Packo’s Toledo …

PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Police say a fight over gumbo spices ended with the fatal stabbing of a Florida restaurant worker and former Florida State mascot. Panama City police say 33-year-old Caleb Joshua Halley was working at Buddy’s Seafood Market last Tuesday when he and a co-worker, 26-year-old Orlando Thompson, …

TALLINN, Estonia – Estonia’s foreign minister says she is resigning following a local court ruling that connected her to the bankruptcy of her father’s freight company and ordered her and other defendants to pay claims to creditors. Foreign Minister Keit Pentus-Rosimannus said Wednesday that she disagrees with the Tallinn appeal …

QUITO, Ecuador – Thousands of people turned out for protest marches across Ecuador on Thursday to call for the ouster of President Rafael Correa just three days before a visit by Pope Francis. Demonstrations were reported in the South American country’s three biggest cities, Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca, as well …

BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine – Police have found three bodies inside two houses in the coastal Maine town of Boothbay Harbor, and authorities believe they are from the same family. A spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety says two bodies were found Saturday inside a home on Lakeside Drive …