NEW YORK – Teenage actress Lindsay Lohan’s (search) father was sentenced Friday to up to four years in prison on guilty pleas to a variety of crimes, including driving while impaired and attempted assault, a prosecutor said. Michael Lohan (search) was sentenced to 1 1/3 to 4 years for a …

NEW YORK – Oil prices bounced higher Thursday, with speculative buyers attracted by a 15 percent slide since last week that was triggered by rising U.S. inventory levels. U.S. crude oil futures settled up 91 cents to $51.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (search) after falling as …

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haitian police backed by U.N. peacekeepers (search) encircled a seaside slum controlled by heavily armed gangs on Friday, killing at least five gunmen in a firefight as the U.N. Security Council discussed efforts to pacify the nation ahead of fall elections. Between five and 10 armed civilians …

WASHINGTON – Former presidential candidate Al Gore (search) accused Senate Republicans on Wednesday of carrying out the dirty work of right wing heretics bent on undermining the federal courts by seeking an end to Democratic judicial filibusters (search). Gore said the path to a quasi-Republican dictatorship is paved by an …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The bodies of 41 Kuwaitis believed killed during the first Gulf War (search) have been unearthed in southern Iraq, one of 295 mass graves containing thousands of Saddam Hussein’s victims uncovered in the two years since U.S.-led forces invaded and ousted the dictator, Iraq’s Human Rights Minister …

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A man charged with killing a detective with the officer’s own gun inside police headquarters was ordered held without bail Monday. Esteban Carpio (search), 26, did not enter a plea in Providence court to a murder charge in the death of James Allen, who was questioning him …

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Former state Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse (search) on Monday entered the race for the Senate seat currently held by Republican Lincoln Chafee (search). Whitehouse, 49, made the announcement at his home beside his wife and children less than a week after fellow Democrat Rep. Patrick Kennedy said …

WASHINGTON – The town known for checking a groundhog’s shadow to learn if winter will last six more weeks is receiving $100,000 in taxpayer dollars this year for the Punxsatawney Weather Discovery Center Museum. Government spending watchdog Citizens Against Government Waste (search) gives a yearly assessment of congressional pet projects …

When the news that Peter Jennings had lung cancer was reported earlier this week, many WebMD users asked why doctors don’t use chest X-rays to diagnose lung cancer at an early stage, when it’s more treatable. WebMD turned to cancer expert Harold Burstein, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard …

Women who quit smoking before pregnancy could help their future grandchildren avoid asthma. “If a woman smokes while she is pregnant, both her children and her grandchildren may be more likely to have asthma as a result,” says Frank Gilliland, MD, PhD, in a news release. About 11 percent of …