LOS ANGELES – Citing an effort to hold down costs, health insurance giant Blue Cross wants doctors in California to report conditions it could use to cancel new patients’ medical coverage, it was reported Tuesday. The state’s largest for-profit health insurer is sending physicians copies of health insurance applications filled …

WASHINGTON – The White House on Wednesday defended the use of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding, saying it is legal — not torture as critics argue — and has saved American lives. President Bush could authorize waterboarding for future terrorism suspects if certain criteria are met, a spokesman said. …

Two weeks before Yara, an American businesswoman, was arrested by Saudi Arabia’s religious police for sitting with a male colleague at Starbucks, she said she strolled past the very same cafe with another businessman: Neil Bush. Bush, President George W. Bush’s younger brother and CEO of the education software company …

GAHANNA, Ohio – A mother who ordered her 14-year-old son to beat up another boy and then videotaped the fight behind a suburban Columbus school has pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge. Thirty-one-year-old Tamara Saunders of Gahanna can be heard on the tape encouraging the fight that happened last …

LUBBOCK, Texas – Yet another storm swept across the central United States, burying areas still recovering from an earlier wave of severe weather, tying up air travel and killing at least four people. A 40-car pileup on Interstate 40 in northern Texas that killed at least one person was caused …

CHICAGO – A Chicago alderman recently took a weeklong challenge to survive on food stamps to see firsthand how more than a million people in Illinois live from week to week. “I don’t see anything wrong with walking in somebody else’s shoes,” said Leslie Hairston, who represents more than 65,000 …

BAGHDAD – Already a troubled system, Iraqi medical care has fallen to the brink of collapse since the U.S.-led invasion five years ago. Scores of doctors have been slain, cancer patients have to hunt down their own drugs — even IV fluid is in short supply. On Tuesday, a former …

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Atlantis’ astronauts spent their first full day in orbit Friday scrupulously checking their ship for any launch day damage, as they steered ever closer to the international space station. The shuttle was brimming with birthday presents for the station’s scientific skipper, Peggy Whitson: a $2 billion …

AUSTIN, Tex. – Austin police say the “ponytail bandit” — accused of committing a series of bank robberies with her hair pulled back through a baseball cap — has been arrested. Morgan Michelle Hoke, 21, was taken into custody by Royal Thai Police in Thailand and is awaiting deportation. Her …

KENOSHA, Wis. – A man convicted of poisoning and suffocating his wife was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without parole. “I’ve come to the conclusion that if I imposed anything less than the maximum sentence, I would have cheated the other people because your crime is so enormous, so …