RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia’s king waived a flogging sentence on a female journalist charged for involvement in a risque TV show, the second such pardoning of such a high profile case by the monarch in recent years. King Abdullah’s decision to waive 22-year-old journalist Rozanna al-Yami’s sentence of …

Investigators said they have no clues three days after a 7-year-old girl in North Florida disappeared while walking home from school, as the girl’s mother made a tearful plea for the child’s return. Somer Thompson’s mother Dina said she assumes someone has her daughter. Police suspect foul play after initial …

The obesity rate in Huntington, W. Va. is nearly double the national average, which is why celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is hosting a reality show that will challenge the town’s residents to lose weight. While dietary experts say Oliver’s efforts can’t hurt, they also caution that expecting residents of Huntington …

MIAMI – Forecasters say Hurricane Rick is the strongest hurricane in the eastern north Pacific Ocean in more than a decade. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Rick turned into an “extremely dangerous” Category 5 storm on Saturday with sustained winds reaching 180 mph. At 11 p.m. EDT Saturday, the …

BEIJING – Nearly 1,000 children in a central Chinese province have tested positive for excessive lead in their blood, state media reported Tuesday, the latest of several lead poisoning cases involving thousands of children across the country. After reports of large-scale lead poisoning in neighboring Shaanxi province, the health bureau …

It seems not only firefighters are saving felines stuck in tricky predicaments these days. Members of the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit were called to rescue a cat stuck in a car’s engine, MyFOXNY.com reported. The cat was wedged in a 2005 Nissan Murano for two miles before the driver pulled …

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan – Kyrgyz lawmakers have given initial support for a deal to allow French and Spanish armed forces to use a U.S. air base crucial to operations in nearby Afghanistan. The Kyrgyz parliament’s International Affairs Committee voted Monday to approve a one-year deal giving the two European nations permission …

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson the singer was also Michael Jackson the billion-dollar business. Yet after selling more than 61 million albums in the U.S. and having a decade-long attraction open at Disney theme parks, the “King of Pop” died Thursday at age 50 reportedly awash in about $400 million …

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea is preparing to test-fire a medium-range missile capable of reaching all of South Korea and most of Japan, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted a lawmaker as saying on Tuesday after a defense briefing. According to the report, Pyongyang is preparing the mid-range missile …

Supermodel Julia Voth is known for her sexy photospreads and traffic-stopping ad campaigns for fashion heavies like Calvin Klein and Uniqlo. But now Voth is branching out, starring in Justin Timberlake’s new MTV series “The Phone” and the film “Bitch Slap,” which premiered in Cannes last month. Which is where …