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State Department employees have snooped inside the passport files of all three presidential contenders. The State Department has apologized and is investigating. Two employees have been fired. The Justice Department is weighing whether a criminal investigation is warranted.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, faced tough questions on Iraq from members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The three American military contractors who were among the 15 hostages rescued from Colombian leftist rebels have returned home safe. The rescue operation was assisted by quick thinking, acting skills and Che Guevara T-shirts.

France shut down Thursday as the country experienced a general strike. The action, called by eight of the country's biggest trade unions, is intended to protest the effects of the global recession, and to demand that the government make protecting employment its top priority.

President Barack Obama suffered a big setback Tuesday when two of his nominees withdrew their names from consideration for top administration jobs. Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader, pulled his nomination to be secretary of Health and Human Services. Nancy Killefer withdrew her name from consideration as Mr. Obama's chief government performance officer.

When a video game store closed in 1998, hundreds of sealed Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis cartridges were stored and forgotten. Now, a collection of the top-graded items has been appraised.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says hand grenade fragments were found in the bodies of people who died in the Aug. 23 crash of mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's plane.

The water bird was named a conservation organization's Bird of the Century after the Last Week Tonight host took out billboard ads across the globe and hyped the threatened species on his show.

The Oprah Book Club helped put Janet Fitch's debut novel on the top of the bestseller list. Now the author is back with her sophomore novel, a tale of 1980s Los Angeles that, much like her first novel, is full of rich characters and equally saturated in loss and despair.

For the sixth year in a row, more than 10,000 civilians were killed or injured in armed conflict in Afghanistan, according to the United Nations. Total casualties in the past decade topped 100,000.