Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia on Saturday, razing scores of homes, forests and farmland in the sunburned country’s worst wildfire disaster in a quarter century. At least 25 people died and the toll could rise to more than 40, police

Walls of towering flames pushed by Santa Ana wind raged through Southern California hills early Sunday after destroying hundreds of homes and forcing thousands of residents to flee.

In a June 27 story about security walls in Baghdad, The Associated Press erroneously reported that a military spokesman, Maj. Frank Garcia, cited the “significant effect” of a wall in the Baghdad district of Azamiyah. The spokesman for U.S. forces in...

Baghdad hasn’t been this quiet in years. But the respite from bloodshed comes at a high price.Up to 20 feet high in some sections.Rows after rows of barrier walls divide the city into smaller and smaller areas that protect people from bombings, sniper...

Online social networking today is more about hanging out with friends behind gated communities than exploring the World Wide Web: Visit another site and you’ll have to rebuild your profile from scratch.That’s like having to get a new driver’s license...

Google Inc.’s online communities have little traction in the United States, but the search leader continues to seek a spot in the social-networking hierarchy.First, it must contend with Facebook, the No. 2 online hangout behind MySpace.Days after Google..

Bricks shook loose and fell from buildings. Walls cracked. Books tumbled off shelves. A 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered near this southern Illinois town struck before dawn Friday, rocking skyscrapers in Chicago, 230 miles north of here, but doing...