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CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. – A federal prosecutor says a former chief executive of the nation’s leading supplier of body armor to the military spent more than $350,000 on pens, some made of gold or silver. David H. Brooks founded DHB Industries Inc. and is being tried on accusations of falsely …

TOKYO – Japan’s coast guard says it has arrested an anti-whaling activist from New Zealand for illegally boarding a whaling ship. Coast guard spokesman Tomonobu Higashi says Peter Bethune, a member of the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd activist group, was arrested Friday. Bethune jumped aboard the whaling vessel from a Jet …

Sean Swarmer knows what it is like to overcome obstacles. A two-time cancer survivor, he was told as a child that he had just weeks to live. Now he has become the first cancer survivor to summit Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, MyFoxDC.com reported. “The chances of …

WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A Michigan plumber, who makes his living working in bathrooms, has brought a life into the world in one. Thirty-eight-year-old Brian Hines helped his wife, Andrea, deliver their son, the 7 pound, 13 1/2 ounce Daniel Michael Lee Hines, on the bathroom floor of their Oakland …

A routine knee operation led to the death of a 45-year-old woman in England after she contracted a rare flesh-eating infection, the Daily Mirror reported. Maria Garcia, a Spanish-born dance instructor, was admitted to Spire Harpenden Private Hospital in Hertfordshire, South East England last month for the surgery. But less …

Activity at mid-Atlantic factories slumped this month, according to a Federal Reserve Bank report that suggested the economy had yet to pull out of a summer soft patch. Initsmid-Atlantic factory report (search), theFederal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia (search)said its business activity index dropped to 13.4 in September from 28.5 in …

NEW ORLEANS – Mardi Gras — New Orleans’ pre-Lenten celebration that ranges from family picnics along parade routes to X-rated flesh fests on Bourbon Street — went into its final hours Tuesday with high spirits and glitzy parades. Jim Belushi and his Sacred Hearts band ushered in Mardi Gras, dancing …

BILLINGS, Mont. – A Montana paleontologist whose past discoveries brought widespread acclaim intends to plead guilty to stealing dinosaur bones from federal land, in a case that highlights the illicit trade in rare fossils. The change of plea motion from Nathan Murphy follows state and federal investigations into his alleged …

NEW YORK – Wet-combing a child’s hair may be the best way to determine if he or she has an active case of head lice, German researchers report. Dr. Claudia Jahnke of the City Health Department in Braunschweig and her colleagues found that this method identified active infestations 91 percent …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Argentina on Wednesday launched a probe into the alleged kidnapping and torture of an attorney who accused top officials of a coverup in the nation’s worst terrorist attack. The apparent abduction of Claudio Lifschitz on Friday has raised new questions about whether powerful people still have …