NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) - Engineers worked Monday to replace a cap over a gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico after reporting good progress in attempts to contain the worst environmental disaster in US history.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A telephone call from Russian spy Anna Chapman to her father in Moscow led US counterintelligence services to hasten the arrests of her and nine Russian agents in the United States, The Washington Post reported.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) - BP reported good progress in its high-stakes effort to fully contain the Gulf of Mexico oil leak by fixing a tighter cap over the giant gusher, now raging largely unchecked.

A University of Texas at Austin student dormitory named after a man prominent in the Ku Klux Klan in the 1800s may soon have its name changed, university officials said.

Bob Sheppard, the longtime public address announcer for the New York Yankees, died Sunday at his home in Baldwin, New York, a team spokesman said.

Two years ago, U.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US lawmakers return from a week-long break Monday to fight unfinished battles over a historic finance industry overhaul, a US Supreme Court nomination, and funding for the unpopular Afghan war.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two participants in Friday's Vienna spy swap contacted relatives and said they were well, while no details on the activities of the remaining 12 emerged, according to Moscow press reports on Saturday.

KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan insurgent group rejected on Saturday reports that it was providing intelligence on the Taliban to the government and foreign troops.

EU-US agree to share citizens bank data.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House said that it backs the "right to a free Internet" and confirmed it has held talks with Google which is threatening to pull out of China over censorship...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House on Wednesday said a 787-billion-dollar economic stimulus plan had saved or created up to two million jobs, but that its impact on quarterly economic growth had slowed...

With phone lines down and communication cut, Haitians living in America are "sick with worry" and scrambling for information about Tuesday's earthquake, while fretting about their troubled homeland and their loved ones...

NEW YORK (AFP) - Lawyers for the first detainee transferred from Guantanamo to civilian trial in the United States urged a court to drop charges because he was tortured and blocked from a speedy trial...

President Barack Obama says he has no intention of sending American troops to Yemen or Somalia.

Obama told People magazine that he still believes the centre of al-Qaida activity is along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two former Blackwater employees have been charged with the murder of two Afghans in Kabul last year and could face the death penalty, the Justice Department said...

The White House is pushing back on a report suggesting that the U.S. government learned details about the suspect in the botched Christmas Day terrorist attack while he was in the air...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will leave next week on a visit to Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea that will touch on international security issues, development and the environment...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A top military intelligence chief is calling for revamped US intelligence efforts in Afghanistan in a scathing report that says the current focus on insurgent networks is "only marginally relevant...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States has overhauled its terror watchlists after the attempted Christmas Day bombing of an airliner which has led President Barack Obama to order a widespread review of security measures...