WASHINGTON — The Justice Department and BP announced Monday that they have finished negotiations to implement a $20 billion fund for victims of the Gulf oil spill and that BP has made a $3 billion initial deposit.

LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands – Naomi Campbell told Mia Farrow that she received a "huge diamond" from the former president of Liberia, the actress said from the witness stand Monday, contradicting the model's testimony that she didn't know the value of the gift from accused war criminal Charles Taylor.

They called it "Team Kilpatrick," a small army of family and friends dedicated to keeping a Detroit congresswoman and her brash, rising star son in office.
As election cycles rolled around, team members donned their trademark green and yellow jackets and poured into Detroit's neighborhoods to knock on doors, pass out literature and get people to the polls.
Until now, it always worked. But the formidable machine that helped keep Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick in Congress and put her son, Kwame, in the Detroit mayor's office may have finally ground to a halt with Ms. Kilpatrick's defeat this week in her bid for an eighth term in the Democratic primary.

Police in Michigan are looking for a man believed to be responsible for the stabbing deaths of five men and the wounding of eight others since May.

These were supposed to be heady days for African-Americans in Congress, with President Barack Obama occupying the White House and a half-dozen blacks holding powerful committee chairmanships and leadership jobs.
But the past two weeks have brought nothing but trouble for members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Two of Congress' most senior African-Americans, Democratic Reps. Charles Rangel of New York and Maxine Waters of California, are fighting to save their reputations and quite possibly their jobs over ethics allegations.

WASHINGTON — Christina Romer, the departing chief of President Barack Obama's economic advisory council, cast disagreements among key players on the White House economic team as a healthy part of reaching tough policy decisions.

NEW YORK — Stocks and interest rates dropped Friday after a disappointing employment report renewed concerns about a slowdown in economic growth.

WASHINGTON – Federal regulators are abandoning efforts to negotiate a compromise on so-called "network neutrality" rules intended to ensure that phone and cable TV companies cannot discriminate against Internet traffic traveling over their broadband lines.

LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands – Naomi Campbell told a war crimes tribunal Thursday that she had received some "dirty-looking stones" after a 1997 dinner party with former Liberian ruler Charles Taylor — but added that she didn't know if the stones were actually diamonds or who sent the gift.

In California, a federal judge has ruled that Proposition 8 – a state constitutional amendment approved by 52 percent of voters – is a violation of the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.