NAUGATUCK, Conn. – A Connecticut man is facing sexual assault charges, accused of licking a girl’s face after she hit him with a ball. Naugatuck police say 49-nine-year-old Richard Giattino chased down the 12-year-old girl, grabbed her and licked her face. Police say Giattino told them he was in his …

SAN DIEGO – A 16-year-old girl has been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle 12 illegal immigrants while posing as a construction worker on the border fence in San Diego. The Border Patrol says the girl, wearing a yellow hard hat and safety vest, was apprehended early Thursday. She was …

Enforcement of laws banning tobacco sales to minors has curbed U.S. teenagers’ smoking rates, a new study finds. Between 1997 and 2003, merchants’ increasing compliance with tobacco- sales laws led to a 21 percent reduction in the number of 10th-graders who were daily smokers, researchers report in the online journal …

INDIANAPOLIS – A 77-year-old woman suffered a fatal stab wound while trying to break up a sword fight Thursday between her grandson and brother-in-law, police said. An autopsy determined Franziska Stegbauer died of a wound from one of the swords, police Sgt. Matthew Mount said. Both men were hospitalized with …

Dr. Thomas Lee painstakingly scrapes away spiderweb-like tentacles deep inside a premature baby’s eye, scar tissue that is pulling apart the infant’s retina. “It’s like you’re peeling back the layers of an onion,” is how Lee, of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, describes a mysterious disease’s damage to the child’s eye. …

Gloria Lenhoff has a rare genetic condition known as Williams syndrome, which causes medical problems and developmental delays. But it also let’s her memorize any song, in any language, within minutes. For Lenhoff, 54, it means an IQ of 55 and the gift of music – she can hear a …

LOS ANGELES – A defense attorney for a Missouri mother involved with her daugther in an Internet hoax on another 13-year-old girl who subsequently committed suicide says a presentencing report recommends probation for his client. Lawyer Dean Steward said in court documents filed on Sunday that probation officials also suggested …

Camp Liberty can hold about 14,000 troops. Camp Liberty has a chapel, Moral Recreation and Welfare building, PX shoppette, barber shop, Internet cafe, gym and more. Camp Liberty lies northeast of Baghdad International Airport. The land near the camp is a former hunting reserve for Saddam Hussein. Images of Camp …

KABUL – The Afghan government quietly dumped more than 1,000 Shiite texts and other books from Iran into a river after a local governor complained that their content insulted the country’s Sunni majority. The move appeared to be an attempt by President Hamid Karzai’s U.S.-backed government to smooth over a …

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne met German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday to discuss his bid for ailing General Motors Corp.’s Opel unit as a decision on the company’s future nears. Marchionne drove out of the chancellery in a black Fiat car after about an hour without speaking to reporters. Merkel also …