Eliot Asinof

HUDSON, N.Y. -- Eliot Asinof, an author who invited readers behind the scenes of the world of sports with books including "Eight Men Out," has died. He was 88.

BEIJING -- Negotiators from Taiwan and China opened their first formal talks in almost a decade on Thursday, aiming to forge an agreement on expanded charter flights as a step toward restoring transport links severed 59 years ago.

SALT LAKE CITY -- The home of a Texas judge who ordered the removal of 440 children from a polygamist ranch is under guard after Utah and Arizona authorities warned of "enforcers" from the sect, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Residents were ordered to evacuate low-lying sections of towns along the overflowing Cedar River on Wednesday, and communities along the Mississippi River were warned that new rainfall would boost their expected flood crests.

BRENTWOOD, N.Y. -- A woman who awoke to her baby's cries was shocked to peer into the crib and find a foot-long snake wrapped around her 7-month-old daughter's leg.

WASHINGTON -- A congressman said Wednesday the FBI has found that four of his government computers have been hacked by sources working out of China.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A hedge-fund swindler who was supposed to be driving himself to prison abandoned his car on a bridge with the phrase "Suicide is Painless" scrawled on its hood, but no body has been found in the river below -- and the victims of his fraud say they doubt he killed himself.

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Hugo Chavez has tossed out a controversial intelligence decree that would have forced Venezuelans to become informants and spy on their neighbors or face prison time.

LONDON -- Protests over soaring fuel prices erupted in Asia on Tuesday as truckers in Hong Kong and tire-burning demonstrators in India and Nepal added their angry voices to protests that began last month in Europe.

KRANJ, Slovenia -- President Bush claimed progress Tuesday in his legacy-shaping drive to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, winning European promises to tighten pressure on Tehran with U.N. sanctions and possibly other new penalties.

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- A Sudanese jetliner landed in a thunderstorm and veered off the runway late Tuesday, bursting into flames and killing dozens of people, Sudanese officials said.

WELEETKA, Okla. -- The bodies of two girls were found shot to death in rural Oklahoma along a dirt road the best friends walked dozens of times to play and go to sleepovers.