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DENVER – It’s the stuff movies are made of — literally: A delivery man says he rescued Howard Hughes after he found him face down and bloodied in the desert, so the reclusive billionaire left him $156 million in a hand-scrawled will as a reward. A jury didn’t buy it …

LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles judge has dismissed a sexual battery charge against “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis because prosecutors said they were unable to contact his accuser. The judge dismissed the misdemeanor count on Thursday after city prosecutors said they were unable to proceed because they had …

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Dozens of heavily armed gunmen kidnapped two Italian aid workers and their Somali colleague in southern Somalia on Wednesday in what a government official described as a “terrorist act.” Police are pursuing the kidnappers, government spokesman Abdi Haji Gobdon said. “The kidnapping of two Italian aid workers …

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A police chief says a homicide bomber has killed four civilians and wounded eight other people in southern Afghanistan. Helmand provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal says the target of Sunday’s attack was a district police chief in the town of Musa Qala. Andiwal said five policemen …

MADISON, Wis. – Two children and their mother lived for about two months with the decaying body of a 90-year-old woman on the toilet of their home’s only bathroom, on the advice of a religious “superior” who claimed the corpse would come back to life, authorities said Friday. The children …

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon’s internal watchdog is investigating a government public relations effort that relied on retired military officers to defend the administration’s Iraq war policies. The House this past week passed an amendment to a defense authorization bill calling for reviews by both the inspector general’s office and the …

WINSLOW, Maine – A Maine woman is apparently OK after an extended stay in a walk-in freezer. Police say the woman was trapped for four hours Saturday in a freezer at Smiley’s Old Fashion Ice Cream place in Winslow. Police Officer Josh Veilleux says the temperature was 10 below in …

WASHINGTON – Sen. Sam Brownback says the Chinese government is pressuring U.S. hotels in Beijing to monitor their Internet traffic in the run-up to the Olympic games this summer. Brownback, R-Kan., joined by other congressional human rights activists at a Capitol Hill park in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, also called …

RANGOON, Burma – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the junta in Burma, also known as Myanmar, agreed Friday to allow all aid workers into the country after weeks of refusing access to foreign relief experts seeking to help cyclone survivors. Ban said the government also agreed to let in aid …

NEW YORK – French cosmetics giant Lancome and Uma Thurman are wrangling over the use of her name and image in an advertising campaign. The company asked for a ruling against the actress, who it says is demanding $1 million for unauthorized use of her name and face on Canadian …