DUANESBURG, N.Y. – A 29-year-old man who plunged to his death from a skydiving plane with no parachute on Saturday committed suicide, state police said. Sloan Carafello of Schenectady was described as an observer on the small plane. Witnesses say he leaped out behind three parachuters. An autopsy on Sunday …

LONDON – Britain’s Department of Health has proposed banning tobacco companies from putting any logos or branding on cigarette packs. One proposal for preventing young people from smoking is to sell cigarettes in plain black-and-white boxes with nothing on them but health warnings. The British government is also considering banning …

Police are calling a pregnant soldier’s death “suspicious” after officials found her body Sunday at a Fayetteville, N.C., motel just days after she arrived at Fort Bragg from Germany. Spc. Megan Lynn Touma was identified Tuesday, two days after her body was found in a motel room when guests complained …

VIENNA, Austria – More than ever before, authorities waging the global war on drugs are up against real insurgents. Worldwide, illicit cultivation of opium and coca — the raw materials for heroin and cocaine — is rising as militants in Afghanistan, Colombia and Burma consolidate their control of key drug-producing …

BOSTON – A federal judge has ruled that the state’s prison system violated a convicted child killer’s civil rights by denying him a vegan diet. U.S. Chief District Judge Mark Wolf ruled this week that the Department of Correction violated federal law protecting religious freedom and ordered the department to …

LA PAZ, Bolivia – Bolivian officials say they have arrested two men who may have been planning to kill President Evo Morales. Police say the two were arrested at an airport minutes before Morales was supposed to arrive there. One had a rifle with a telescopic sight. Deputy Cabinet minister …

MALIBU, California – A paparazzo trying to photograph Matthew McConaughey at the beach told police he was attacked by a mob of surfers who threw his camera in the ocean. The 29-year-old photojournalist told sheriff’s deputies that a large group of surfers near Paradise Cove in Malibu approached him and …

This is a rush transcript from “America’s Election HQ,” June 9, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. MEGYN KELLY, CO-HOST: Well, the general election is officially underway and some Republicans are downright worried about their candidate. They are concerned that the McCain …

LOS ANGELES – The jurors have been warned. Eight men and six women will watch hours of videos depicting extreme fetishes after opening arguments Wednesday in the obscenity trial of self-professed “shock artist” Ira Isaacs. Federal prosecutors think they can prove his movies violate community obscenity standards, even in the …

MILWAUKEE – Dan Deming had heard the rumors about the buried treasure on his central Wisconsin farm. At first he made some halfhearted attempts to find it, and then searched in earnest for two or three years after receiving a metal detector for his birthday. “I don’t know what I …