BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Diana Ross (search) is back and putting her best face forward. But the question is: Where does she go from here? “I keep asking myself that,” said Ross, on hand to roll out a new line of beauty products she is promoting for M–A-C Cosmetics (search). …

UNITED NATIONS – Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) appointed a new chief of staff Monday in the first of what he described as a “series of changes” among senior U.N. personnel. Mark Malloch Brown (search), currently the administrator for the U.N. Development Program, will begin his new job as Annan’s right-hand …

WASHINGTON – The fight against terrorism would be undermined by a law to protect reporters from going to jail when they refuse to reveal their sources, the Bush administration said Wednesday. Democrats, meanwhile, continued to pelt the White House over presidential adviser Karl Rove’s (search) role in the leak of …

LONDON – French President Jacques Chirac’s (search) low opinion of British cuisine, which he reportedly dubbed the worst in Europe after Finland, has started a food fight with London and sparked the wrath of Britain’s press. London’s newspapers, which regularly take offense at the French, lashed out at Chirac’s jokes …

NEW YORK – The U.S. services sector (search) grew more strongly than expected in June, bolstered by stronger employment but tempered by hints of rising inflation, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s (search) survey published Wednesday. The Institute for Supply Management’s services index rose to 62.2 in June, the …

MUSAYYIB, Iraq – Homicide bombers killed 22 people in the Baghdad (search) area Sunday, as insurgents stepped up a relentless campaign that claimed more than 90 lives a night before in a bombing near a Shiite mosque south of the capital. The Iraqi Special Tribunal (search) filed its first criminal …

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Thursday endorsed a free trade agreement with six Latin American nations, handing a major win to President Bush, who has promoted the accord as a mark of U.S. commitment to democracy and prosperity in the hemisphere. The vote was 54-45 in favor of the Central …

GUNLOCK, Utah – A wildfire driven by wind during the night threatened a southern Utah (search) community on Saturday just miles from a town that had been ordered evacuated. State and Washington County officials made preparations to issue an evacuation order for the several hundred residents of Veyo if the …

WASHINGTON – Actor Michael J. Fox (search) is pushing Congress hard to lift President Bush’s restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. “Embryonic stem cell research (search) holds enormous promise,” said Fox, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, in remarks prepared for a Capitol Hill news conference on Wednesday. “More federal funding …

WASHINGTON – Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist (search), who suffers from thyroid cancer, checked out of the hospital Thursday after staying two nights to have a fever monitored. The 80-year-old Rehnquist was taken by ambulance to Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., on Tuesday night and was admitted for observation …