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NEW YORK – Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. (MMC), the nation’s largest insurance brokerage, on Tuesday reported a wider-than-expected loss of $676 million for the fourth quarter as it absorbed a host of restructuring charges, regulatory fines and related expenses. The New York-based company also announced several steps aimed at …

This is a partial transcript of “The Big Story With John Gibson,” March 24, 2005, that has been edited for clarity. JOHN GIBSON, HOST: “CSI” all over again. A forensic scientist taking the stand in the Michael Jackson (search) child molestation trial, talking about the fingerprints found on Jacko’s adult …

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Prosecutors showed jurors in the Michael Jackson (search) case a series of sexually explicit magazines, DVDs and videos seized from Neverland Ranch (search), but witnesses acknowledged there was no evidence the singer had shown them to the boy he is accused of molesting. With his parents …

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The more President Bush stumps for restructuring Social Security (search), the less popular his own plan seems to become. His poll ratings are dropping, too, but Bush says he is not deterred. “I’m going to be stubborn. And we’re going to keep working this,” Bush told …

WASHINGTON – Support for President Bush’s mission of spreading democracy throughout the world, especially the Mideast, is winning accolades from an unlikely source — New Mexico’s Gov. Bill Richardson (search), a prominent Democrat often mentioned as a possible presidential candidate. Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (search) …

MANILA, Philippines – At least 27 elementary school children died and another 100 were hospitalized after eating a snack during morning recess Wednesday in the southern Philippines (search), officials said. Francisca Doliente, said her 9-year-old niece Arve Tamor was given some of the deep-fried caramelized cassava (search) by a classmate …

VATICAN CITY – People’s hands flew to their faces and some wept as they witnessed Pope John Paul II’s (search) struggle in front of a microphone, where he managed only a few sounds before he gave up and delivered his Easter blessing with a sign of the cross. Many applauded …

MOSCOW – Russia’s foreign minister said Friday that Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon (search) should also include the pullout of intelligence agents. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow was closely watching the Syrian troop movements into Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley (search). “We are examining the recent development of events,” Lavrov said …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Ukraine withdrew 150 servicemen from Iraq on Saturday, beginning a gradual pullout, as Shiite and Kurdish politicians refined plans to form a coalition government that officials said includes an agreement not to turn the country into an Islamic state. In Mosul (search), gunmen killed three policemen and …

TOKYO – Five bodies were found Wednesday in a car parked by a river in western Japan (search) in what apparently was the latest in a slew of group suicides, police said. The four men and a woman, all of them believed to be in their 20s, were found slumped …