ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A bill to be voted on by the City Council of Annapolis, Md., would ban the use of plastic bags in all retail stores. The council is scheduled to vote on the bill, which is aimed at protecting fish and birds in Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries from the choking hazards the bags present, in October, The New York Times reported Tuesday. The ban would require stores to do away with plastic ... [full story]

NEW ORLEANS -- A Louisiana doctor will not face charges related to the deaths of several Hurricane Katrina victims, a New Orleans special grand jury ruled Tuesday. While New Orleans physician Anna Pou had been accused of taking part in the euthanization of several patients during the 2005 natural disaster, the Criminal District Court grand jury ruled against any possible indictments against her, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported. The court's ruling ends a year-long investigation ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- Documents obtained by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reveal the White House briefed top administration diplomats on Republican electoral prospects. The documents detail the Bush administration's efforts to keep appointees involved in foreign policy in the loop when it came to Republican election goals for congressional and gubernatorial races, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. The briefings included a meeting prior to the 2002 midterm elections that highlighted 55 critical House races and critical ... [full story]

CHESHIRE, Conn. -- Two suspects were in custody in Connecticut for allegedly wounding a doctor and killing his wife and two daughters in their Connecticut home. Dr. William Petit Jr., 50, an endocrinologist, was listed in serious but stable condition with a head wound, The New Haven (Conn.) Journal Register reported Tuesday. Petit's wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and his daughters, Hayley, 18, and Michaela, 11, were found dead Monday in the family's upscale home in ... [full story]

EUREKA, Calif. -- A helicopter carrying water to firefighters at a wildfire in northern California crashed and killed the pilot and started another fire. Officials said the contract helicopter had one unidentified pilot on board when it crashed Monday morning near Happy Camp, Calif., near the Oregon border, the Eureka (Calif.) Reporter said Tuesday. Fire Information Officer Duane Lyon said the craft was carrying a collapsible water container to crews battling a fire in Klamath ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' career was on the line Tuesday as he faced questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington. The Democrat-controlled committee has made no secret it wants Gonzales removed in light of recent investigations that eight U.S. attorneys were fired for partisan reasons. Monday, Gonzales released a statement he prepared for the committee in which he said the partisan allegations "have been troubling to hear," but said he was ... [full story]

WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) -- The chief U.S. negotiator at the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program said there cannot be normalization of relations without denuclearization. Christopher Hill, who returned to Washington after talks in Beijing with his counterparts from Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas, was asked about possibility of normalizing U.S.-North Korea relations, the Voice of America reported Tuesday. "Any effort to normalize our relationship really hits a brick wall over ... [full story]

SAN FRANCISCO -- A lawsuit filed Monday accuses the U.S. government of failing to provide proper care to injured military personnel wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. The suit filed in San Francisco charges the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs with allowing an "unconscionable" backlog of 600,000 claims, including care for veterans with mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, the Los Angeles Times said. "A number of veterans have committed suicide shortly after having ... [full story]

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, sentenced to death for purposely infecting Libyan children with HIV, have left Libya and received pardons. The six medial personnel were flown out of Libya and to Sofia where Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov pardoned the five nurses and the doctor, who was given Bulgarian citizenship, the Bulgarian news agency SNA reported. The six people spent eight years in Libyan prisons charged with deliberately infecting more ... [full story]

BAGHDAD -- A booby-trapped truck in the southern Iraq Shiite city of Hilla exploded near a children's hospital Tuesday, killing at least 22 people and injuring 60 others. A police spokesman told Kuwait's KUNA news agency the truck had been fully packed with explosives and that many of the injuries were severe. Hilla is about 60 miles south of Baghdad, where a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol exploded. One person was killed and three ... [full story]