LONDON (AP) — A gray-haired woman in a dark pantsuit strides across a New York street. Her image, filmed from afar, is barely in focus. But it’s unmistakably Greta Garbo. “One of the most celebrated people in the world desperate not to be recognized,” comments Julie Christie as she begins her narration of “Garbo,” a…

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Extensive damage caused by Hurricane Katrina to oil platforms and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico sent crude oil prices briefly surging above $70 a barrel Wednesday. But prices turned lower after a top U.S. energy official said the government would release oil from its reserves. The announcement reflected how seriously…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Navy is sending four ships carrying water and other supplies to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina, while medical disaster teams and Red Cross workers from across the country converged on the devastated Gulf Coast region. The Red Cross, which sent in 185 emergency vehicles to provide meals, reported it had about…

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Along the Gulf Coast, there was simply no time to even count the dead. Engineers scrambled to plug two broken New Orleans levees and rescuers searched for survivors clinging to both hope and rooftops as the swirling, tea-colored water continued to rise. The flooding in New Orleans grew worse by the…

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Trampled, crushed against barricades or plunging into the Tigris River, more than 700 Shiite pilgrims died Wednesday when a procession across a Baghdad bridge was engulfed in panic over rumors that a suicide bomber was at large. Most of the dead were women and children, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Adnan…

NASHVILLE (AP) — Alison Krauss & Union Station received 14 Bluegrass Music Awards nominations Tuesday, including entertainer of the year. Rhonda Vincent and her band The Rage garnered eight nominations, and Doyle Lawson and his group Quicksilver got seven. “After a long year of touring, it’s a really nice reward for all the work we’ve…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats’ efforts to improve their image with religious voters after the 2004 presidential election appear to be getting off to a bumpy start. Fewer people see Democrats as friendly to religion now than felt that way a year ago, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center for the…

Josh Holloway of ‘Lost’ LOS ANGELES (AP) — There’s a network conspiracy afoot and viewers are the target. The cunning fall scheme: Keep ’em guessing.Enigmas and eerie threats pervade many of the 31 new TV series, with strange creatures above ground and underwater and secrets and unsolved deaths among friends. Even an innocent-looking sitcom turns…

Victims of Hurricane Katrina need help now … the American Red Cross is there.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration offered continued praise for Iraq’s proposed constitution Monday, despite academic and political criticism that the document partially brokered by the United States does not adequately protect religious freedom and women’s rights. The constitution’s language is often vague, sometimes deliberately so, and protections granted in one section of the document…