After watching the twists and turns of negotiations with Iran over the last year, I’m convinced that a savvy mom could negotiate a better deal than our experienced diplomats. Why? Because our diplomats seem lacking in good, old-fashioned common sense, which parents need in abundance to survive. I’ve studied nuclear …

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso – Family members gathered in Ouagadougou to remember loved ones who died a year ago in a plane crash that killed 116 people. Relatives set up a vigil and shared prayers on Friday near construction of a monument that will display the names of the victims of …

MILAN – Italian oil and gas company Eni says it lost 113 million euros ($124 million) in the second quarter due to a sharp decline in oil prices. Eni said Thursday that the loss compared with a net profit of 658 million euros in the same period last year. Eni …

A blind phone hacker from the Boston area just turned 19 — and will be spending the next 11 years in federal prison. Matthew Weigman, a.k.a. “Li’l Hacker,” of Revere, Mass., was sentenced to 135 months by a federal judge in Dallas Friday, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to retaliate …

Drugmakers are on track to have a vaccine against the new H1N1 strain of flu ready for the northern hemisphere autumn after receiving seed virus samples, company officials said on Wednesday. Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Solvay all said their vaccine teams had obtained the new influenza A (H1N1) seed virus …

“Hills” star Stephanie Pratt is opening up about her struggle with bulimia and the agony of working with her skinny co-stars, all while posing in a bikini on the cover of Us magazine. The 23-year-old star – and sister to reality television’s most hated man Spencer Pratt – says the …

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood nursed another big weekend hangover. The Warner Bros. comedy “The Hangover” hauled in $33.4 million to remain the top box-office draw for a second-straight weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. The tale of a Las Vegas bachelor party gone to extremes raised its total to $105.4 …

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian state radio says the country’s parliament has approved a bill earmarking $20 million to support militant groups opposing the West. It was not immediately clear which groups would receive funding from Iran, but Tehran already backs the Islamic militants Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the …

LONDON – An auction house says it is selling a rare first edition of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” found in a family’s guest lavatory in southern England. Christie’s auction house said Sunday the book — one of around 1,250 copies first printed in 1859 — had been …

PARIS – A French lawmaker says she has proposed a bill to ban corporal punishment, including spanking of children. National Assembly member and pediatrician Edwige Antier says she believes spanking makes children more “sly, lying and aggressive.” The lawmaker says that after 38 years of medical practice she believes that …