MAMARONECK, New York – There was a time when Colin Montgomerie simply wanted the big win too badly. Those days, he insists, are finally behind him. Unburdened by the pressures of trying to win that elusive major, Monty was swinging well in the first round of the U.S. Open on …

WASHINGTON – Leah Fyten believes every family on her South Dakota reservation has been affected by methamphetamine use. The drug has torn apart these families, led to increases in crime and bumped mortality rates. And now, the director of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Housing Authority says, it’s affecting the reservation’s …

TOKYO – Japan’s foreign minister said Friday it was likely that the country’s soldiers would be brought home early from Iraq, amid reports that coalition troops will transfer security responsibilities in southern Iraq to local authorities next week. “We feel that conditions are falling into place for an early withdrawal,” …

CAIRO, Egypt – An Egyptian associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claims to have succeeded him as the new leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, even though an Islamic Web site said Monday that another man was in power. Brig. Gen. Carter Ham said at a Pentagon news conference on Wednesday …

DENVER – A file cabinet containing the personal information of thousands of voters disappeared since the Denver Election Commission moved to a new building, officials said, dashing hopes the records were misplaced. “We still don’t have any reason to believe that it was, quote unquote, stolen,” commission spokesman Alton Dillard …

LOS ANGELES – Academy Award-nominated actress Elisabeth Shue and her husband, Davis Guggenheim, are parents of their third child, a girl, People magazine reported. Agnes Charles Guggenheim was born Sunday, according to Shue’s publicist, Stephen Huvane. Shue and Guggenheim, who are both 42, have a son, Miles, 8, and a …

CHICAGO – Coffee may counteract alcohol’s poisonous effects on the liver and help prevent cirrhosis, researchers say. In a study of more than 125,000 people, one cup of coffee per day cut the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis by 20 percent. Four cups per day reduced the risk by 80 percent. …

WASHINGTON – The annual cost of replacing, repairing and upgrading Army equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to more than triple next year to more than $17 billion, according to Army documents obtained by the Associated Press. From 2002 to 2006, the Army spent an average of $4 billion …

WASHINGTON – Three years into the war, Iraqi security forces are still unable to operate independently of U.S.-led foreign forces, the general in charge of training them said Tuesday. The building of Iraqi police and army forces is “moving apace” and performance of the forces has been “quite remarkable” given …

NOGALES, Mexico – Patricia Lopez’s journey toward a better life in the United States ended with a nighttime robbery, a twisted ankle and a Border Patrol escort to the frontier — where she was dumped at dawn without a peso in her pocket, 1,575 miles from home. She’s far from …