A bomb-sniffing dog that disappeared during a fierce battle in Afghanistan between Australian troops and militant fighters has been found and returned to its unit after more than a year.

More than 2,000 DVDs explaining the causes, conflicts and consequences of the Civil War have been mailed to all public schools in Virginia.

CNN’s Lou Dobbs, a lightning rod for criticism following his transition from a business journalist to an opinionated anchor on such issues as illegal immigration, told viewers on Wednesday that he was quitting his nightly show to pursue new opportunities.

If history is any judge, the Army might find it challenging to impose the death penalty on the suspect in the bloodiest mass shooting ever on a U.S. military base.

Nidal Malik Hasan is suspected of killing 12 soldiers and one civilian in last Thursday’s shooting spree at Fort Hood.

Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church.

A Virginia Tech center for student collaboration in a wing that was the site of mass shootings in 2007 has been named for an engineering professor who was slain.

Convicted slumlord Oliver C. Lawrence will get to experience life in the Richmond City Jail and one of his own neglected rental properties.

A Danville man died Saturday night as a result of a motorcycle accident in Pittsylvania County.

Despite losing more than 600 jobs and closing 19 interstate highway rest areas this summer because of Virginia’s budget crisis, Virginia Department of Transportation officials say they have the manpower, materials and equipment to keep the roads clear of ice and snow this winter.

JARRATT — John Allen Muhammad, the mastermind behind the sniper attacks that left 10 dead, was executed Tuesday as relatives of the victims watched, reliving the killing spree that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area for three weeks in October 2002.

History told Virginia Democrats it wasn’t going to be easy.

Big win notwithstanding, Republican Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell will start his reign hampered by a slashed state budget, a politically divided legislature and a sour economy.

The founder of a restaurant chain known for his religious views is lending a hand to a Virginia group’s attempt to build a Christian school system.

The man accused of killing 13 people and wounding 29 at Fort Hood is able to talk, a hospital spokesman said Monday, but it’s unknown when investigators might take advantage of his improving health to press forward with their probe into the shooting spree.

Three people have been injured in the crash of a small Virginia-registered plane.

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to block Tuesday’s scheduled execution of sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad.

On Oct. 24, police captured John Allen Muhammad and teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo at a rest stop 50 miles northwest of D.C. The nerve-tingling terror that had gripped the region’s 5.4 million people and captivated the nation was over.

Across Fort Hood, signs point to a post on the mend after Thursday’s shooting spree that killed 13 and wounded another 29. Accused gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, shot in the torso by civilian police to end the rampage, was in critical but stable condition and breathing on his own at an Army hospital in San Antonio.

Hundreds of volunteers are wrapping up after three days of searching for missing Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, only to find nothing.

Virginia Gov-elect Bob McDonnell said this morning that he hasn’t read the entire health-care bill that narrowly passed the House of Representatives last night but that the “public option does not seem to be something that’s going to help us in Virginia.“

Two of the six Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation last night voted against President Barack Obama’s 10-year, $1.2 trillion health-care reform plan.

A gunman opened fire Friday in the offices of an engineering firm where he was let go more than two years ago, killing one person and injuring five others.

Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli is looking to predecessors from both parties for guidance on running the state’s law office, as well as enlisting the lawyer who beat Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell in court on a transportation fix that was ruled unconstitutional.

Hundreds of volunteers jammed into the Cavalier Inn on Thursday night to help organizers prepare for a community search for clues in last month’s disappearance of a young woman in Charlottesville.

With Tuesday’s election in the history books, one Republican candidate for Congress in 2010 isn’t wasting time getting to know the 5th District.

He liked his Mountain Dew cold and his pencils sharpened. And he loved Loretta Lynn.

Political pundits looking beyond the state’s GOP sweep warn that Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th District is on shaky ground in 2010 because the district’s constituents are unhappy with national policies.

The family of Morgan D. Harrington is seeking volunteers to redouble the efforts to locate the Virginia Tech student who disappeared Oct. 17 after leaving the John Paul Jones Arena.

In his first day as governor-elect, Bob McDonnell yesterday announced his transition committee leaders, including Tom Farrell, chairman and CEO of the state’s largest utility, Dominion Resources.