Byline: Jon Chesto Connecticut's Webster Financial Corp. made a bold bid yesterday to join New England banking's major leagues by unveiling a deal to acquire FirstFed America Bancorp Inc., of Swansea, for about $465 million. The deal lets the parent firm...

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The number of Americans filing firstme claims for unemployment benefits rose sharply in early July, the government said Thursday, dampening hope for anything more than minimal improvement in the unemployment rate this month. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims...

Pregnant women, babies and toddlers would join doctors, emergency workers and soldiers at the head of the line for scarce vaccine if a super-strain of flu triggers the next pandemic, says a draft government plan to be released Tuesday.Once more vaccine is brewed, older children...

If "The Bourne Ultimatum" is the best of the summer threes, "Rush Hour 3" is easily the worst.Director Brett Ratner, who built a career on this buddy cop franchise, has cobbled together a lazy and formulaic action comedy that is neither thrilling nor particularly funny.But...

["Who's on First," the] third of William F. Buckley Jr.'s espionage novels featuring Blackford Oakes, is set, like the two previous books, in the recent past, the period just before Sputnik. That gives the author the advantage of second sight. It also gives him a chance to indulge in some imaginary dialogue between famous figures…. As in all good espionage novels, there is thrust and counter-thrust. The Americans come up with an ingenious kidnap idea. The Russians, at firs...