Three Democratic moderates to decide fate of health bill - for now - in crucial Saturday vote...

NEW DELHI (AP) -- Arun Kumar was born to disabled parents, beaten by his grandparents, ran away from home, got a job in a garment factory and had all his savings stolen by the police....

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (AP) -- A billboard showing President Barack Obama wearing a turban has sparked a lot of attention at the suburban Denver used car dealership that put it up....

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- An Alaska senator says the U.S. Postal Service is resuming a program allowing volunteers to respond to letters sent to Santa Claus in care of the North Pole, Alaska, post office....

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) -- Marines treated at Camp Lejeune for post-traumatic stress had to undergo therapy for months in temporary trailers where they could hear bomb blasts, machine-gun fire and war cries through the thin walls, according to servicemen and their former psychiatrist....

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Two former county judges accused of taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send juveniles to private detention facilities are partially immune from civil lawsuits, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled Friday....

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A judge's decision to move Johannes Mehserle's murder trial to Los Angeles County is a setback for the former transit police officer charged with gunning down an unarmed man on New Year's Day....

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- The state of Wyoming has filed a new federal lawsuit seeking to block the National Park Service from restricting snowmobile numbers in Yellowstone National Park....

HONOLULU (AP) -- The competency hearing of a Maui man accused of spying for China has ended with the prosecutor claiming the defendant is difficult to work with and makes wild exaggerations but is legally able to stand trial....

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A former Marine has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of four people whose bodies were found in a burning home, including a prostitute featured on the HBO reality series "Cathouse."...

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A 17-year-old pleaded guilty Friday to murdering a Border Patrol agent who was shot eight times in head, neck and torso in the mountains east of San Diego....

KENNETT, Mo. (AP) -- A jury is deliberating the fate of a black school teacher charged with assaulting white police officers in Missouri...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A key U.N. committee approved a resolution Friday urging Iran to halt the persecution of political opponents following the country's disputed presidential election and release those still detained....

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- A 5-year-old North Carolina girl was raped and killed the same day she was taken from her home, according to an arrest warrant released Friday. Shaniya Davis was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated Nov. 10, the day her mother reported her missing from the trailer park where she was staying, according to the warrant. Authorities embarked on a nearly weeklong search that ended when the girl's body was found dumped off a rural road....

MIAMI (AP) -- The ringleader of a group described by prosecutors as plotting terror attacks on Chicago's Sears Tower and FBI offices in hopes of sparking an anti-government insurrection was sentenced Friday to 13 1/2 years in prison by a federal judge....

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A Pennsylvania university's requirement that overweight undergraduates take a fitness course to receive their degrees has raised the hackles of students and the eyebrows of health and legal experts....

BRUNSWICK, Maine (AP) -- The rumble of Navy patrol aircraft flying overhead will soon be a thing of the past as the remaining P-3 Orions depart from Brunswick Naval Air Station....

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- South Carolina lawmakers plan to formally consider impeaching Gov. Mark Sanford for the first time next week, the chairman of the committee beginning that work said Friday....

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- An attorney for a condemned killer says Ohio's new lethal-injection plan is so untested it would amount to human experimentation if used for the first time next month....

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- An independent panel says the United States can extend the life of aging nuclear weapons for decades with existing programs, a finding that activists contend means there's no need for the nation to design replacements for the nuclear arsenal....

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- An attorney for the Army psychiatrist charged in the mass shooting at Fort Hood says his client will have his first court hearing in his hospital room on Saturday....

NEW YORK (AP) -- Whether he's planning another run for the White House or a bid for senator or governor, or he just misses the spotlight, Rudy Giuliani is suddenly back and talking about the topic that made him a national star - Sept. 11....

SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands (AP) -- The Pacific resort island of Saipan was reeling Saturday from one of the most violent attacks in its history, when a gunman killed five people, including two small children and himself, in a rampage that ended at a World War II historical site....

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) -- The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington is obligated to pay retirement benefits to six priests who are confirmed pedophiles, church officials argued in a bankruptcy court filing seeking permission to keep making the payments....

NEW YORK (AP) -- A prison system official says a New York City man is free after spending nearly two decades behind bars for murder before a judge declared him innocent....

NIKISKI, Alaska (AP) -- Norm Olson's genial tone belies his reputation as a radical militiaman, yet here he is, at 63, an affable grandfather explaining why Americans should arm themselves against their government....

PHOENIX (AP) -- A 2-year-old boy dragged a 1-year-old Arizona girl Friday from a house fire that killed her mother and injured two other adults, authorities said....

PEEKSKILL, N.Y. (AP) -- A New York state man has been convicted of reckless endangerment after leaving his 85-year-old father in a car on a hot day and finding him dead three hours later....

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A teenager accused of killing a 9-year-old neighbor should be sent to a psychiatric hospital because she shows signs of severe depression and anxiety, her attorney said....

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- An Indianapolis man convicted of killing three children and four adults during a home invasion robbery three years ago has been sentenced to life in prison without parole....

OZARK, Ark. (AP) -- The FBI has dispatched investigators to Arkansas to look into a police officer's use of a stun gun on a 10-year-old girl who refused to take a shower....

BETHEL, Alaska (AP) -- An air taxi with eight people aboard made an emergency landing on tundra when the engine failed near Alaska's Bering Sea coast....

AVALON, Calif. (AP) -- Birth control for bison?...

PEORIA, Ariz. (AP) -- An Arizona family is pleading with burglars to return a wooden music box containing the ashes of their 5-month old son....

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- As the nation's military academies try to recruit more minorities, they aren't getting much help from members of Congress from big-city districts with large numbers of blacks, Hispanics and Asians....

PLEASANT HILL, Mo. (AP) -- A woman who had been charged with child endangerment after almost 370 animals were seized from her Missouri farm has been placed on two years of unsupervised probation....

A list of congressional districts with the fewest military academy nominations for the classes of 2009 to 2013, the officeholders and the total nominations they have made. All 20 are Democrats from districts where whites make up less than half the population, and all but two of the districts include major urban areas....

New England was expected to see another dreary day, while the Pacific Northwest remains under wintry conditions on Friday....

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- This city did not wait for Washington's health care overhaul. Most uninsured adults here are already reaping the benefits of a government-run health care program - seeing doctors, filling prescriptions, and getting surgeries they could not otherwise afford....

NILE, Wash. (AP) -- A gigantic landslide that buried a highway, uprooted homes and rerouted a river in Washington state's Cascade Range left hundreds of smaller victims: fish....

Jeanne-Claude...

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Three people were arrested on suspicion of killing an off-duty Las Vegas police officer in a shootout in his garage, North Las Vegas police said Thursday....

NEW YORK (AP) -- An interactive exhibit featuring life-size models of Leonardo da Vinci's 500-year-old inventions and machines is opening in New York City's Times Square....

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A key U.N. committee expressed "very serious concern" Thursday at widespread reports of torture and other grave human rights violations in North Korea and strongly urged the government to put an end to the violations....

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- A New Jersey man who's been battling in Brazilian courts to get custody of his 9-year-old son is scheduled to testify before a congressional human rights panel in Washington....

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:...

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) -- A former assistant fire chief accused of setting two small fires in an arson-plagued steel town near Philadelphia has worked out a plea bargain freeing him from jail....

NEW YORK (AP) -- A U.S.-trained scientist accused of shooting at FBI agents and helping al-Qaida vowed Thursday to boycott her January trial....

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Inmate Robert Lee Thompson was executed Thursday evening for his part in a fatal Houston store holdup after the Texas governor rejected a parole board's recommendation to spare him because he wasn't the gunman....

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A judge in Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's theft trial told jurors they must stop deliberating and asking questions after he dismisses them for the day....