AP - The war in Iraq is creating a major — and perhaps deadly — shortage of night vision goggles for civilian pilots who fly medical helicopters in the U.S.

AP - Police fatally shot the mentally ill occupant of a federally supplied trailer early Wednesday, ending a nearly 10-hour standoff in one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.

AP - A man accused of joining al-Qaida in the early 1990s and helping teach fellow Muslim extremists how to bomb U.S. and European targets pleaded guilty Tuesday to planning terrorist attacks.

AP - The General Motors Corp. plant in this Dayton suburb is a forest of smokestacks that form the nerve center of this industrial community built along the banks of the Great Miami River.

AP - The nation's top nuclear weapons design lab has laid off hundreds of workers, raising concerns about a brain drain and stirring fears that some of these highly specialized scientists will sell their expertise to foreign governments, perhaps hostile ones.

AP - A World War II veteran who received the nation's highest military honor when he was only 17 is in the fight of his life, battling cancer, his biographer said.

AP - It's standing-room-only on many commuter buses from Washington's suburbs. Rail systems from Boston to Los Angeles are begging passengers to shift their travel to non-peak hours. And some seats have been removed from San Francisco's subway cars to allow more people to cram in.

AP - Investigators are examining how a worn-out part was taken off a construction crane last year, rebuilt and installed on another crane, which collapsed last week in an accident that killed two workers.

AP - Cardinal Francis George asked a Chicago priest on Tuesday to temporarily step down from his post to "reflect on his recent statements" regarding Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her bid for the White House.