AP - Maybe they stumbled onto a crime in progress. Perhaps they were ambushed by "drunks and dopeheads." Or maybe it was some kind of thrill killing.

AP - More than 100 miles east of Manhattan, out past the Hamptons, sits a tiny village where thousands converge at the docks on summer evenings to ogle at and revere the massive creatures brought back from the sea.

AP - A federal judge overseeing a case exploring the extreme fringe of pornography suspended the obscenity trial on Wednesday after a newspaper reported he had posted sexually explicit photos and videos on his own Web site.

AP - Wind-driven wildfires raked Northern California for a second day Wednesday, including a raging forest fire that forced hundreds to evacuate in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

AP - A tornado tore through a Boy Scout camp in the remote hills of western Iowa on Wednesday, killing at least four people and injuring 40, and setting off a frantic search to reach others in the piles of debris and downed trees.

AP - Firefighters in Northern California braced for more high winds Wednesday as they tried to control wildfires that destroyed dozens of homes and severely burned a firefighter.

AP - A helicopter rescued two hikers from high on Mount Rainier Wednesday after they were caught in a freak June blizzard that caused a third hiker's death.

AP - A sandbagged levee was preventing a swollen river from rising out of its banks and flooding this northeastern Iowa city on Wednesday, but officials asked for extra volunteers to help shore it up as more rain moved across the state.

AP - Ohio's method of putting prisoners to death is unconstitutional because two of three drugs it uses for lethal injection can cause "an agonizing and painful death," a county judge ruled Tuesday.