AP - The four boys killed when a tornado hit rural western Iowa on Wednesday were among the elite of the Boy Scouts of America, hand-picked by their scoutmasters to attend the high-adventure camp.

AP - A 107-year-old man who once turned down a job offer from Thomas Edison has been chosen to lead a parade at the Massachusetts prep school he graduated from 90 years ago. C. Yardley Chittick of Concord is the last surviving member of the class of 1918 at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass.

AP - They come from a host of Christian denominations, but one thing unites them: they are part of a shrinking number of theology students nationally who are interested in taking over a pulpit rather than doing something else with their degrees.

AP - The operator of a high-priced escort service that counted a former New York governor among its clients pleaded guilty Thursday after a criminal probe put the company out of business and Eliot Spitzer out of office.

AP - The mastermind behind a multimillion-dollar scheme to loot hundreds of corpses and sell their body parts apologized Thursday to families of the victims and thousands of tissue recipients.

AP - In a town devastated by a tornado that snapped utility poles and reduced houses and business to rubble, Brad Homman's reaction epitomized optimism: "We've still got half the town intact."

AP - Firefighters on Thursday battled a series of fast-growing wildfires burning across Northern California, including a wind-whipped blaze that destroyed at least 10 homes and forced thousands of residents to evacuate.

AP - The Cedar River poured over its banks Thursday, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 homes, causing a railroad bridge to collapse and leaving cars underwater on downtown streets.

AP - The criminal prosecution of a hard-core pornographer has turned into a personal trial for the presiding judge.

AP - A hiker who lost his life on Mount Rainier lay down in the snow and used his body's warmth to protect his wife and a friend from the 70-mph winds of a freak June blizzard, national park officials said.

AP - First came the shock, then the grief. As dozens of people injured in a tornado at an Iowa Boy Scout camp recovered, families and friends tried to make sense of the deaths of four teenage Scouts who had gone to the elite camp to learn how to be leaders.

AP - For two decades, Al Gentry begged investigators to take another look at the mystery of who killed his brother, Harold, and left his gunshot-ridden body sprawled on the floor of the home he shared with his wife.