AP - A couple accused of tying their 13-year-old son to a tree for two nights to punish him for disobedience has been charged with murder in his death, authorities said Friday.

AP - Authorities released a sketch Friday of a "person of interest" investigators want to interview about the slayings of two girls along an eastern Oklahoma country road.

AP - Three Ohio men were convicted Friday of plotting to recruit and train terrorists to kill American soldiers in Iraq, a case put together with help from a former soldier who posed as a radical bent on violence.

AP - The weather looked favorable for space shuttle Discovery to return to Earth Saturday after a two-week mission in which it delivered a new Japanese lab to the international space station.

AP - Parts of Florida and Mexico were supplying "the vast majority" of tomatoes sold when the salmonella outbreak began in April and thus remain leading suspects, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday.

AP - City worker Eileen Shields usually spends her days answering questions about West Nile Virus, bed bugs and other health concerns, but next week she'll be one of hundreds of volunteers at City Hall helping same-sex couples tie the knot.

AP - As a wildfire bore down on his home of 15 years, hopscotching between properties here, Larry Knifong decided to take his chances and stay — that is, until the flames raced up a ridge toward this ranch-style house.

AP - Hospital patients in wheelchairs and on stretchers were evacuated in the middle of the night as the biggest flood Cedar Rapids has ever seen swamped more than 400 blocks Friday and all but cut off the supply of clean drinking water in the city of 120,000.

AP - Heterosexual couples are rushing to get married in a conservative California county that plans to halt all civil wedding ceremonies as gay marriage is set to be legalized.

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 - A metal clip fell from Discovery's brakes on Friday but NASA said it won't delay the space shuttle's scheduled landing on Saturday.

AP - As a tornado bore down on their town, Debby Peterson and her husband knew they had to find shelter. Their own home didn't have a basement, so they ran to their neighbor's.

AP - Rising water from the Cedar River forced the evacuation of a downtown hospital Friday after residents of more than 3,000 homes fled for higher ground. A railroad bridge collapsed, and 400 city blocks were under water.