AP - Her voice never faltered as she described an attack so demonic that at one point, she begged to die.

AP - The speech I was holding should only have been a backup. I knew the words by heart because I'd lived them.

AP - High wind on Saturday continued to stoke fires across Northern California that had destroyed dozens of homes and forced thousands of residents to flee.

AP - Space shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven returned to Earth on Saturday and capped a successful expansion job at the international space station, more spacious and robust thanks to a new billion-dollar science lab.

AP - Days after it rose out of its banks on its way to record flooding in Cedar Rapids, the Cedar River has forced at least 24,000 people from their homes, emergency officials said Saturday.

AP - Floods that have inundated the Midwest could reduce world corn supplies and drive food prices higher at a time when Americans are already stretching their grocery budgets and people in poor countries have rioted over rising food costs.

AP - With a tornado barreling toward them, Boy Scouts at a western Iowa camp sought shelter in the one place they thought they were safest: a cinderblock building where they normally gathered to socialize.

AP - A federal judge under scrutiny for posting sexually explicit material on his own Web site declared a mistrial Friday in an obscenity trial over which he was presiding.