AP - Luck ran out for about a dozen pigs who escaped their flooded farm, swam through raging floodwaters and scrambled atop a sandbag levee in southeastern Iowa.

AP - The crowd at Tim Russert's funeral Wednesday would have made a great panel on his Sunday morning news show.

AP - A suspected serial killer smiled and proclaimed his innocence Wednesday before being sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole in the violent killings of two women last year.

AP - An Egyptian college student pleaded guilty Wednesday to making a video demonstrating how to build a remote bomb detonator to help terrorists kill enemies including American soldiers.

AP - The floodwaters are gone, but in front of thousands of homes and in much of downtown a new eyesore has taken their place: trash.

AP - When gay and lesbian couples started getting married in California this week, one set of voices was quiet among the choruses of "Here Come the Brides" — those of the conservative activists who put a same-sex marriage ban on the November ballot.

AP - In March 2003, Zeinab Taleb-Jedi was a middle-aged widow who found herself trapped in a cold, dusty bunker in Iraq as invading U.S. forces began blowing up buildings and inflicting casualties all around her.

AP - When Erica Nelson and Abby Flantz lost their way during an overnight hike into Denali National Park, they decided to keep hiking.

AP - Ernesto Evangelista prefers to pump premium gas into his seven-month-old Nissan Titan, thinking it makes the truck run better. But at a BP station just a few blocks from the sand of Miami Beach, the 33-year-old painter grabbed the handle for the regular, 87-octane gas to fill his tank on a recent Friday.

AP - As floodwaters take aim at the tiny towns lining the Mississippi River, the heartland ethic of neighbors helping neighbors is proving to be a potent force against the rising water.

AP - The tradition of farming the land in northern New Mexico's Espanola Valley had been passed down from Don Bustos' Spanish ancestors who tilled the same soil centuries before.

AP - Prison officials halted Tuesday night's scheduled execution of a former topless-club bouncer condemned for a double slaying almost 20 years ago as the clock ticked down on their deadline.

AP - More than 115,000 former felons who completed their sentences have had their civil rights restored since a new state rule went into effect 14 months ago, Gov. Charlie Crist said.