AP - Two halves of a sparkling new Interstate 35W freeway bridge stretch toward each other over the Mississippi River, separated by a gap of about 200 feet that shrinks with each day as workers toil around the clock.

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.