AP - Californians exhausted by a nearly weeklong heat wave looked for relief Sunday from the triple-digit temperatures that have strained air conditioners and power companies.

AP - Bizarre microbes flourish in the most punishing environments on Earth from the bone-dry Atacama Desert in Chile to the boiling hot springs of Yellowstone National Park to the sunless sea bottom vents in the Pacific.

AP - Wildfires were scattered around Northern California on Sunday, many of them started by lightning, as crews farther south were close to containing a blaze that had forced thousands to evacuate.

AP - The upper Mississippi River was expected to largely reach its high point Sunday, cresting at several spots north of St. Louis after rising for weeks and flooding towns in Missouri and Illinois.

AP - Ray Colbert wanted out after five decades of growing apples, but his son didn't want the farm in northern Washington. No one else did either.

AP - Even as a youngster, Rollie looked older and wiser than his years. His white mustache sprouted longer by the month, until it flamed from his cheeks like a German kaiser's. Sometimes, it all but hid his mouth.

AP - A small house that was once at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court decision on government seizure of private property has found a safe haven.

AP - Gus the dog has three legs, one eye and no hair, except for a white tuft on the top of his head. He's a real winner.

AP - If they pay attention to it at all, many people view the water off Manhattan's East Side as a flat, even boring expanse stretching under a series of bridges.

AP - A blistering heat wave persisted across much of California on Saturday and kept energy demand high, while forecasters gave hope that the misery might let up soon.

AP - Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism.