AP - Defiant residents of this eastern Missouri community lost one struggle against the relentless Mississippi River Friday, but quickly prepared for another.

AP - Strong Midwestern downpours may force residents to wait even longer to return to homes they evacuated because of fears of flooding, emergency management officials said Thursday.

AP - The neighborhood already has a house that scientists say looks like a giant atom smasher, and nearby there is another that is perched on a cylindrical tower and looks like a flying saucer. Yet when Francie Rehwald moves into her new digs sometime next year, she'll have them both beat.

AP - A man who claimed he was attempting suicide when he triggered a 2005 rail disaster was convicted Thursday of 11 counts of first-degree murder and could face the death penalty.

AP - On one side of his notebook, a British man convicted of murdering his wife and baby professed love for his "Orange Rose" and "my Lilly." On the other side, he drafted letters to editors, looking to sell the story of their deaths to the highest bidder.

AP - Some in the hometown of a man who opened fire at a plastics plant described him as a "good kid," while others called him a troublemaker and said Thursday that they weren't surprised when he killed himself and five others.

AP - Flames from a huge wildfire burning through a national forest inched toward the scenic tourist town of Big Sur, where firefighters rushed Thursday to protect historic structures and hundreds of homes.

AP - A millionaire who inflicted years of abuse on two Indonesian housekeepers held as virtual slaves in her Long Island mansion was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison.

AP - The principal of a Massachusetts high school who said a group of students intentionally got pregnant stood by his comments Thursday, saying his information "was and is accurate."