AP - Among the smiles and hugs shared by three American hostages freed last week from rebels in Colombia and their families, one of the men on Monday angrily denounced their captors as "terrorists with a capital 'T.'"

AP - As some residents whose homes were threatened by a vast Southern California wildfire were allowed to return home on Monday, forecasters warned that the cooler, damper conditions that have aided recent firefighting efforts would soon turn in favor of the flames.

AP - In the past few years, Rich Nieto's work has started earlier and lasted longer.

AP - She'd spent a lifetime less than an hour's drive away, but it had never crossed Joquetta Johnson's mind to visit Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. What, she wondered when a friend suggested it, could a park in rural, lily-white West Virginia hold for a black teacher from Baltimore?

AP - Alex Rodriguez's wife filed for divorce Monday, calling her husband an adulterer who "emotionally abandoned his wife and children."

AP - Hurricane Bertha continues to strengthen as it moves over the central Atlantic Ocean.

AP - President Bush and new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stood united Monday on issues like Iran and North Korea. But for all their handshakes and smiles, it is clear that thorny issues like missile defense are in a holding pattern until a new U.S. president takes office.

AP - British birder Annie Andreae bristles at being called a "twitcher" — friendly slang in England for someone who will drop everything at the drop of a hat to get a glimpse at a must-see bird.

AP - A few times a year, Bryson Garbett loads up his family and heads to a national park, often one in southern Utah.

AP - U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee has called for a congressional inquiry into the state's most populous county, saying recent events show that its legal system "has been tarnished."

AP - Federal officials are considering a tentative proposal that calls for capturing or killing infected elk in Yellowstone National Park to eliminate a serious livestock disease carried by animals in the area.

AP - Firefighters took advantage of cooler temperatures and higher humidity overnight to make progress containing a blaze burning through the mountains in Santa Barbara County before hotter, drier conditions return.