AP - They bound their victims with duct tape, beat them and held guns to their heads. When that didn't work, the bandits applied pliers to their genitals and pressed hot irons to the soles of their feet. Sometimes they held victims' heads under water in a bathtub.

AP - Two years ago, New Hampshire refused to accept heating oil from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the pro-Castro U.S. critic who once called President Bush "the devil." But with fuel prices rising, well, free oil is free oil.

AP - A federal judge has restored endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, derailing plans by three states to hold public wolf hunts this fall.

AP - The parents of a North Carolina mother found slain near her home tearfully asked Friday for the culprit to show "a shred of decency" by confessing, while her husband's attorney said he's an innocent man who wants to grieve in private.

AP - Police say a Fort Bliss soldier is considered in danger after she did not report for work Friday and evidence of foul play was found in her apartment.

AP - Customers at big fast-food chains in New York City are finally facing the facts about their meal choices. And for some, the truth may be hard to swallow — like 1,130 calories for a Big Mac, medium fries and a medium soda.

AP - An American Airlines flight from Boston to Los Angeles was diverted to Oklahoma City on Friday after a passenger stripped nude and later tried to open an emergency exit door before being subdued by members of a professional soccer team and others, the FBI said.

AP - Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, the 20-year-old college junior attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner. Pictures from the party showed him in a black-and-white striped shirt and an orange jumpsuit labeled "Jail Bird."

AP - Authorities hope an autopsy can help them identify a woman's body found with hands bound with duct tape at the apartment of a woman who showed up at a hospital with a newborn she falsely claimed was hers.

AP - Hitting the ground with enough force to lift a worker off the ground, one of the nation's largest mobile cranes collapsed at a Houston oil refinery, killing four workers and injuring seven others.

AP - It's 7 a.m. in the marsh, and like some sort of cigar-chomping swamp cowboy, biologist Lindsey Hord is about to reach for something that could cost him a few fingers — or worse — if he's not careful.

AP - Luis Ramirez came to the U.S. from Mexico six years ago to look for work, landing in this town in Pennsylvania's coal region. Here, he found steady employment, fathered two children and, his fiancee said, occasionally endured harassment by white residents.