AP - The Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for a Georgia man to be put to death for killing a police officer, despite calls from his supporters to reconsider the case because seven of nine key witnesses against him have recanted their testimony.

AP - Ferocious desert winds pushed one of three major wildfires burning across Southern California to nearly double its size overnight, firefighters said Tuesday, the third day of the blazes that have destroyed dozens of homes and forced thousands to flee.

AP - A pilot and television camera operator died Monday when their helicopter crashed near Houston on the way to cover a news story.

AP - A blaze that claimed the lives of a couple and their three children in a Manhattan apartment was likely caused by a child playing with a lighter or matches, authorities said Monday.

AP - Paul Krugman, whose relentless criticism of the Bush administration includes opposition to the $700 billion financial bailout, won the Nobel prize in economics Monday for his work on international trade patterns.

AP - Gay couples from around California and the nation are feverishly tying the knot ahead of Election Day to avoid missing out if voters approve a ballot initiative aimed at banning same-sex marriage.

AP - An out-of-work money manager in California loses a fortune and wipes out his family in a murder-suicide. A 90-year-old Ohio widow shoots herself in the chest as authorities arrive to evict her from the modest house she called home for 38 years.

AP - A Michigan mother drove roughly 12 hours to Omaha, so she could abandon her 13-year-old son at a hospital under the state's unique safe-haven law, Nebraska officials said Monday.

AP - A double murderer who says he's too fat to be executed humanely has passed a pre-execution exam and is cleared to receive a lethal injection Tuesday.

AP - Two huge wildfires driven by strong Santa Ana winds burned into neighborhoods near Los Angeles on Monday, forcing frantic evacuations on smoke- and traffic-choked highways, destroying homes and causing at least two deaths.

AP - For more than two years, U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan has been consumed by the latest entry on his resume: acting chief of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.