AP - The judge who sentenced a Hmong immigrant to life in prison for killing six deer hunters said the man was a "time bomb ready to go off" at the slightest provocation.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Kwame Kilpatrick, the youngest mayor in Detroit's history, claimed victory in his re-election bid on Wednesday, saying he had shrugged off underdog status to retain the financially struggling city's top job for four more years.

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - San Diego voters chose a former police chief over a surfer-activist as their next mayor on Tuesday, charged with restoring order to a city beset by financial and political turmoil, according to preliminary results.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Washington state voters rejected a ballot measure that would overturn a gasoline-tax increase intended to finance $8.5 billion in transportation projects, according to election results on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some people read novels on airplanes. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer wrote one.

USATODAY.com - Sporadic vaccine shortages and fears of a flu pandemic could be fueling a surge in demand for flu shots, experts say. The CDC says flu season peaks around January, so there's time to get a flu shot, even in December. The CDC is expected to give an update Thursday on vaccine shortages.

AP - Federal scientists say they will consider requests to ship the recently recreated 1918 killer flu virus to select U.S. research labs.

AP - Critics of evolution won a big victory with the approval of new public school science standards that cast doubt on Darwinism.

AP - About 1,000 graduate assistants started striking against New York University on Wednesday over its refusal to bargain with or recognize their union.

AP - Prosecutors said they plan to dismiss a handgun charge against a convenience store owner caught in a roundup during an investigation into a possible terrorist threat to a highway tunnel.

AP - Scientists will begin testing in January whether they can stretch the nation's limited supply of an experimental bird-flu vaccine by pairing it with an immune-system booster.

AP - Republican lawmakers raised concerns Wednesday about President Bush's push to expand the Pentagon's response role during disasters like Hurricane Katrina, fearing the military could be stretched too thin.

AP - The homecoming game has been canceled and parents are running out of ways to keep cranky kids entertained because of a teacher strike in which a key sticking point is more than just a local issue: the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

AP - The brother of a man accused of raping and strangling an 11-year-old girl wiped his eyes Wednesday as he recounted how his sibling described sexually assaulting and killing the girl.

AP - Two inmates were able to escape from a maximum security prison aboard a garbage truck because of staffing cuts, improperly compacted trash and toilet-paper heads made by other prisoners to delude officers, the chief of the state's prisons said.

AP - A white bus brought the first residents of a tornado-devastated mobile home park back home Wednesday, leaving them to sift through rubble to find what could be salvaged.

AP - Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gregg Connell ran a stop sign and caused a car crash that killed another motorist, authorities say.

AP - A house fire early Wednesday killed four people, including two children, just four days after an even deadlier blaze about 20 miles away.

AP - Overweight? Diabetic? Cholesterol out of control? Have we got a deal on a meal for you!

AP - Alabama Gov. Bob Riley won gushing praise Wednesday from his former House colleagues for the way his state handled Hurricane Katrina, a dramatic contrast to the criticism directed at federal and Louisiana officials.

AP - Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who was first lionized, then vilified by her own newspaper for her role in the CIA leak case, has retired from the Times, the paper announced Wednesday.

AP - The first openly gay Episcopal bishop insisted Wednesday he was not encouraging Roman Catholics to leave their church when he criticized its view of homosexuals during a recent speech in London.

AP - Densil Sprinkle sat in a folding chair near the pond where his mother died, watching family members and friends search for memories amid the mud and rubble left by Indiana's deadliest tornado in 30 years.

AP - A 15-year-old accused of shooting an assistant principal to death and wounding two other administrators should be tried as an adult, the district attorney said Wednesday, adding that the victims performed heroically to keep the shootings from becoming even worse.