HUNTSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas inmate was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday for killing a man and his two children during a Christmas Eve 1993 robbery.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Miss America is leaving the boardwalk after 84 years and heading for the desert.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge found Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus in civil contempt on Wednesday for refusing to disclose names of sources in the case of Wen Ho Lee, the former Los Alamos nuclear scientist once suspected of espionage.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A jury convicted a Seattle-area gynecologist on Wednesday of four counts of rape in the sexual assaults of two patients.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Joan Didion won the prestigious National Book Award for nonfiction on Wednesday for her memoir on the death of her husband and the life they spent together.

AP - An inmate was executed Wednesday evening for a Christmas Eve killing spree 12 years ago that left a man and two of his children dead.

AP - Nearly three months after Hurricane Katrina swept through south Louisiana, 321 bodies lie nameless and unclaimed in a makeshift morgue. Another 200 have been identified, but no one can locate the families among refugees scattered across the nation.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Labor leaders said bankrupt auto parts maker Delphi Corp. demanded 24,000 hourly job cuts over three years, a plan which union leaders refuse to even submit to the company's workers for a vote, the Detroit Free Press reported on Thursday.

AP - Nearly three months after Hurricane Katrina swept through south Louisiana, 321 bodies lie nameless and unclaimed in a makeshift morgue. Another 200 have been identified, but no one can locate the families among refugees scattered across the nation.

AP - A secretary and six laboratory workers at Kaiser Permanente held the winning ticket for the $315 million Mega Millions jackpot — but they still came into work, a company spokeswoman said.

AP - Back in the 1950s, Hot Springs, N.M., was renamed Truth or Consequences, N.M., after a popular quiz show. During the dot-com boom of 2000, Halfway, Ore., agreed to become Half.com for a year.

AP - Nearly three months after Hurricane Katrina swept through south Louisiana, 321 bodies lie nameless and unclaimed in a makeshift morgue. Another 200 have been identified, but no one can locate the families among refugees scattered across the nation.

AP - Ford Motor Co. is recalling about 235,000 pickups, vans and sport utility vehicles from the 2006 model year because of potential problems with the windshield wiper motor.

MIAMI (Reuters) - A jury has ordered Ford Motor Co. to pay $61 million to the parents of a 17-year-old who died when the Ford Explorer in which he was riding rolled over, a lawyer said on Thursday.

HAGERMAN, Idaho (Reuters) - After more than a decade growing in the spring waters of a commercial fish farm in southern Idaho, five dozen white sturgeon are ready to give eggs that will be marketed to U.S. caviar connoisseurs.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. on Thursday said it was recalling nearly 224,000 vehicles because their windshield wipers may malfunction.

AP - A jury received instructions Thursday before they were to begin deliberations in the murder trial of a former mechanic charged with kidnapping, raping and killing Carlie Brucia, whose abduction was caught by a security camera.

AP - The mayor called for better police record-keeping and training after a newspaper reported that officers stopped and frisked citizens thousands of times but reported only 11 such stops to state authorities in the past year.

AP - A group of residents asked to rename a street for the late civil rights activist Rosa Parks that is now called Tara Boulevard, after the plantation in 'Gone With the Wind.'

AP - The rate of newly reported HIV cases among blacks has been dropping by about 5 percent a year since 2001, the government said Thursday. But blacks are still eight times more likely than whites to be diagnosed with the AIDS virus.

AP - Former presidential hopeful Phil Gramm testified Thursday that he never approved thousands of dollars in consulting payments to former Gov. George Ryan's daughters and staff in return for Ryan's endorsement. And he said his aides would not have condoned such a deal, either.

AP - One of two convicted murderers who escaped this week from an Iowa prison was captured Thursday in Illinois after he was found sleeping in a car, authorities said.

AP - A convicted sex offender accused of abducting a 17-year-old girl apparently shot and killed himself and the girl escaped uninjured Thursday after police pulled over the car they were in, authorities said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Democratic congressional leader on defense called on Thursday for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, increasing pressure for a change in Bush administration policy just days after the Senate asked for a plan to end the war.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - For New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Hurricane Katrina was only the beginning of a political storm that threatens to overwhelm his political future.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A day after condemned Crips gang founder Stanley 'Tookie' Williams said in an interview that he was not guilty of murder, California officials said on Thursday he was a 'cold-blooded killer' and should be executed as planned next month.

MIAMI (Reuters) - A civil rights group on Thursday sued police in Miami and south Florida for what it called unlawful arrests and use of excessive force during a regional free-trade meeting in the Southern U.S. city two years ago.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A study of the effects of the nationwide 'Back to Sleep' campaign -- an initiative launched in 1994 to encourage mothers to place their babies on their backs rather than their stomachs to sleep -- shows that this campaign has helped to reduce sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) cases overall in the United States.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - A Florida law firm's television advertisement featuring a pit bull, a dog breed known for its aggression, is misleading and an affront to the legal profession, the Florida Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

AP - A soldier convicted of murdering unarmed Iraqis testified Thursday that he falsely implicated his platoon leader in one of the slayings so that he could get a lighter prison sentence.

AP - Calvin Jamison and nine relatives do not like living in the two Dallas hotel rooms they have shared since Hurricane Katrina devastated their hometown of New Orleans.

AP - Iraq War protester Cindy Sheehan and 26 other peace activists were found guilty Thursday of protesting without a permit near the White House.

AP - As murderer and Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams tries to stave off execution next month, California prison officials have launched an unusual counterattack against the notion that he has redeemed himself behind bars.

AP - The New Orleans mayor urged Congress on Thursday to provide aid to homeowners hurt by Hurricane Katrina, cautioning that thousands of poor Louisiana residents might not return otherwise.

AP - The street names in suburban Atlanta's Clayton County pay homage to the Old South and the Lost Cause: Robert E. Lee Drive. Old Dixie Highway. And Tara Boulevard, named for the plantation home in "Gone With the Wind."

AP - Federal and state officials tried to ease fears Thursday that thousands of Louisiana hurricane refugees in Texas would be left homeless again after Dec. 1 when FEMA has said it will stop paying their hotel and motel bills.

AP - Police seized 54 guns from the home of an 18-year-old man charged with killing his girlfriend's parents and fleeing the state with her, according to court documents filed Thursday.

AP - Anti-smoking activists are accusing the tobacco industry of increasing efforts to sell cigarettes to Hispanics, especially Hispanic youths with print ads featuring sexy young musicians.

MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida jury on Thursday convicted a man of kidnapping, raping and then murdering an 11-year-old girl last year in a crime that was partially captured by a security camera.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricanes Katrina and Rita stripped Louisiana of more than a decade of job gains and knocked New Orleans from its slot as the state's biggest city, according to two state university economists.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former 'Hollywood Madam' Heidi Fleiss, whose previous career running a call-girl ring landed her in prison, is returning to the world's oldest profession -- to open a Nevada brothel catering to women.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Baseball legend Joe DiMaggio's rookie uniform from 1936 is going on sale, a gem that may fetch some $600,000, auction house Sotheby's said on Thursday.

AP - Film director and Democratic activist Rob Reiner has collected more than a million signatures to get an initiative on the June ballot that would fund preschool for all California children.

AP - A deer hunter, after a tearful courtroom apology, was sentenced Thursday to five years probation for starting a wildfire that killed 15 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes.