AP - For the second year in a row, this destitute city has been named the nation's most dangerous, according to a company's annual ranking based on crime statistics.

AP - On a busy night at the New York Players Club in upper Manhattan, vice squad officers wearing bulletproof vests and raid jackets dealt the underground poker scene a losing hand.

AP - Immigrant smugglers once avoided the rugged, chaparral-covered canyons east of San Diego for easier crossing points — but now the Otay Mountains are one of the busiest areas along California's border with Mexico.

AP - A nearly 4,000-acre wildfire that blackened hillsides above expensive oceanfront homes was nearly surrounded Monday despite a weekend resurgence of fierce, dry Santa Ana winds.

AP - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, disagreeing with a battle-tested congressman who calls for pulling U.S. troops from Iraq, is not budging from the Bush administration's position that senior commanders know best.

AP - The White House and senators are discussing the implications of a Senate-passed ban on the torture of suspected terrorists in U.S. custody and what part, if any, of the proposal the administration might find acceptable, the Pentagon chief said Sunday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - By any measure Usher is a big global star, but the R&B singer, whose album 'Confessions' has sold more than 15 million copies, wants to get bigger.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - From writing 'Animal House' and 'Ghostbusters' to directing 'Groundhog Day' and 'Analyze This,' Harold Ramis is one of Hollywood's funniest talents.

USATODAY.com - A hot dog stand shaped like a hot dog or a doughnut shop that mimics that fried treat may assault the taste of some. But one person's kitsch is another's art, and the nation's collection of wacky, eye-catching roadside buildings from the early 20th century is being lost to the ravages of time and developers.

AP - Two university students found a badly decomposed body when they peeked inside in a hay trailer while searching for a missing calf, officials said.

AP - The FBI reported Monday that 139 police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2004, with guns and traffic accidents claiming the most lives.

AP - An anti-Castro activist who earlier this year helped shelter an exiled militant linked to deadly bombings was arrested on federal weapons and false passport charges.

AP - A woman accused of killing a prison guard while helping her convict husband escape from a courthouse was arraigned Monday and her lawyers said they are hoping to see her diary, which was seized by prosecutors.

AP - Investigators believe four men found shot to death in an upscale rented town house were targeted and not victims of a random crime, the mayor said.

AP - A Nike Inc. corporate jet carrying seven people developed landing gear problems shortly after takeoff Monday and was preparing to make an emergency landing, officials said.

AP - Vice President Dick Cheney charged Monday that some Senate Democrats were "dishonest and reprehensible" for suggesting that President Bush lied to the nation about going to war in Iraq and said he strongly disagrees with a battle-tested congressman who advocates a pullout.

AP - A Nike Inc. corporate jet carrying seven people developed landing gear problems shortly after takeoff Monday but then made a safe emergency landing after the gear was unstuck.

AP - A man accused in a shooting spree at a crowded shopping mall sent a text message to his ex-girlfriend minutes before the rampage, saying: "Today is the day the world will know my anger," the woman said Monday.

AP - Two men convicted in the murder-for-hire killing of a man who was elected sheriff of DeKalb County were sentenced Monday to life in federal prison.

AP - The former vicar general of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix was arrested Monday.

AP - Little Wheaton College isn't as big or as well known as the Ivy League schools, but in recent years it has had as many Rhodes Scholars as some of them have had.

AP - When Americans tuck into Thanksgiving dinner this week, health-conscious eaters won't be the only ones monitoring how much they eat.

AP - The former vicar general of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix was arrested Monday on charges he fondled boys and young men and asked them prying questions about their sex lives that he pretended were part of confession.

AP - An 18-year-old man accused of killing his 14-year-old girlfriend's parents and taking the girl to Indiana confessed to the slayings after his arrest and told police the murder weapon was in his car, according to court documents released Monday.

AP - Vehicles made by Hyundai Motor Co., Honda Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler AG and Subaru of America Inc. earned top honors in new crash tests of sport utility vehicles, minivans and sedans.

AP - A former cancer researcher at a Veterans Affairs hospital was sentenced Monday to nearly six years in prison for criminally negligent homicide in the death of an Air Force veteran enrolled in a drug experiment.

AP - U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta on Monday pledged $337 million in federal funds for a planned expansion at O'Hare International Airport that is aimed at reducing flight delays at one of the nation's busiest airports.

AP - The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an alert Monday about a scam involving unsolicited e-mails, purportedly sent by the FBI, that tell computer users that their Internet surfing is being monitored by the agency.

AP - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. charged the wrong price to shoppers in California and the Midwest at a rate that exceeds those set by federal guidelines, according to two union-commissioned university studies released Monday.

AP - A pregnant woman who allegedly stabbed her boyfriend because he tried to keep her from eating a candy bar has been ordered to stand trial on attempted murder and assault charges.

AP - A guard gave an inmate serving a 41-year sentence a cell phone to call his wife three weeks before the couple mounted a bloody escape at a county courthouse that killed a fellow prison guard.