AP - A black man who took hostages in a bar and told the patrons that 'white people are going to burn tonight' was convicted Thursday of attempted murder, assault and other crimes.

AP - A retired custodian fatally shot his wife and two adult sons in their sleep, then turned the gun on himself, police said Thursday.

AP - A magnitude 4.2 earthquake that could be felt throughout the Bay Area struck Thursday night, officials said.

AP - Two teenage women suspected of donning sunglasses as they robbed a supermarket bank branch were arrested along with a bank teller following a brief car chase Thursday, authorities said.

AP - An airline employee led former Vice President Al Gore and two associates around airport security lines before police spotted the breach and required them to be screened, an airport spokeswoman said Thursday.

AP - A system of powerful storms packing tornadoes passed from Alabama into southwest Georgia, hitting a hospital and causing at least three deaths, a state official said.

AP - Two teenage women suspected of donning sunglasses as they robbed a supermarket bank branch were arrested along with a bank teller following a brief car chase Thursday, authorities said.

AP - A winter storm packing a blizzard punch walloped parts of the Plains and Midwest, shutting down highways, schools and air travel in several states.

AP - A charter bus reportedly carrying a youth baseball team fell off an interstate off ramp and crashed onto the highway early Friday, killing at least six people and injuring nine seriously, authorities said.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Some contestants in the largest annual celebration of bodybuilding starting on Friday will likely be on steroids, highlighting how hard it is to keep performance-enhancing drugs out of sport, Arnold Schwarzenegger said of the contest that bears his name.

AP - A 16-year-old fugitive believed to have posted a 'Catch me if you can' message on his MySpace Web page was captured Friday, three days after his escape from a detention center, an official said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The jury deciding if former vice presidential aide Lewis 'Scooter' Libby lied when questioned about who revealed a CIA analyst's identity entered its second week of deliberations on Friday.

AP - A deadly winter storm packing a blizzard punch walloped parts of the Plains and Midwest, keeping highways and schools closed in some areas and creating monster snow drifts Friday.

AP - An illegal lab in Mexico produced some of the powerful painkiller that killed dozens of people in Chicago last year who ingested with heroin, according to newly unsealed indictments.

(Reuters) - Yum Brands Inc., the operator of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurants, said on Friday that it engaged a pest control expert for urban settings to review standards for its outlets in New York City.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - From the Hollywood producer who prompted hundreds of assistants to quit to the boss who forced employees to crawl on the floor, the destructive impact of workplace tyrants is costly but avoidable, says a top management expert in a new book.

AP - A nightclub owner, manager and party promoter were acquitted of involuntary manslaughter Friday in the 2003 stampede that killed 21 people at Chicago's E2 club.

AP - A man toting a 3-foot sword apparently met his match when he broke into his ex-girlfriend's apartment: The woman's roommate grabbed a sword of his own and sliced the intruder, police said.

AP - A pair of gunmen men posing as prospective buyers of four Yorkshire puppies forced their way into a home and stole the terriers worth $2,500 each, police said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The jury deciding if former vice presidential aide Lewis 'Scooter' Libby lied when questioned about who revealed a CIA analyst's identity on Friday adjourned for the weekend without reaching a verdict.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Yum Brands Inc. has hired an urban pest control expert to review standards of its New York City restaurants, it said on Friday, a week after television cameras filmed rats scurrying around a KFC/Taco Bell.

AP - In this rural county beset by high unemployment, the soon-to-arrive day when the local nuclear-waste landfill closes its doors to nearly all debris is no cause for celebration.

AP - More than 1 million rounds of ammunition, a cache of weapons and a tunnel were found at a man's home after an explosive fire that forced a neighborhood evacuation, authorities said Friday.

AP - A deadly winter storm walloped parts of the Plains and Midwest, keeping highways and schools closed, knocking out power and piling up huge snow drifts Friday.

AP - The Coast Guard on Friday suspended its search for six boaters and said it was investigating the distress calls about their small craft taking on water as a possible hoax.

AP - The head of a temporary labor business that used hundreds of illegal immigrants was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $12 million.

AP - A man who pleaded guilty to plotting to blow up a New York subway station next to Macy's flagship department was sentenced Friday to five years in prison.

AP - A pair of gunmen men posing as prospective buyers of four Yorkshire puppies forced their way into a home and stole the terriers worth $2,500 each, police said.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A judge on Friday cleared three men charged with involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of 21 people who were crushed in a stampede out of a nightclub four years ago.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Video of rats scampering across a New York City restaurant floor may have disturbed viewers worldwide but some experts say the rodents are less dangerous than other creatures drawn to restaurants -- humans.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge halted planned elections in Port Chester, New York, on Friday, after the government said its political system effectively denies Hispanics representation in the local government.

AP - Fierce wind blew snow across roads and stranded hundreds of drivers on Midwestern highways Friday, as thousands shivered without power and airlines were forced to call off hundreds of flights.

AP - The danger that state secrets could be revealed outweighs a German man's claims that the CIA tortured him in an Afghan prison, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in refusing to reinstate his lawsuit.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Biotech crop critics said they were asking for a permanent injunction to stop the planting of Monsanto Co.'s genetically modified alfalfa after failing to negotiate a settlement with U.S. regulators by a court-imposed deadline on Friday.

AP - You've read the book, now eat the pizza. Since 1985, that's been the gist of Pizza Hut's Book It, an incentive program used by 50,000 schools nationwide to reward young readers with free pizzas. The program is now under attack by child-development experts who say it promotes bad eating habits and turns teachers into corporate promoters.

AP - Prosecutors on Friday showed jurors photographs of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford's body after it was unearthed and a blood-stained mattress as the trial of the convicted sex offender accused of killing her began.

AP - A woman accused of running an upscale prostitution service in the Washington area might sell her list of 10,000 clients to pay for her defense, her attorney said Friday. Authorities have seized about $1 million worth of real estate and $500,000 in cash and stocks from Deborah Jean Palfrey, 50, said her attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley.

AP - A Missouri man suspected of kidnapping and molesting two boys was indicted for the third time in as many days Friday, accused by a grand jury in St. Louis County of 71 counts of kidnapping and sodomy.