AP - Six people were killed when severe storms spawned a tornado that struck a small community near the Mexican border Tuesday, officials said.

AP - Federal authorities arrested 14 people in Mississippi and Louisiana on Tuesday in a cocaine trafficking investigation that also resulted in more than 40 dogs being seized from a dogfighting operation.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When the aliens finally invade Earth, you may wish you had listened to Travis Taylor and Bob Boan.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase is threatening to move thousands of employees to an office outside New York if it is not given a larger subsidy to build a skyscraper in the city, the New York Times reported on its Web site on Wednesday.

AP - Computer files, cell phone records and e-mails have yielded no evidence about what triggered Seung-Hui Cho's massacre at Virginia Tech last week and whether he hand-picked his 32 victims.

AP - Dozens of residents were forced to evacuate and authorities closed a highway early Wednesday after a wildfire spreading through a swamp moved toward communities south of Waycross.

AP - There was shock and dismay at the home base of the 82nd Airborne Division, as people mourned the deadliest day of combat in the division's history since the Vietnam War.

AP - More than four years after a beautiful actress was shot to death at Phil Spector's hilltop mansion, a jury must decide whether the music producer murdered her.

AP - The Army, faced with thousands of cases of brain injury from the Iraq war, will soon begin testing brain scanning equipment in hopes of finding a more accurate way to identify hard-to-diagnose wounds.

AP - Blacks already feeling the pinch from a housing shortage in the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina are facing racial discrimination in their search for rental property, a survey by housing advocates found.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Health officials are now looking at whether humans may have consumed food containing a chemical linked to a recall of pet foods and livestock feed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Outdated U.S. policies are keeping many disabled Americans from getting help they need, an expert panel said on Tuesday in a report faulting government inaction toward the needs of this growing population.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A coalition of religious leaders took on the Catholic Church, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Bush administration on Tuesday with a plea to take religion out of health care in the United States.

AP - Dozens of residents evacuated their homes for several hours early Wednesday after a wildfire jumped a road and spread toward two small communities.

LONDON (Reuters) - A new musical inspired by the hurricane that devastated New Orleans in 2005 will set the global warming theme of this year's world famous Promenade Concerts, the BBC said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo urged Congress on Wednesday to reform the nation's troubled student loan system and accused the U.S. Education Department of being 'asleep at the switch.'

AP - The University of Virginia's board marked founder Thomas Jefferson's birthday with an apology for the school's use of slave labor between 1819 and 1865.

AP - Two state troopers were shot Wednesday morning in this Catskill Mountains community as police closed in on a suspect in the shooting of another trooper hours earlier, authorities said.

AP - The family of a black teenager who died at a church camp last spring has filed a wrongful death lawsuit claiming he was the victim of an asphyxiation prank that was little better than a lynching.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court overturned three Texas death sentences on Wednesday because of flawed jury instructions formerly used by the state that leads the country with the most executions.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo urged Congress on Wednesday to reform the nation's troubled student loan system and accused the U.S. Education Department of being 'asleep at the switch.'

AP - Several residents were taken to hospitals Wednesday with burns and rashes after the town's water supply was accidentally treated with too much corrosive lye, police said.

AP - A state trooper was shot to death and another was wounded in this Catskill Mountains town Wednesday as police chased a suspect in the shooting of a third trooper hours earlier, authorities said.

AP - Black lawmakers want police to investigate protesters at a statehouse gun rights rally who held up a banner calling for an opponent to be 'hung from the tree of liberty.'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sugary drinks, fatty chips and gooey snack cakes should be banned from U.S. schools in the face of rising childhood obesity fueled by these junk foods, an expert panel said on Wednesday in a report requested by Congress.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, said on Wednesday it hopes to have 100 'Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets' in the United States by February of 2008.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. state of North Dakota, better known for its cold winters and abundant farmland, wants to supplant Delaware as the official home to corporate America.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City might get a new midtown Manhattan bus terminal to replace the cramped and gritty building that now serves more than 200,000 passengers a day, the transportation agency said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The marijuana being sold across the United States is stronger than ever, which could explain a growing number of medical emergencies that involve the drug, government drug experts on Wednesday.

AP - The top U.S. representative of the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group designated as a foreign terrorist organization, orchestrated a covert campaign to finance its escalating conflict with military forces in Sri Lanka, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

AP - More than four years after an actress was shot to death at Phil Spector's hilltop castle, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday that at times the music producer is 'sinister and deadly.'

AP - The second-guessing started as soon as the body count at Virginia Tech began to rise.

AP - To many, the B.W. Cooper projects are 56 terrifying acres of government-issue housing marked by bloodshed, drugs and blight. To Barbara Williams, they're home.

AP - Since 1968, federal law has prohibited the sale of guns to anyone adjudged mentally ill. But more than half the states cannot — or will not — supply the necessary mental health records to the FBI database that is used to conduct background checks on would-be gun buyers.

AP - Dozens of residents were taken to hospitals Wednesday with burns or rashes after the town's water supply was accidentally treated with too much corrosive lye, officials said.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - 'Girls Gone Wild' video mogul Joe Francis was charged with sexual battery in Los Angeles on Wednesday, two days after being jailed in Florida in the fallout of another sexually-charged case.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Legendary music producer Phil Spector had a 'very rich history of violence against women' that culminated with him shooting dead an actress in his castle-style home outside Los Angeles four years ago, a prosecutor told jurors on Wednesday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A former diplomat who served on the board of Conrad Black's media company testified at the fallen press baron's trial on Wednesday he had no clue there was a pattern of payments that prosecutors say diverted $60 million from the firm he was supposed to help oversee.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. tax receipts from individuals hit a record one-day high of $48.7 billion on April 24, a Treasury Department official said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional leaders on Wednesday threatened to make sweeping changes to the Bush administration's food safety system in light of fresh concerns over contaminated pet food.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hispanics are changing the face of religion in the United States, injecting new blood into the Catholic Church as well as Protestant groups and leading a move to newer forms of worship, a survey showed on Wednesday.

AP - All residents were accounted for Wednesday after crews scoured the mangled remains of houses and trailer homes in the wake of tornadoes that killed at least 10 people in this border community and its Mexican neighbor. The storm killed two other people in Louisiana and Arkansas.

AP - A farm house that authorities had surrounded in a search for man suspected of killing a state trooper went up in flames Wednesday, shortly after sharpshooters began firing and SWAT teams tried to enter.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The suspected head of the U.S. branch of Sri Lankan rebel group the Tamil Tigers was arrested in New York on Wednesday and charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two out of three Americans think the country is on the wrong track, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Wednesday.

AP - The City Council's decision Wednesday to pave the way for low-income housing at Disneyland's doorstep is a jolt to the cozy relationship that Anaheim and its largest employer have enjoyed for more than half a century.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Television singing talent show 'American Idol' proved its clout as a U.S. cultural phenomenon on Wednesday by raising more than $30 million for young people in Africa and the United States.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The marijuana being sold across the United States is stronger than ever, which could explain a growing number of medical emergencies that involve the drug, government drug experts on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York rights activists called on the city council on Wednesday to regulate surveillance cameras to prevent intrusion into people's privacy and prevent an abuse of footage.

AP - The City Council's decision Wednesday to pave the way for low-income housing at Disneyland's doorstep is a jolt to the cozy relationship that Anaheim and its largest employer have enjoyed for more than half a century.