AP - Driven to desperation, a growing number of financially strapped car owners are torching, sinking or ditching their vehicles and then reporting them stolen to cash in on the insurance.

AP - New Mexico authorities are searching for one of their own helicopters that went missing shortly after its crew rescued a lost hiker.

AP - A federal judge is soon expected to announce his verdict in the case of a former Georgia Tech student charged with plotting to aid a terrorist group.

AP - New Mexico authorities say they are getting an emergency transponder signal from one of their own helicopters that went missing north of Santa Fe.

AP - Among the latest patients airlifted to a hospital in northern California are four little children who face weeks, if not months, of care.

AP - New Mexico authorities say rescue teams are within a half-mile of the snow-covered mountain area where they expect to find a State Police helicopter that went missing near Santa Fe.

AP - Officials say the body of one person killed in an explosion at a Slim Jim factory in North Carolina has been recovered. Crews are still trying to reach another body and one employee is unaccounted for.

AP - The black cat's body was found in the grass, just feet from the hedges where she slept each day.

AP - The Boston Globe is reporting that The New York Times Co. has hired Goldman Sachs to manage the possible sale of the financially struggling newspaper.

AP - The Muslim convert accused of killing a soldier outside an Army recruiting center said Wednesday he is not aware of any similar attacks planned against the military on American soil.

AP - Snow and gusty wind on a New Mexico mountain are hampering rescuers' efforts to reach an area where they hope to find a missing State Police helicopter with three people aboard.

AP - Crews in protective suits headed back into a collapsed Slim Jim factory through the roof Wednesday in an effort to reach a second body and find a missing worker after an unexplained blast ripped through the plant.

AP - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has been released from quarantine in China.

AP - The group that tried for years to put slain abortion provider Dr. George Tiller out of business is interested in buying his now-closed clinic in Wichita, its president said.

AP - A former Georgia Tech student has been convicted of plotting to aid a terrorist group by videotaping landmarks around Washington, D.C.

AP - In a case that could be mistaken for pulp fiction, a veteran police detective has appeared in court clad in a jail jumpsuit and charged with killing her ex-boyfriend's wife 23 years ago, in what the victim's family describes as an obsessive crime of passion.

AP - As many as 50 vehicles were involved in a chain-reaction accident early Wednesday in fog on a mountain highway, with injuries reported and wreckage scattered for a half-mile, authorities said.

AP - Attorneys in suburban Washington are back at work picking a jury for former Congressman William Jefferson's bribery trial.

AP - A former Alaska attorney general who represented state workers in the Troopergate investigation has been elected mayor of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

AP - A 5-month-old boy from Illinois who was allegedly kidnapped by his teen baby sitter has been found safe in Indiana after federal marshals traced a call to where they were staying.

AP - Recovery teams in bulky hazard suits worked cautiously in the unstable wreckage of a Slim Jim snack factory Wednesday to retrieve two remaining bodies a day after an explosion ripped through the plant.

AP - The mayor of this West Texas sheep ranching town offered a stunning explanation when he suddenly resigned: He was in love with a man who was an illegal immigrant and had gone to Mexico.

AP - An Oregon lawmaker wants to allow prosecutions for murder in the death of an unborn child.

AP - Rescuers on foot battled snow and strong wind Wednesday to reach a New Mexico state police helicopter carrying three people after its pilot reported it hit the side of a mountain, officials said.

AP - Police in Michigan say a man who held up a gas station left behind a major clue — a piece of paper bearing a name and address.

AP - Audio-visual tributes to the thousands of 9/11 victims — accompanied with stories from their lives — will form the core of the Sept. 11 memorial museum, officials announced Wednesday.

AP - It's official: Controversial Miss California Carrie Prejean has heard the words 'you're fired' from pageant boss Donald Trump. Trump issued a statement Wednesday saying he sacked Prejean for failing to honor her commitments as Miss California USA.

AP - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is warning Republicans against moving to the 'mushy middle,' arguing that only clearly articulated and conservative policies can bring the party back into power.

AP - Search teams recovered three bodies from the unstable wreckage of a Slim Jim snack factory Wednesday, one day after an explosion knocked down parts of the roof and an exterior wall.

AP - The former policeman who authorities say took a gun into a suburban middle school and threatened a superintendent has a sick child and was apparently upset over the district's swine flu policy, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

AP - Los Angeles county health officials are offering a free, at-home program to test for sexually transmitted diseases.

AP - For devoted Boston Globe readers, it's bad enough that the 137-year-old newspaper has a murky future. Even worse: The fate of the paper will be decided by a bunch of New Yorkers.

AP - Health officials are blaming bacteria and parasites in the Oklahoma River for sickening dozens of international triathlon participants last month.

AP - In the wake of an attack on a woman who died along with her unborn child, a state lawmaker wants Oregon to join 36 states and the federal government in making it a crime to harm a fetus.

AP - About 30 vehicles piled up in chain-reaction crashes in heavy morning fog on a Southern California mountain highway Wednesday. At least 15 people were injured, and wreckage was scattered for a half-mile.

AP - A frustrated artist and an angry man, the suspect in the U.S.

AP - A South Carolina funeral home where a corpse's legs were cut so the body would fit in a casket can remain open as it appeals the revocation of its license, a judge has ruled.

AP - In the state that gave the world Facebook, Google and the iPod, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says forcing California's students to rely on printed textbooks is so yesterday.

AP - A dazed Harold Harris looked up and saw the roof of the Slim Jim snack factory falling down. The doorway was buried in debris. People were crying and screaming.

AP - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service intends to reconsider its decision that denied wolverines protection under the Endangered Species Act.

AP - Rescuers found a state police patrolman suffering from extreme hypothermia Wednesday after his helicopter crashed into a snowy mountain in northern New Mexico, and officials feared that the two others aboard didn't survive.

AP - A federal appeals court has sent the corruption cases of two former Alaska lawmakers back to a trial judge, who could release the men immediately.

AP - Pandemonium erupted on the floor, the lights went out and the live television feed went black as the coup unfolded.

AP - Audiovisual tributes to the thousands of Sept. 11 victims — accompanied with stories from their lives — will form the core of the memorial museum, officials announced Wednesday.

AP - A potential compromise emerged Wednesday on one of the most vexing issues of the health care overhaul debate — whether to create a new government-sponsored health plan to compete with private insurers.

AP - A North Carolina man accused of arranging his wife's rape on Craigslist watched as she pushed a knife away from her attacker, then told her to shower afterward to destroy evidence, according to a police document released Wednesday.

AP - A dozen neighbors were so outraged by the brutal rape of an 11-year-old girl that they gave chase to a suspect and beat him, holding him until police arrived. Two of them were honored with an $11,500 police union reward only days before DNA proved the mob's instincts may have been right: Jose Carrasquillo was charged Wednesday with the attack.

AP - A mug shot of Phil Spector released Wednesday reveals that prison has been a hair-raising experience for the legendary music producer.

AP - The helicopter had just swooped in to rescue a stranded hiker in the rough mountains of New Mexico when nearby campers saw a flash of light, then heard a loud crash. Moments later, a dispatcher asked the pilot whether the three aboard were OK, and he radioed back: 'Not really.'