BISMARCK, N.D. – With record amounts of water feeding into the Missouri River from swollen tributaries on top of a blizzard, state officials urged evacuations along the river and were considering using helicopters to dynamite an ice jam to ease flooding around Bismarck.
Residents in low-lying subdivisions along the river in Bismarck and Mandan were ordered [...]

WASHINGTON – Speculation over the crash of a single-engine turboprop plane into a cemetery shifted to ice on the wings Monday after it became less likely that overloading was to blame, given that half of the 14 people on board were small children.
While descending Sunday in preparation for landing at the Bert Mooney Airport in [...]

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s first public act in office Wednesday was to institute new limits on lobbyists in his White House and to freeze the salaries of high-paid aides, in a nod to the country’s economic turmoil.
Announcing the moves while attending a ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to swear in his staff, [...]

WASHINGTON – Stepping into history, Barack Hussein Obama grasped the reins of power as America’s first black president on Tuesday, saying the nation must choose “hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord” to overcome the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
In frigid temperatures, an exuberant crowd of more than a million [...]

Wall Street and European stocks fell back on Wednesday as investors buckled down for an expected gloomy economic ride after the euphoria of Democrat Barack Obama’s US presidential election victory.
Dealers said gains made on Tuesday on hopes for fresh efforts to tackle the global financial crisis were surrendered quickly on Wall Street and in Europe [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Delta Enterprises recalled almost 1.6 million cribs, made in China, Indonesia and Taiwan, on Monday after it said two babies died.
The company did not provide any details on the deaths of the two infants and declined to answer any questions.
The family-owned company that sells cribs, strollers and other products for babies, [...]

KHAR, Pakistan – A top U.S. diplomat met with Pakistan’s prime minister Monday as Pakistani security forces used artillery and fighter jets to kill seven suspected insurgents in the northwest tribal region, officials said.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher’s visit comes amid strains between the two nations over suspected American missile strikes on militant [...]

LAS VEGAS – Jurors who found O.J. Simpson guilty in his armed robbery trial say secret audio tapes and surveillance video swayed them more than witness accounts.

Seven panelists who attended an extraordinary news conference Sunday concluded that without the recordings the prosecution might not have won convictions.
“It would have been a very weak case,” said [...]

WILLIAMS, Calif. – A casino-bound charter bus with an invalid license plate drifted off the road and then swerved back, sending it tumbling into a ditch and ejecting passengers as it rolled, police said. Ten people were killed and dozens injured.
The bus flipped over at about 6:10 p.m. Sunday on a rural road, throwing some [...]

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Suspected al-Qaida militants armed with pistols and shotguns attacked a police guard post outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, sparking a gunbattle that left three attackers and three officers dead.

Turkish and U.S. officials publicly labeled the shooting a terrorist attack and a police official in Istanbul told The Associated Press [...]