AP - A student panel discussion Tuesday on Islamic extremism that included a display of Prophet Muhammad cartoons drew protesters outside the auditorium and descended into name-calling inside.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said on Wednesday he was shocked by video showing U.S. President George W. Bush being told the day before Hurricane Katrina hit that the city's protective levees could fail.

AP - Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against convicted Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad when he goes on trial in May, the Montgomery County state's attorney said Thursday.

AP - SANTA ROSA, Calif. — A longtime Presbyterian minister who was the first of her faith to be tried for officiating at the unions of gay couples was acquitted Friday of violating her denomination's position on same-sex marriage.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A fire erupted at a power plant in West Virginia on Saturday, with several injuries reported and some workers trapped, authorities said.

AP - The father of a power plant worker plucked off a burning 100-story smokestack says his son complained about safety issues only days before fire erupted at the facility.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Cyber criminals are stepping up smaller, more targeted attacks as they seek to avoid detection and reap bigger profits by stealing personal and financial information, according to a report issued on Monday.

AP - A 1982 BMW advertised as once belonging to one of the gunmen in the Columbine High School killings was pulled from an online auction, a spokesman for eBay said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - NFL owners and players agreed to a six-year extension of their collective bargaining agreement on Wednesday, ending weeks of tense negotiations and the threat of free agent chaos.

AP - Evangelist Billy Graham, whose ministry has taken him to some of the world's least-developed countries, said Thursday that the scope of devastation he saw as he toured hurricane-ravaged New Orleans this week left him speechless.

AP - When Tom Fox didn't appear this week on a video of Christian activists taken hostage in Iraq, members of his Quaker congregation prepared themselves for the worst while praying for the best.

AP - Rural house fires in Tennessee and Indiana killed 15 members of two families, and most of the victims were children, officials said.

ANAHEIM (Reuters) - The inaugural World Baseball Classic was shrouded in controversy on Sunday when an umpire's ruling denied Japan a crucial run in their 4-3 loss to the U.S.

AP - The frozen chicken that Joy Rank had been thawing for dinner was still soaking the next morning in a sink full of water — a meal abandoned when Rank watched a scene of terror unfold outside her kitchen window.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Negotiations on rebuilding New York City's World Trade Center site ran past a deadline set by the state's governor on Tuesday without a resolution between the developer of Ground Zero and New York officials over who would construct specific buildings at the site.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A man opened fire with a pair of handguns at a central California Denny's restaurant at lunchtime on Wednesday, killing two people and wounding two others before apparently taking his own life, police said.

AP - Four volunteer firefighters on a fishing trip died after their small boat overturned in the Atlantic Ocean more than a mile from shore, the Coast Guard said Thursday.

AP - Andrea Yates' defense attorneys again asked a judge to delay her capital murder retrial for the 2001 bathtub drowning deaths of her children, which is scheduled to begin next week.

AP - Hawaiian officials carefully monitored high-risk reservoirs for another possible break as forecasters predicted several more days of heavy rain for an island where a dam burst last week, killing up to seven people.

AP - After an extraordinary week in which confessed al-Qaida terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui's death-penalty trial was sidetracked to plumb the depths of a government lawyer's misdeeds, the jury is returning to hear evidence by the FBI agent who arrested Moussaoui weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Seven Singaporeans were charged in court for using their children's birth certificates to obtain forged passports to smuggle Chinese children into the United States, a court official said on Tuesday.

AP - High levels of a radioactive material — nearly three times the amount permitted in drinking water — were found in groundwater near the Hudson River beneath a nuclear plant, the owner said Tuesday.

AP - A career criminal who became investigators' prime suspect in the death of a 24-year-old graduate student has been charged with murder, two law enforcement officials said, but the bar bouncer insists he's innocent.

AP - A bouncer pleaded not guilty Thursday in the gruesome rape and murder of a graduate student in a "CSI"-style case built on such forensic evidence as blood, rabbit fur, rug fibers and cell phone records.

AP - The city has agreed to pay nearly $9 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a former waiter and avid hiker who lost his legs in a 2003 ferry crash, lawyers said Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - UCLA shut down top-seeded Memphis's high-powered offense and used a 50-45 upset victory to put the tradition-rich Bruins back in the NCAA Tournament's Final Four on Saturday.

AP - With less than a month before New Orleans' first elections since Hurricane Katrina, the vote's plan — and even the date — are still in dispute.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday hears a challenge by Osama bin Laden's former driver to President Bush's power to set up military tribunals in his war on terrorism.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sam used to sneak into his office before dawn so no one would know how many extra hours he worked. Charles goes on all-night work binges to meet deadlines, and Susan can't say no to volunteer projects, social clubs, bridge games, choral singing, lectures and classes.

AP - The sole survivor of the Sago Mine disaster would prefer to forget the few fragmented images he can recall from the 41 hours he lay trapped deep underground in a mine filled with toxic fumes.

AP - Two security screeners at the Honolulu International Airport pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing tens of thousands of dollars worth of yen from the luggage of Japanese tourists.