National News

BUXTON, N.C. (AP) -- Hurricane Earl's powerful gusts and driving rains are churning over the Outer Banks of North Carolina and starting to be felt in southeastern Virginia....

MIAMI (AP) -- Federal officials say a passenger has been taken into custody after screeners detected something suspicious in a checked bag at Miami International Airport....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Jesse Kelly was still basking in the glow of his victory in an Arizona congressional primary when the Democratic congresswoman he's trying to unseat released a scathing TV ad branding him "a risk" who would gamble away people's retirement savings....

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Stark differences exist between the oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico and the blast that led to the massive BP spill. Mostly notably, no one was killed and no crude was gushing into the water, but the distinctions don't end there....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The unemployment rate may be about to rise again....

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- As the last of 30,000 U.S. reinforcements arrive in Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday got a firsthand look at operations in the dangerous south where Afghan and international troops are ramping up security....

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- U.S. Agriculture Department employees worked full-time at two Iowa egg farms at the center of a salmonella outbreak and massive recall, but two former workers said they ignored complaints about conditions at one site....

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) -- Soldiers killed at least 25 suspected cartel members Thursday in a raid and gunbattle in a Mexican state near the U.S. border that has become one of the most dangerous battlegrounds in the country's drug war....

SYDNEY (AP) -- Actor Paul Hogan, star of the "Crocodile Dundee" movie trilogy, has been cleared to return home to the United States after he was barred last month from leaving Australia because of a disputed tax bill, his lawyer said Friday....

NEW YORK (AP) -- Roger Federer is one cool customer....