US News Headlines

AP - The wife of evangelical pastor Joel Osteen shoved a flight attendant during an in-flight tantrum over a stained seat, a fellow crew member testified Thursday at a civil trial over the incident.

AP - A Michigan man has pleaded guilty to sex abuse after being accused of wearing a "World's Greatest Dad" shirt to meet for sex with someone he thought was a 14-year-old-girl.

AP - A southern Oregon community long involved in battling wildfires was plunged into mourning with word that seven of the nine people killed in a Northern California helicopter crash were employees of a local company that has mustered contract firefighting crews since 1979.

AP - For a few long hours in 2001, things looked impossibly grim for Dr. Irshad Shaikh and his brother, Masood. Not long after dawn on Nov. 13, armed FBI agents hunting for the anthrax killer crashed through the door of his Pennsylvania home and spent the next 13 hours searching the place in moon suits. Another team raided the apartment of a colleague, a few blocks away.

AP - Party officials say former President Clinton will deliver a speech on the third night of the Democratic National Convention before an address by the as-yet-to-be-named running mate for Barack Obama.

AP - They're not exactly rooting for Barack Obama, but prominent white supremacists anticipate a boost to their cause if he becomes the first black president. His election, they say, would trigger a backlash — whites rising up, a revolution of sorts — that they think is long overdue.

AP - John McCain's efforts to define Barack Obama have been well cataloged in recent days, from the substantive (calling Obama a tax raiser slow to offer an energy plan) to the silly (comparing the Illinois senator to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.)

AFP - The top US commander in Afghanistan has publicly accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate of "some complicity" over time with militant groups fomenting violence in Afghanistan.

AFP - The Pentagon is mounting a 2.2 billion dollar effort to dramatically expand surveillance of Iraq and Afghanistan by manned and unmanned spy planes, Pentagon officials said Thursday.