
LONDON -- A retired British couple snatched from their yacht by Somali pirates last month say their captors are "losing patience."

NEW YORK -- A bus carrying 35 elementary school children on an outing has caught fire on a New York City bridge, but the children and their escorts have been rescued.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The U.S. Army has reversed its position and now says it will open Sarah Palin's appearance on Fort Bragg to media despite fears the event will turn into political grandstanding against President Barack Obama.

NEW YORK -- "Going Rogue" is going big. Publisher HarperCollins said Friday that Sarah Palin's memoir sold 300,000 copies its first day, among the best openings ever for a nonfiction book.

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. -- A billboard showing President Barack Obama wearing a turban has sparked a lot of attention at the suburban Denver used car dealership that put it up.

WASHINGTON -- Prosecutors say they'll drop manslaughter charges against one of the Blackwater Worldwide contractors charged in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting.

COCKERMOUTH, England -- Cars have been floating down the street in one town and military helicopters have been winching people to safety across England's swamped Lake District today.

SAN ANTONIO -- An attorney for the Army psychiatrist charged in the mass shooting at Fort Hood says his client will have his first court hearing in his hospital room on Saturday.

OZARK, Ark. -- The FBI has dispatched investigators to Arkansas to look into a police officer's use of a stun gun on a 10-year-old girl who refused to take a shower.

NORWOOD, Ohio -- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is returning as a new author to southwest Ohio where she made her debut as a national candidate. Palin is scheduled to sign copies of her book, "Going Rogue," Friday afternoon in the Cincinnati suburbs.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington says it is obligated to keep paying retirement benefits to six priests who church officials have confirmed are pedophiles.

CLEVELAND -- A combat photographer whose pictures of a massacre of Vietnamese civilians were published in an Ohio newspaper 40 years ago recalls it was hard for people to believe what U.S. troops had done.

DINWIDDIE, Va. -- Virginia State Police say one person was killed when a tour bus belonging to Miley Cyrus overturned, but the 16-year-old "Hannah Montana" star was not on board.

FORT HOOD, Texas -- Sarah Palin's tour to promote her new memoir will include a stop at Fort Hood to benefit the victims of the shooting rampage and their families.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Newspaper advertising revenue in the U.S. plunged 28 percent in the third quarter to $6.4 billion.

A stunning sight lit up the sky over Utah and several western states Wednesday.

CHICAGO -- Oprah Winfrey's production company says Winfrey will announce Friday that her talk show will end in 2011 after its 25th season on the air.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A group of volunteer "elves" in Alaska's frigid interior has set out to save a popular holiday letter service featuring the North Pole's most beloved icon.

The H1N1 vaccine is tops on Santa's wish list this Christmas.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Army officials plan to prevent media from covering Sarah Palin's appearance at Fort Bragg on Monday, saying they fear the event will turn into political grandstanding against President Barack Obama.