ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan — In the end, almost nothing that people thought they knew about Osama bin Laden's life in hiding turned out to be true.

Two Muslim religious leaders on their way to a Charlotte conference were removed from a commercial airliner in Memphis because the pilot refused to fly with them aboard, they say.

This is the text of al Qaida's statement acknowledging the death of Osama bin Laden. It was translated by McClatchy Special Correspondent Mohannad Sabry.

WASHINGTON — A congressional Democrat has again introduced legislation to help Marine veterans and family members affected by historic water contamination at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

WASHINGTON — Barry Bushue often uses pesticides on his 70-acre farm east of Portland, Ore., where he raises strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes and pumpkins.

CAIRO — Hundreds of Egyptians chanting for revenge marched Friday to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to protest the killing of Osama bin Laden, whose death al Qaida finally acknowledged in a statement that offered the Muslim world congratulations "for the martyrdom of its grateful son, Osama."

Bankruptcy filings were up again in March. The numbers: telling. In the year that ended March 31, there were 1,571,183 bankruptcy filings. Now compare this with the year that ended March 31, 2007, when there were 695,575.

Marines who suffered battlefield concussions in Iraq and Afghanistan may now qualify for one of the nation's most familiar military honors, according to a new policy.

One of the most insidious impacts of the 9/11 attacks has been a new acceptance for torture among some Americans.

VICKSBURG, Miss. -- Elaine Fuller walked through her empty home in a rural community near Yazoo City.

After 2 1⁄2 years of work and multiple public hearings, state water officials are still months away from adopting new rules intended to reduce polluted runoff from irrigated farmland.

DURHAM -- Two empty taxis rolled into a budget motel parking lot on Hillsborough Road at 5 a.m. Thursday, a sure sign that the first of seven buses from New York City would arrive soon.

Dueling protesters greeted Duke Energy shareholders Thursday at an annual meeting dominated by critics of the utility's coal, nuclear and renewable energy policies.

This might make me a snake, but I’d have been sorely tempted to take the moldy hundred grand in the strongbox nobody knew about. Jennifer Taylor was raised better.

WASHINGTON — Employers added 244,000 jobs in April, the biggest number in more than four years, the government reported Friday in a second consecutive strong showing in the monthly employment report.

Osama bin Laden may have been the most wanted man in the world until Monday, but the FBI still has a list of 29 other men it considers the "most wanted" terrorists in the world, including three facing charges in California.

WASHINGTON — The embittering of relations between Venezuela and the U.S. sank so low in recent years that even a McDonald's combo meal and a two-for-one offer from Domino's Pizza were the subject of acrimony.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A tumble of kindergarteners sat cross-legged on their classroom carpet, reading in tiny voices a list of rhyming words: best, rest, west, nest.

NEW YORK — It took nearly 10 years. But long after one president stood amid the rubble of the World Trade Center to vow that the guilty would soon hear from an outraged America, another returned Thursday to mark the hard-won moment of justice.

WASHINGTON — Democratic and Republican lawmakers apparently left a closed-door meeting Thursday with Vice President Joe Biden on budgets, deficits and debt the same way they walked in: deeply divided on tax policy.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers from South Carolina and Washington state feuded Thursday over a bid by the top lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board to prevent Boeing from making Dreamliner 787s at a nonunion plant near Charleston, S.C., instead of at its current hub in Everett, Wash.

WASHINGTON — Here's a dirty little secret that most Americans don't want to hear: We're under-taxed.

The University of Florida, the University of Kentucky and the University of Kansas were among the recipients of millions of dollars in federal grants today for the development of biofuels. "The projects selected today will help produce affordable, renewable biofuels...

Sometimes people don't get it because they don't want to get it.

One thinks of rats scurrying off a sinking ship.

Exactly 16 years, three months and 20 days after the first wolves from Canada were released at Corn Creek in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness of Idaho, the Interior Department published a rule in the Federal Register that formally removed the notorious predator from the endangered species list as of Thursday.

The Great Flood of 1927 set high marks that may be broken this month as an enormous amount of water makes its way down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.

WASHINGTON — An ambitious draft plan to protect California's crucial Bay-Delta region is fragmented, incomplete and hard to understand, a National Academy of Sciences panel warned Thursday.

WASHINGTON — A national commission whose members include actress Eva Longoria and musician Emilio Estefan is recommending the creation of a National Museum of the American Latino to recognize the contributions of Hispanics to the American experience.

WASHINGTON — American scientists working on an island far above the Arctic Circle have been launching unmanned aircraft and digging snow samples to measure how soot helps melt Arctic snow and ice.

President Barack Obama is on his way to New York for a wreath laying and meetings with victims' family members and first responders today at the National September 11th Memorial. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told the press pool...

Compassionate consumerism - as some critics describe today's hottest trend in philanthropy - encourages people to feel socially conscientious while guiltlessly enjoying the good life. The idea is that you "give" by buying or selling a product, a portion of whose proceeds go to the needy. I don't think so.

ISLETON, Calif. — Facing threat of criminal prosecution by the federal government, the group planning to build a large medical marijuana farm in Isleton has killed the project.

The killing of Osama bin Laden has dominated the news for three days, and with it images of celebration. For parents struggling to explain the events to their children, the public rejoicing – and subsequent backlash against it – has added another layer of complexity to an already difficult task.

TOPEKA — In a vote that could foreshadow campaign postcards of 2012, state senators Wednesday almost certainly killed a bill designed to drive sexually oriented businesses out of business.

Mitt Romney continues to hold a wide lead among Republicans in New Hampshire, according to a new WMUR Granite State Poll. The former Massachusetts governor got the support of 36 percent of those surveyed in the nation's traditionally first primary...

CAIRO — Thousands of Palestinians rejoiced Wednesday as members of the rival Fatah and Hamas factions formalized their commitment to an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation pact at a ceremony in Cairo.

WASHINGTON — After a two-year pause on trade, the Obama administration informed congressional leaders Wednesday that it's ready to negotiate legislation to implement free-trade agreements already reached with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

WASHINGTON — Get ready for a lot of talk and fresh optimism Thursday about dramatically cutting the federal debt and budget deficits.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz took the helm of the national Democratic party Wednesday, pledging to “work every single day” to re-elect President Barack Obama and Democrats up and down the ballot.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration Wednesday formally proposed a special commission to help shed some of the federal government's 14,000 surplus properties.

WASHINGTON — As details surface about the mission earlier this week to find Osama bin Laden, one thing is clear: Capturing the long-sought terrorist mastermind alive might have been an option, but it wasn't a top priority.

President Barack Obama has decided not to release photos of Osama bin Laden after he was killed, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday. Obama told CBS in an interview that there was no doubt that bin Laden was...

That thick, juicy slice of deep-dish bacon cheeseburger pizza might look pretty tasty until you learn it has an unappetizing 450 calories.

In his newsletter this week former U.S House speaker Newt Gingrich calls for Washington to pass a "powerful tax cut and regulatory reform package" to get the nation's economy back on track.

Calling some lawmakers “self-serving jackasses,” South Carolina’s natural resources chief told conservationists Tuesday they must work harder to gain the attention of legislators at the State House.

One video circulating in cyberspace, shot by a 12-year-old boy with his cellphone in the back seat of his vehicle, shows a tornado closing in on a family driving in North Carolina last month — right up until the tornado hits them.

A wildfire has burned more than 16,400 acres of Big Cypress National Preserve, threatening endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers and Florida panthers.

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of young adults are taking advantage of the 2010 health care law provision that allows people younger than 26 to remain on their parents' health plans, some of the nation's largest insurers are reporting. That pace appears to be faster than the government expected.

MANATEE, Fla. — They are the stuff of conspiracy theories, myth and legend.