A federal arts commission is urging that the sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. proposed for a memorial be reworked because it is too "confrontational" and reminiscent of political art in totalitarian states.

Seeking to referee a stalemate over how the CIA can interrogate prisoners, a top Senate Republican says Congress should ban waterboarding and seven other abusive methods of interrogation but allow the spy agency some leeway in how it questions detainees.

Hand-scrawled bishop's records taken from a polygamist sect are helping untangle the network of family relationships at the Texas ranch, where some husbands had more than a dozen wives.

A line of severe storms swept across the Southeast on Thursday, damaging homes and businesses in at least four states. One person was killed by a tornado in North Carolina, authorities said.

A construction company owner who lost two homes in Hurricane Katrina claimed a $97 million Powerball prize, a jackpot won off a ticket he bought at a convenience store where he stopped to buy his wife a gallon of milk.

The once-formidable fund-raising machine of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun to sputter at the worst possible moment for her presidential campaign, Clinton advisers and donors said Thursday.

Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will allow a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.

President Bush stuck out his right elbow Thursday, jokingly demonstrating how he'll escort his daughter down the aisle at her wedding this weekend.

Geologists said a 260-foot-deep sinkhole that grew to the length of three football fields over just two days seemed to be slowing down Thursday, but that it could take months before it's clear whether surrounding areas are stable.

Since they first walked the planet, humans have either buried or burned their dead. Now a new option is generating interest — dissolving bodies and flushing the residue down the drain.

An actor who played Santa Claus and painted children's faces was arrested on child sex charges early Thursday after an international manhunt.

A week from Saturday, 453 new graduates will cross the commencement stage on the lawn of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. Among them: Nokuthula Sikhethiwe Kitikiti, Udochukwu Chinyere Obodo, and Baitnairamdal Otgonshar.

A 1,000-pound manta ray was returned to the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after three years as a research subject and tourist attraction at a Bahamian resort.

Police say they had no trouble tracking down a Pennsylvania robbery suspect, because the victims had taken his picture while chatting with him at a bar a short time before the theft.

The tiny Wyoming community of Boulder (pop. 75), has one thing in common with major metropolitan areas: air pollution thick enough to pose health risks.

The driver of a 1997 Honda Civic that struck and killed a dog in Minnesota is suing the dog's owners for damage done to his vehicle.

A day after his carefully orchestrated protests briefly blocked rush-hour traffic, the Rev. Al Sharpton on Thursday promised to stage another mass protest.