U.S. National - Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A massive California wildfire marched toward a mountain resort town and a parched national forest on Thursday, threatening to combine with a second blaze in what state officials called a "very critical" situation.

ROCHESTER, Minnesota (Reuters) - Rochester doesn't mind railroads -- unless there's a possibility that they could disturb the southern Minnesota city's most important resident, the Mayo Clinic.

FRYEBURG, Maine (Reuters) - As Don Thibodeau drove across his potato field, juggling a cell phone, walkie-talkie and the steering wheel of his pickup truck, he dispelled the illusion of bucolic farm life.

LILONGWE (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Friday urged African governments to encourage people to take voluntary AIDS tests, saying it was the only way that newly available drugs would have an impact on the epidemic.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Friday it awarded $1.16 billion in contracts to three companies to develop sophisticated equipment to scan cargo at border cities for nuclear weapons material.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With five Grammies under his belt, R&B; singer Usher is moving into Tony territory -- making his Broadway debut in a revival of the musical "Chicago."

BOSTON (Reuters) - The number of suspect areas in Boston's troubled "Big Dig" quadrupled on Thursday as an investigation deepened into a fatal tunnel collapse that shook confidence in America's most expensive public works project.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - New Orleans police on Thursday charged a 19-year-old man with the gun slaying last month of five teens that sparked a panic about rising crime in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Environmentalists in New Orleans wary of a post-hurricane ecological disaster claimed victory on Thursday when the mayor agreed to quit using a dump on the edge of a wildlife refuge to dispose of storm debris.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Red Buttons, the flame-haired comedian and Oscar-winning actor of 1957 film "Sayonara," died on Thursday at his Los Angeles-area home at the age of 87 of vascular disease, his publicist said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to prohibit the confiscation of legally owned guns during an emergency like last year's Hurricane Katrina, marking another victory for the gun lobby.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Police are on the lookout for members of a machete-wielding gang in angry clown make-up after a rampage of robbery and violence that left nearly two dozen people injured in a park in western Washington state.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Prominent donors have delayed multimillion-dollar gifts to Harvard University since Lawrence Summers resigned as the school's president and a search began for his replacement, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's power grid is expected to post a new electricity demand record on Friday as air conditioners across the state battle a powerful heat wave, the California Independent System Operator said on Thursday.

GOLDEN, Colo. (Reuters) - Beer-brewing magnate and former U.S. Senate candidate Peter Coors was arrested in May for drunk driving, the chairman of the Coors Brewing Company said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NASA would get an additional $1 billion in funds to help cover the costs of returning the space shuttle to flight under a bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Located in the heart of the U.S. West hundreds of miles from foreign borders, Colorado has become a focus for the national debate on illegal immigration and its governor says he is ready to sign bills to deter undocumented aliens from coming to his state.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - No data has been taken from a stolen laptop computer containing sensitive information on more than 26 million U.S. military veterans and service members, the FBI said on Thursday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - In a few weeks it will be illegal to sell foie gras in Chicago; but fans of the delicacy are not going quietly into the night.

TRINWILLERSHAGEN, Germany (Reuters) - President Bush put Middle East tension, violence in Iraq and Iran's nuclear program behind him on Thursday to feast on a wild boar roasting on a spit.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Heather Dinsmore tried her father's career route but then quit her job, went back to school and at age 29 is studying Spanish in the Andes.

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - To the government, he is an al Qaeda "sleeper" agent sent to the United States by Osama bin Laden to help sow more terror after the September 11 attacks.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. Apache helicopter crashed in a dangerous area southwest of Baghdad on Thursday but its two pilots survived.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tornadoes were reported to have touched down during a severe storm in Westchester County on Wednesday, just north of New York City, and in Connecticut, the National Weather Service said.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Angelina Jolie will star in a movie as the widow of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, trade paper Daily Variety reported in its Thursday edition.

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (Reuters) - Kennedy relative Michael Skakel filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in a bid to overturn his conviction for the 1975 murder of his 15-year-old neighbor Martha Moxley.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday they have begun a limited public test to allow users of the companies' respective instant messaging programs to trade messages with one another.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, the heart of the U.S. gambling industry, are starting to feel the pinch from a slower economy and high fuel prices after a two-year run with Lady Luck.