2009-07-06 07:10:04 -

TOP STORIES
HONDURAS-COUP
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras _ Volatile Honduras slides toward greater instability after soldiers block an airport runway to keep ousted President Manuel Zelaya from returning. Protests that had remained largely peaceful yield their first fatality, and the post-coup government tightens the nightly curfew. By Will Weissert. AP Photos.
US-IRAN-ISRAEL
WASHINGTON _ Vice President Joe Biden signals that the Obama administration would not stand in the way if Israel chose to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, even as the top U.S. military officer said any attack on Iran would be destabilizing. By Robert Burns. AP Photos.
MEXICO-ELECTIONS
MEXICO CITY _ Reviled as a creaky remnant of an authoritarian past, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for seven decades before losing the presidency in 2000, makes a big comeback in midterm congressional elections. By Mark Stevenson and Michael E. Miller. AP Photos.
MICHAEL JACKSON
LOS ANGELES _ Michael Jackson fans began to celebrate after beating the odds to win coveted tickets to the pop star's memorial service at Staples Center. By Daisy Nguyen. AP Photos CAJH106, CAMR101, CAMR102, XMJH103, CAGR102.
US-PALIN-POLITICS
WASHINGTON _ One of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's potential presidential rivals says that her abrupt resignation won't help her dodge scrutiny. President George W. Bush's chief political adviser says her strategy is, at best, unclear. By Philip Elliott. AP Photo.
US-PALIN-STRUGGLES
JUNEAU, Alaska _ Ever since Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate, returned from the campaign trail many Alaskans felt her heart wasn't in the job. By Mark Thiessen. AP Photo.
US-KILLING SPREE
GAFFNEY, South Carolina _ Hundreds of mourners throng funeral services for an elderly mother and her daughter, two of five victims of a suspected serial killer whose crime spree has terrorized this rural South Carolina community for more than a week.
US-SOTOMAYOR-REPUBLICANS FLOUNDER-ANALYSIS
WASHINGTON _ A week before her Senate hearings, Republicans are floundering in their efforts to trip up Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, unable to find an effective message about why she's not fit to serve. By Julie Hirschfeld Davis. AP Photos.
US-DISNEY MONORAIL CRASH
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida _ Two monorail trains crash in the Magic Kingdom section of Walt Disney World, killing one train's operator. AP Photos.
US-HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL _ Senators say it will take a compromise on a government option for insurance if the Senate is to agree on a health care overall.
BUSINESS & FINANCE
GM-BANKRUPTCY
NEW YORK _ A bankruptcy judge says General Motors can sell the bulk of its assets to a new company, clearing the way for the automaker to quickly emerge from bankruptcy.

US-HARVARD PRESIDENT
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts _ Drew Gilpin Faust started as Harvard's president when the university's prosperity seemed limitless. With its ballooning wealth, Harvard planned almost frenzied growth, from a building boom into Boston to vast increases in student financial aid. By Melissa Trujillo. AP Photos.
US-STATE BUDGETS-TROUBLE AHEAD
JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri _ With its IOUs and plans to close state offices three days a month, California gets all the attention as lawmakers fight to write a budget set off balance by a $26.3 billion deficit. But the dozens of states that made spending cuts, tapped into reserves or relied on federal stimulus funds to patch together budgets that took effect this past week are hardly free from worry. Many of those spending plans are based on tax revenue projections that have been wrong throughout the recession _ and may be unreliable again. By David A. Lieb. AP Photo.
FEATURES
US-FEA-IRAQ-TRAINING TO LEAVE
FORT STEWART, Georgia _ It was just another day for the U.S. Army in war-weary northern Iraq: insurgents in Mosul, political turf battles in Kirkuk, an attack on the Bayji oil refinery in Salah ad Din. All needed to be dealt with immediately. And all by an infantry unit that wasn't even in Iraq. By Lara Jakes. AP Photos.
US-FEA-THE PATRIOTS OF PINELAND
RAMSEUR, North Carolina _ Pineland is a contradiction that exists for the best of causes. It is a real place that does not exist, or, perhaps, a fake place that does. It is a military training ground etched onto the landscape itself _ a community with a backstory hewn from whole cloth that helps real American soldiers stay alive in real American wars. And much like the country that contains it, Pineland is a society founded upon an idea _ that freedom and a fire to fight for it are more than slogans. By Kevin Maurer. AP Photos.
US-RAINWATER HARVESTING
TUCSON, Arizona _ Long dependent on well water and supplies sent hundreds of miles by canal from the Colorado River, this desert city will soon harvest some of its 12 inches of annual rainfall to help bolster its water resources. By Arthur H. Rotstein. AP Photo.
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