ST. JOHN, Ariz. — A forest ranger is being hailed as a "true hero" for alertly spotting a pair of fugitives and allowing a heavily armed law enforcement contingent to arrest them.

BANGKOK — A Thai appeals court on Friday ordered the extradition of suspected Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout to the United States, angering Moscow but paving the way to put the man dubbed the "Merchant of Death" on trial.

WASHINGTON — Employers appear to be laying off workers again as the economic recovery weakens. The number of people applying for unemployment benefits reached the half-million mark last week for the first time since November.

WASHINGTON – Americans increasingly are convinced — incorrectly — that President Barack Obama is a Muslim, and a growing number are thoroughly confused about his religion.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – America's latest folk-hero flight attendant may be the one on a Southwest Airlines jet who took a 13-month-old baby from her mother after the woman slapped the crying child for kicking her.

SUKKUR, Pakistan — Angry flood survivors in Pakistan blocked a highway to protest slow delivery of aid and heavy rain lashed makeshift housing Monday as a forecast of more flooding increased the urgency of the massive international relief effort.

CHICAGO — They were close. After three weeks of respectful but increasingly tense deliberations, 11 jurors were ready to convict Rod Blagojevich of what prosecutors called a "political corruption crime spree" that would have sent yet another former Illinois governor to prison.

McKINNEY, Texas — A 29-year-old man killed himself during a shootout with authorities after he drove a trailer filled with explosives into the parking lot of a suburban Dallas police station and started firing at the building, officials said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — Researchers are warning that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is a bigger mess than the government claims and that a lot of crude is lurking deep below the surface, some of it settling perhaps in a critical undersea canyon off the Florida Panhandle.
The Skanner News Video: Gulf Shrimp Catch is Pitiful

WASHINGTON – Add another election-year hurdle for Democrats: President Barack Obama's forceful defense of the right of Muslims to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site.