WASHINGTON (AP) -- A further decline in the number of people applying for unemployment benefits capped a strong week for the economy.

ROCKY MOUNTAINS, N.C. (AP) -- Brianna Balmer takes the bus to school just like thousands of students in the Nash-Rocky Mount school district every day.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A massive bipartisan tax package preventing a big New Year's Day tax hike for millions of Americans is on its way to President Barack Obama for his signature Friday.

PHOENIX (AP) -- Bank of America Corp. violated Arizona's consumer fraud law by misleading consumers trying to get home loan modifications, state Attorney General Terry Goddard said Friday as he filed a civil lawsuit against the bank.

BUNGAY, England (AP) -- The founder of WikiLeaks said Friday he fears that the United States is preparing to indict him, but insisted that the secret-spilling site would continue its work despite what he claims is a dirty tricks campaign.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Three employees at public companies and a sales executive at a California expert-networking firm on Thursday became the latest to be arrested in a wide-ranging Wall Street insider trading probe that has now resulted in charges against six people.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Convicted dogfighting-ring operator Michael Vick hopes to own a dog again someday.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has said the war in Afghanistan remains "a very difficult endeavor" but the nation is on track to achieve its goals.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Rebecca Glover said her family could not have been more horrified by what happened to her nephew: He was shot by police days after Hurricane Katrina hit, then left to die in a car that a police officer drove to a deserted levee and set ablaze. Now she wants to know what happened to her nephew's skull.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The spending barons on Capitol Hill, long used to muscling past opponents of bills larded with pet projects, are seeking one last victory before tea party-backed GOP insurgents storm Congress intent on ending the good old days of pork-barrel politics.