MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- An advocacy group sued a district attorney for two Alabama counties on Wednesday, saying he and his assistants deliberately exclude blacks from juries in serious criminal cases.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Government forecasters say this winter looks to be cold and wet across the northern tier of states, and the drought will worsen in the South, where conditions are expected to be warmer and drier than usual.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A fourth person was arrested Wednesday in a scheme in which authorities said mentally disabled adults were locked up in a fetid basement while their captors cashed their Social Security checks. The latest suspect was the daughter of the alleged ringleader, officials said.

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Republican presidential contenders attacked upstart Herman Cain's economic plan as a tax increase waiting to happen Tuesday night, moving swiftly in a fiery campaign debate to blunt the former businessman's unlikely rise in the race for the party's nomination.

ZANESVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Townspeople cowered indoors Wednesday as deputies with high-powered rifles hunted down and killed lions, bears and dozens of other exotic beasts that escaped from a wild-animal preserve after the owner threw their cages open and committed suicide.

Philadelphia police arrested three adults. Saturday, after an apartment landlord discovered four mentally disabled adults held captive for their disability checks. The crime may be part of a larger criminal ring spanning several states, police say.

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) -- For American swimmer Marcus Titus, being deaf is more advantage than disability. At least when it's time to get in the water.

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Some Black residents of a Pittsburgh community have complained that an image of a hanged man on a billboard advertising a Halloween attraction is offensive.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Elouise Cobell, the Blackfeet woman who led a 15-year legal fight to force the U.S. government to account for more than a century of mismanaged Indian land royalties, died Sunday. She was 65.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For many who helped dedicate the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on Sunday, the towering granite monument is a stark reminder that the civil rights leader's dream of social and economic justice has yet to be realized.