PORT FOURCHON, La. — The risky effort to contain the nation's worst oil spill hit a snag Wednesday when a diamond-edged saw became stuck in a thick pipe on a blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

A massive class-action lawsuit against the federal government has dragged on for 14 years before resulting in a $3.4 billion settlement that the U.S. House of Representatives approved Friday.

WASHINGTON – Al-Qaida announced Monday that its No. 3 official, Mustafa al-Yazid, had been killed along with members of his family — perhaps one of the most severe blows to the terror movement since the U.S. campaign against al-Qaida began.

Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, are separating after 40 years of marriage that included a White House run when their sunny relationship offered a counterpoint to President Bill Clinton's philandering.

SEATTLE (AP) -- The nonprofit organization that has tried for years to produce a sub-$100 laptop for children in the world's poorest places is throwing in the towel on that idea _ and jumping on the tablet bandwagon.

The University of Minnesota Law School's Institute on Race and Poverty evaluated the success of the rebuilding the New Orleans public school system fails to adequately provide equal educational opportunity to all New Orleans students

NOGALES, Arizona (AP) -- The fence rises from the rock and hardscrabble of the desert floor, a formidable 15 foot high (4.5-meter high) curtain of corrugated metal that stretches into the mirage of heat and distance. Newer sections feature 20 foot (6 meter) high steel columns, deeply planted, narrowly spaced, so no human slips between.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- The kidney inside Jackie Chatmon -- the one that works -- was inside her best friend less than three months ago.

WASHINGTON – A Senate committee on Thursday took a first step toward ending the policy that allows gays to serve in the military only if they don't disclose their sexual orientation.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the Senate on Thursday killed a move by presidential rival John McCain to send an additional 6,000 troops to the U.S-Mexico border.