National & World News

    4 shot dead outside house party

    Four people were shot dead early Friday outside a house party in Milwaukee, police said.

    Rosa Parks' belongings set to go under hammer

    The civil rights pioneer whose act of passive defiance sparked the beginning of the civil rights movement in America is memorialized around the nation.Thousands of personal items which belonged to Rosa Parks, the civil rights pioneer,  are set to be sold at auction.


    'Yankee Doodle' turns 250 — maybe

    Wish "Yankee Doodle" a happy 250th birthday. Maybe.

    Hostage search: U.S. spent $250 million

    July 3: NBC's Mark Potter has more on "Operation Checkmate," the bold ruse behind the rescue of three American hostages from Colombian rebels.  (Nightly News)The U.S. military says it flew thousands of spy flights over Colombian jungles trying to find and free three Pentagon contractors since their kidnapping in 2003.


    3 rescued U.S. hostages back home

    Freed hostage and military contractors, Marc Gonzalves, center with cap, and Thomas Howes in flight suit to the right arrive at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas on Wednesday, July 2, 2008. The U.S. military contractors _ Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell _ were held for five years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. They were part of 15 hostages rescued from the FARC rebels in Columbia. (AP PHOTO/San Antonio Express-News, Jerry Lara) MAGS OUT NO SALES SAN ANTONIO OUTThree U.S. hostages rescued from leftist guerrillas in Colombia were in good condition, military officials said.


    Passport snooping not uncommon

    An internal State Department investigative report suggests that employees may have been snooping on the passport records of celebrities far more than previously disclosed and urges new action to secure the files.

    People and wildlife flee Big Sur fire

    Firefighters wait next to the well-known Ventana Inn and Restaurant from a nearby wildfire in Big Sur, Calif., Thursday, July 3, 2008. Several homes were destroyed nearby on Wednesday. Piles of charred rubble smoldered along California's scenic coastal highway Thursday as a ferocious wildfire descended on the storied tourist town of Big Sur.


    Obama opens door to altering his Iraq policy

    Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., smiles while taking questions from supporters during his campaign stop in Fargo, N.D., Thursday,  July 3, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama struggled Thursday to explain how his upcoming trip to Iraq might refine, but not basically alter, his promise to quickly remove U.S. combat troops from the war.


    Utah is going to a 4-day workweek

    In a yearlong experiment aimed at reducing the state's energy costs, Utah is about to become the first state to switch to a four-day workweek for thousands of government employees.

    Marines with kids often drop out

    In this April, 2004 file photo, Marine Staff Sgt. Tama Richardson of Orlando, Fla, right, shows  new recruits how to use "meals ready to eat" (MRE's) as the young women go through boot-camp style training in New York. In these days of long tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 10 percent of men with kids don't even make it out of boot camp, and it jumps to three in 10 for women, according to statistics obtained by The Associated Press.  Franklin Smith had a wife and infant son when he convinced a Biloxi, Miss. recruiter  that he wanted to be a Marine.  For the recruiter, bringing in a family man was a dropout risk.


    Father accused of caging kids

    A booking photo released July 3, 2008, by the Posen Police Department in Posen, Ill., shows Ricardo Gonzalez, 35, of Midlothian, Ill. Gonzalez was arrested after officials say a woman spotted him pushing a child's hands back into a cage at a gas station in Posen on Monday, June 30, 2008. Police say Gonzalez admitted he locked his girls, ages 2 and 5, in a cage to control them. He faces charges of misdemeanor child endangerment. A suburban Chicago man locked his two young daughters in a wire cage hidden in the back of his pickup truck because he didn't have a baby sitter, officials said Thursday.


    Six Flags death leads to sign change

    State regulators say Six Flags Over Georgia must increase the size and number of warning signs near a popular roller coaster that hit and killed a teen.

    Alaskans to vote on clean-water measure

    The Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that an initiative to regulate or restrict pollution from mining can be placed on the ballot in August for voters to consider.

    Are you smart? Take our weekly news quiz

    How much do you remember about the week in news? Take msnbc.com's weekly quiz and find out what you can recall.

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