Turkey Reportedly Launches Incursion Into Iraq

Turkey-- Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into northern Iraq on Wednesday, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and injured 18 in attacks along the border.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan canceled a visit to Kazakhstan and held a countrywide televised news conference to proclaim that Turkey had launched the "hot pursuit" operation, wording that officials often use to explain cross-border offensives in northern Iraq.

"We will never bow to any attack from inside or outside Turkey," he said.

Turkey's chief of the military and the center and defense ministers rushed to the border area to oversee the anti-rebel attacks, and the United States and NATO both issued statements supporting the offensive, the largest in more than three years.

NTV television said Turkish troops have moved out some 2.5 miles into Iraq and that helicopters were ferrying commandos across the border. Dogan news agency said more than 20 Kurdish rebels were killed in ensuing clashes, but did not give a breakdown. Neither report recognized its sources.

Coast Guard: Marine Corps jet missing off Calif.

Search-and-rescue teams took to the air and water early Thursday looking for a Marine Corps fighter jet that went missing over the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The aircraft was flying with an additional jet when contact with the plane was lost, said Coast Guard spokesman Henry Dunphy Wednesday night. Crews were searching for the F/A-18 Hornet in the area about 60 miles southwest of San Diego and 35 miles west of Ensenada, Mexico.

The Coast Guard was notified about the missing jet around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dunphy said.

Several aircraft were being used in the mission. Two Coast Guard cutters and a Navy ship have been unfocused into the area.

A spokesman for the Marine Corps confirmed the jet is assigned to the Marines.

The aircraft is based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California, said Marine Corp. Capt. Brian Block.

Officials have not free how many crew members were aboard the plane. Additional details were not immediately obtainable.

Ore. dad jailed in slaying of wife, 4 children

The man accused of killing his wife and four children and setting their house on fire improved enough to leave the hospital Thursday and was immediately jailed on provoked murder charges.

Police said Jordan Adam Criado, 51, was alert and able to walk when he left the Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford and was taken to the Jackson County Jail. He suffered smoke breathing in the July 18 fire and was unconscious and on a ventilator for days.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Beth Heckert said he would be arraigned Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court on charges of provoked murder, felony murder, manslaughter and arson. Detective Sgt. Mike Budreau said Criado did not up till now have an attorney.

An autopsy showed Tabasha Paige-Criado was stabled multiple times in the neck and abdomen.

The probable cause of death for the children — Elijah, 7; Isaac, 6; Andrew, 5; and Aurora, 2 — was listed as smoke inhalation. Stab wounds to the neck were listed as an extra cause of death for Isaac and Andrew.

Firefighters and medics worked excitedly on all six family members on the front lawn of their home before rushing them to the hospital. Only Criado survived.

Family members said Criado met his wife at a community college in Bakersfield, Calif. They married, even though she found out he went to prison for sexually abusing three girls in Sacramento County, they said.

Paige-Criado's family has said he moved them to Oregon to get away from his wife's family, who urged her to go away him.

Friends and family have said Paige-Criado required a divorce. Her postings on Facebook referred to Criado with disdain.

Heat Wave Continues Throughout Midwest as Temperatures Climb

As temperatures climbed into the 90s Sunday in Steele, N.D., a small window air conditioner in Paul and Betty Smokov's ranch home just couldn't keep up.

"It's 82 in the house," Betty Smokov said. "The heat is really cruel and sticky."

That observation could be made wherever in the central U.S. Heat advisories and warnings were in place in 17 states, from Texas to Michigan, as temperatures and humidity joint to make being outside uncomfortable for millions. One National Weather Service forecaster called the heat wave "unrelenting" and said sweaty residents shouldn't wait for any relief soon: A so-called "heat dome" over the region isn't moving much.

"The trend is not our friend right now," said Daryl Williams, a forecaster in Norman.

In Oklahoma City, forecasters probable another day of 100-degree heat Sunday, which would be the 27th day this year the city has reached 100 or above. The city is on pace to break its record for such days -- 50 set in 1980 -- with triple-digit heat probable through September.

New York Man Runs Over Girlfriend With Wife's Car, Drives Off

A married man driving his wife's car mowed down his girlfriend and then left her bleeding in the street as he sped off -- only to wind up seriously injured in another crash five hours later, New York authorities said Saturday.

Ricky Pena, 28, of The Bronx, struck the 23-year-old woman with the 2006 Honda Pilot SUV at 3:12am local time on West 46th Street flanked by Fifth and Sixth avenues in Midtown Manhattan, then sped away, police said.

Later, at 8:13am, Pena crashed the Honda, which is registered in his wife's name on the Harlem River Drive near 174th Street, police alleged.

He was rushed to the Harlem Hospital, where he was in severe condition. The hit-and-run victim was taken to the Bellevue Hospital Center in steady condition with a gash on her forehead.

Detectives are still investigating the situation of both crashes.

April put Alabama ahead in strongest tornadoes

Fatal tornadoes in April mean Alabama has seen more of the strongest group of twister than any other state.

The National Weather Service has upgraded an April 27 tornado in northeast Alabama's DeKalb County from the category EF-4 to EF-5. That is the highest rating on a scale used to calculate tornado damage and means winds were more than 200 mph.

The improve gives Alabama seven EF-5 tornadoes since 1950, when the Weather Service began keeping such records.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm forecast Center says Alabama had been tied with Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa and Kansas with six EF-5 tornadoes.

The reclassified twister was one of two EF-5 storms in a group of more than 60 tornadoes that hit Alabama on April 27, claiming about 240 lives.

Los Alamos Evacuation Order Lifted; 12,000 Go Home

A dash of summer rain gave a boost to firefighters battling a huge forest fire near Los Alamos, giving authorities enough assurance Sunday to allow about 12,000 people to return home for the first time in nearly a week.

Residents rolled into town, honking their horns and waving to firefighters as the word got out that the roadblocks were lifted and the slender two-lane highway cut into the side of a mesa leading to Los Alamos was open. They had fled en masse last week as the fast-moving fire approached the city and its nuclear laboratory.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" yelled Amy Riehl, an assistant manager at the Smith's grocery store, as she inwards to help keep the store open for returning residents.

"It's scary, but all of the possessions here this time, they were ready. They did a magnificent job," said Michael Shields, his eyes tearing up as he returned to his apartment in the heart of the town.

The town was last evacuated because of a overwhelming fire in 2000 that destroyed 200 homes and several businesses and damaged utilities and other county enterprises. This time, residents returned to a town that is totally intact, although the fire scorched 63 homes west of town along with 37 outbuildings and other structures.

The fire erupted June 26 in northern New Mexico when a tree fell onto power lines, fire officials announced Sunday. Fueled by an extremely dry season in the Southwest and erratic winds, the fire has mushroomed to 189 square miles and was 19 percent limited as of Sunday night.

Although the threat to Los Alamos and the nation's premier nuclear research lab had agreed, the wildfire raging was threatening sacred sites of American Indian tribes.

Hundreds of firefighters were working to hold the fire as it burned through a canyon on the Santa Clara Pueblo reservation and endangered other pueblos on the Pajarito Plateau.