AP - An explosive wildfire ravaged the hillsides above this scenic coastal community Thursday, leaving the popular tourist region mostly deserted ahead of the holiday weekend.

AP - Three U.S. hostages rescued from Colombian rebels after more than five years in captivity are in good condition and undergoing the transition back to normal life, military officials said Thursday.

AP - Federal prosecutors have filed kidnapping charges that carry the death penalty against a Vermont man whose 12-year-old niece was found dead near his home.

AP - A Texas man who spent more than 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of kidnapping and robbery raised both arms skyward and collapsed in his mother's embrace Thursday after being told he was a free man.

AP - When staffers at a Brooklyn hospital spotted a middle-aged woman lying face-down on a waiting room floor last month, it hardly seemed like cause for alarm.

AP - Starting next month, it will be "TGIT" for Utah state employees. As in: "Thank God It's Thursday."

AP - A hedge fund cheat who tried to fake his own death and spent nearly a month as a fugitive told a judge Thursday that he really did try to commit suicide while on the run, saying he thought it would be better to do himself in than turn himself in.

AP - A United Airlines jetliner was coming in for a landing at the Las Vegas airport in 2006 when the tower radioed that a smaller plane was still crossing the runway.

AP - Historian James Heintze can tick off colorful accounts of how the nation has celebrated the Fourth of July over the years: In the 19th century, canons fired, church bells sounded and fireworks exploded.

AP - Two lawyers accused of defrauding their clients in a diet-drug settlement of $65 million were sent back to jail Thursday after a jury deadlocked and a federal judge declared a mistrial.

AP - A federal jury on Thursday convicted the former top accountant at the Cleveland Catholic Diocese of tax charges and acquitted him of more serious charges related to alleged kickbacks.

AP - Tropical Storm Bertha has formed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa.

AP - Now that the multistate manhunt has ended, legal wrangling has begun over an ex-convict suspected in a killing spree that left eight people dead in Illinois and Missouri.

AP - A former city building department inspector pleaded not guilty Thursday to lying about examining a huge construction crane that collapsed days later, killing seven people.