OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- Washington voters have approved the state’s new "everything but marriage" law, expanding rights for domestic partners and marking the first time any state’s voters have approved a gay equality measure at the ballot box. With about 72 percent of the expected vote counted Thursday in unofficial returns, Referendum 71 was leading 52 percent to 48 percent, with   Full Story

LONDON (AP) -- In Britain, there are no long lines of people seeking swine flu vaccine. Doctor’s offices aren’t swamped with desperate calls. And there are no cries of injustice that the vaccine is going to wealthy corporations or healthy people who don’t really need it. Here, and across most of Europe, vaccine to protect against the pandemic flu is mostly given by   Full Story

LONDON (AP) -- Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Washington’s closest ally in Afghanistan, toughened his tone Friday with this harsh message for the Afghan leadership: Clean up your act -- for real this time -- or risk a cutoff of support. In what 10 Downing Street billed as a major speech, Brown reflected public outrage over troop casualties by threatening to pull back support -- and   Full Story

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- An animal rights group on Friday asked a U.S. Department of Agriculture agency to look into an owner’s treatment of a circus elephant that escaped and was hit by a sport utility vehicle on a northwestern Oklahoma highway. The 29-year-old female elephant, meanwhile, was treated by veterinarians at Oklahoma State University and released to its owner, said university   Full Story

KABUL (AP) -- Two NATO soldiers are missing in western Afghanistan after a routine resupply mission, the alliance said Friday, but officials indicated it was unlikely they had been taken captive. Local police said the two were Americans who were swept away by a river in the western province of Badghis.   Full Story

PEORIA, Ariz. (AP) -- Noor Faleh Almaleki just wanted to be a normal American woman. The striking 20-year-old from Iraq, who’d lived in Phoenix since she was a young girl, wanted her hair and makeup to be perfect, her clothes to be fashionable. She wanted a job, a degree and a husband of her choosing.   Full Story

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Gay marriage opponents pulled off another victory at the ballot box this week by using a tried-and-tested argument: Approve it and children will be taught homosexuality in school. Voters seemed to be swayed by the message, both in Maine and in last year’s gay marriage battle in California.   Full Story

CHIPLEY, Fla. (AP) -- Investigators spent five days searching dense vines and marshes for a missing infant, only to find her lying quietly in a 2-foot by 3-foot cedar box that had been shoved under her baby sitter's bed. Clothing was packed around it to muffle any sounds and baking powder placed inside to mask the stench of dirty diapers.   Full Story

SEBASTOPOL, Calif. (AP) -- The medical marijuana dispensary in this California wine country town is in a former auto dealership, and has more registered patients than the town has residents. Los Angeles has more pot shops than Starbucks and almost as many as public schools. The surge in medical marijuana in California has left many communities scrambling to regulate the free-for-all, while   Full Story

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a coup for House Democrats, AARP will endorse sweeping health care overhaul legislation headed for a history-making floor vote, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. An endorsement from the seniors’ lobby was critical when then-President George W. Bush pushed the Medicare prescription drug benefit through a closely divided Congress in 2003.   Full Story

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- Chrysler hopes to make billions of dollars to repay government loans and revamp all of its cars and trucks with an ambitious plan that hinges on doubling sales in five years. The plan, which includes spending $23 billion to overhaul or replace all its Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram models by 2014, is realistic as demand improves over the next five years, says Sergio   Full Story

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Pushing for a link between student test scores and teacher pay, President Barack Obama on Wednesday dangled $5 billion in federal grants to states willing to undertake a top-to-bottom overhaul of their schools in support of White House priorities. The day after fellow Democrats lost gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, Obama tried to turn attention to his   Full Story

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democratic leaders have presented a new health overhaul bill that melds legislation passed by three committees over the summer. And House Republicans have unveiled their own alternative, after months of criticizing the Democrats’ approach. In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.   Full Story

CLEVELAND -- The run-down Cleveland neighborhood where 50-year-old Anthony Sowell quietly carved out an existence is the type of place where women can disappear almost in plain sight. Where crack users sneak into vacant houses to do drugs, have sex, then steal copper pipes and wiring to make a few bucks.   Full Story

CHICAGO (AP) -- Just hours after a state board voted Wednesday to allow the enforcement of a long-debated Illinois law requiring a teenage girl’s parents be notified before she has an abortion, a judge issued a temporary restraining order putting the measure back on hold. The order will remain in effect until the judge can hear arguments on the issue.   Full Story