GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — For some soldiers back from Iraq and now helping the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort, serving in the Middle East doesn’t seem so bad after all. “We had it made in Iraq, absolutely had it made,” said Col. Brad MacNealy of the Mississippi National Guard, who spent a year commanding the 185th…

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s family made funeral plans, President Bush and the Republican-controlled Senate considered how to deal with the first dual vacancy on the nation’s highest court in more than three decades. The president said he plans to move quickly to replace Rehnquist, who died Saturday night after a long…

By CHARLES J. HANLEY / AP Special Correspondent The dead and the desperate of New Orleans now join the farmers of Aceh and the fishermen of Trincomalee, villagers in Iran and the slum dwellers of Haiti in a world being dealt ever more punishing blows by natural disasters. It’s a world where Americans can learn…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s death created upheaval in Washington on Sunday, as President Bush and the Senate scrambled to deal with court’s first double vacancy in 34 years. Rehnquist’s body will lie in repose at the Supreme Court Tuesday and Wednesday. He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery following…

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush on Monday nominated John Roberts to succeed William H. Rehnquist as chief justice and called on the Senate to confirm him before the Supreme Court opens its fall term on Oct. 3. Just 50 years old, Roberts could shape the court for decades to come. The swift move would promote…

KNOXVILLE (AP) — A project to reintroduce elk to Great Smoky Mountains National Park needs two more years to determine if the animals can become a sustainable species again, park officials said. “We’d like to extend the life of the study so we can so we can study more animals in the 1- to 2-…

CHATTANOOGA (AP) — Authorities credit a drop in rabies in East Tennessee to the vaccine pellets the U.S. Department of Agriculture spread throughout the region’s forests over the past two years. Only one case of rabies has been reported in Hamilton County so far this year compared to 14 cases in 2004. “It seems to…

By ANICK JESDANUN / AP Internet Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Google Inc.’s fortunes have risen on its ability to entice digital consumers, gauging their desires based on their online travels. Its latest products — Google Desktop and Google Talk — continue in that vein by attempting, with minimal user input required, to satisfy Internet…

By RACHEL BECK / AP Business Writer NEW YORK — Remember the worries over what $2 a gallon gasoline would do to the economy? Now that gas prices at the pump top $3 a gallon in many areas and some estimates say they could go to $4, it’s not a matter of if the economic…

By MATTHEW FORDAHL / AP Technology Writer Personal computer shoppers once could walk into a local electronics store or visit a Web site, glance at the speed of a PC’s processor and immediately get a sense of how it stacked up against the competition. Not anymore. Today, the capabilities of the chips that are the…