CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — A student journalist accused of misleading those she interviewed for an inflammatory column about racial profiling of Arabs has been fired, the editor said. Columnist Jillian Bandes told three campus sources — two Arab students and a professor who teaches a course on Arabic — she was writing an article…

(AP) — Mammograms that use digital imaging to help doctors spot cancer are better than standard X-rays for young women and those with dense breasts, but others can skip the extra cost and get the old-fashioned kind, a landmark study concludes. It involved more than 40,000 women and was the largest ever done to compare…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA hopes to return astronauts to the moon by 2018, nearly a half-century after men last walked the lunar surface, by using a distinctly retro combination of space shuttle and Apollo rocket parts. The space agency presented its lunar exploration plan to the White House on Wednesday and on Capitol…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior citizens and the disabled will have to pay a monthly Medicare premium of $88.50 next year for doctor’s visits and other services, a $10.30 boost in the fee. The 13.2 percent increase in premiums for Medicare Part B was in line with what government actuaries had been predicting. Even so, the…

MIAMI (AP) — For all the criticism of the Bush administration’s confused response to Hurricane Katrina, at least two federal agencies got it right: the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center. They forecast the path of the storm and the potential for devastation with remarkable accuracy. The performance by the two agencies calls…

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush, seeking to dispel the widely held notion that poor, black Hurricane Katrina victims were abandoned because of their race, said Friday the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast will be successful only if it eliminates poverty and racial injustice. The president’s plea for America to “renew our promise as a land…

WASHINGTON (AP) — How much it will cost to clear the debris, detoxify the water, house the homeless and rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after the Katrina catastrophe is still anyone’s guess, but it’s clear who’s going to pay for most of it: Future generations. The bill to the government for Katrina —…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Diane Utecht of Wisconsin plans to close off most of her house this winter to reduce her heating bill. Elaine Hobbs’ husband recently canceled a trip from their home in Rochester, N.Y., to Baltimore to see his daughter on her birthday because gas prices were too high. With gasoline hovering close to…

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush on Friday ruled out raising taxes to pay the massive costs of Gulf Coast reconstruction, saying other government spending must be cut to pay for a recovery effort expected to swell the national debt by $200 billion or more. Hours earlier, Bush vowed to help rebuild the region with an…

By DAVID ESPO / AP Special Correspondent WASHINGTON — With Chief Justice-nominee John Roberts cruising toward confirmation, President Bush is turning his attention to a second vacancy on the nine-member Supreme Court. The president extended invitations Friday to key Senate leaders to meet at the White House next week to discuss the seat held by…