NATIONAL STORIES

BEIJING (AP) -- China reported its first swine flu-related death Thursday, while Australia recorded its 10th death linked to the virus.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistani police said a bomb has exploded by a government vehicle near the capital, wounding about 20 people.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq is planning to push back its second oil bidding round to develop 11 oil and gas fields after a disappointing showing in the first offer.

BARNEGAT LIGHT, N.J. (AP) -- State officials are trying to trace the source of medical waste that washed ashore along an 8-mile stretch of southern New Jersey beaches.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Senator-elect Al Franken is turning a celebration rally at Minnesota's Capitol into an extended thank-you to his supporters.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is not going to fight a nearly $500,000 judgment for a Library of Congress hiree who lost the job while undergoing a gender change from a man to a woman.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- A Shiite cleric whose followers have been blamed in some of Iraq's worst violence has given a cautious welcome to the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from cities.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- That middle-age girth among baby boomers appears to be following them into retirement.

CANTON, Mass. (AP) -- Dunkin' Donuts has temporarily stopped selling hot chocolate and Dunkaccino brand beverages after learning equipment used at a supplier's facility might have been contaminated with salmonella.

PARIS (AP) -- France's transport minister says one of the black boxes of the Yemeni jetliner that crashed in the Indian Ocean has been found.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- More than seven months after the election, Democrat Al Franken is finally heading to the U.S. Senate.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM (AP) -- Former Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici has undergone shoulder surgery in a Baltimore hospital.

MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) -- Moscow police investigators say they don't have any suspects yet but could file charges as soon as Friday in connection with the death of a 28-year-old pregnant school teacher.

MCKEES ROCKS, PA (AP) -- The funeral for television product pitchman Billy Mays will be held Friday in the Pittsburgh suburb where he was born and raised.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A private research group is reporting Tuesday that consumers' confidence in the economy has fallen unexpectedly in June as shoppers fret about job security.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Protesters in more than a dozen cities across the country are demanding that a group of mortgage companies who benefited from federal bailout money participate in a government program designed to prevent foreclosures.

CAIRO (AP) -- A Comoros police official says a child has been rescued alive from the sea in the Airbus 310 crash off the Indian Ocean island.

VIAREGGIO, Italy (AP) -- The exact death toll is unclear as hundreds of rescuers in Italy search through the rubble of a freight train derailment and explosion in a small Italian town.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A Florida medical examiner says television pitchman Billy Mays likely died of a heart attack but further tests are needed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A New York judge has sentenced Bernard Madoff to the maximum -- 150 years in prison -- calling the disgraced financier's crimes "extraordinarily evil."

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's a decision that could reverberate through human resources departments nationwide.

OSLO (AP) -- A Norwegian court has convicted a man of involvement in the 2004 theft of Edvard Munch masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna."

AXTON, VA (AP) -- A college student who was wounded in a shooting that killed his mother and brother told police his father lured him to the family's house in southwest Virginia. The father later killed himself, authorities said.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) -- The Air Force says it has successfully launched an unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile from a California base, firing it to targets in the Pacific Ocean.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- President Hamid Karzai says Afghan guards working for the U.S. coalition at a base in Kandahar city killed the province's police chief.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff is due back in court to hear his punishment for running a massive Ponzi scheme.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The first military coup in Central American in more than 15 years is drawing criticism from the United States.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman whose boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean made him a pop-culture icon, has died. He was 50.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Michael Jackson's father declared Sunday in the strongest terms yet that he and his wife have sole authority over the late pop star's affairs.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) -- The democratically elected president of Honduras is denouncing what he says was an illegal coup and is vowing to stay in power.