National News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Authorities in Ireland are investigating whether a second American woman was involved in a suspected international plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist for mocking the Prophet Mohammad, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

MIAMI (Reuters) - The ambulance crew that took golfer Tiger Woods from the scene of his fateful car crash last year did not let his wife ride with him because they said the incident was a case of domestic violence, according to Florida police records cited by a local newspaper on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Accused Galleon fund founder Raj Rajaratnam and his main co-defendant want separate trials on charges they were involved in what prosecutors describe as the biggest hedge fund insider-trading case ever in the United States.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York environmental regulators this week released a plan to protect aquatic life in the state's rivers that could cost power generators billions to upgrade their facilities.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vaccines that contain a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal cannot cause autism on their own, a special U.S. court ruled on Friday, dealing one more blow to parents seeking to blame vaccines for their children's illness.

SANTA ANA, California (Reuters) - Southern California prosecutors filed the first U.S. consumer protection lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corp on Friday, claiming it had engaged in "fraud" by hiding evidence of dangerous vehicle defects.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Accused Galleon fund founder Raj Rajaratnam and his main co-defendant want separate trials on charges they were involved in what prosecutors describe as the biggest, hedge fund insider-trading case in the United States.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many states have used funds from the $863 billion U.S. economic stimulus plan to help give a rising number of poor families emergency cash assistance, the Government Accountability Office said on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Thousands of workers who suffered health problems after the September 11 attacks in 2001 have reached a settlement worth up to $657.5 million with an insurer representing the city of New York, city officials and lawyers said on Thursday.

DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Unprecedented discounts after a series of damaging recalls boosted Toyota Motor Corp's U.S. sales in early March, as U.S. regulators weighed new auto safety measures.

ANKENY, Iowa (Reuters) - A coalition of family farmers, consumers and other critics of corporate agriculture on Thursday called on the U.S. government to crack down on what they see as unfair consolidation of the nation's food system into the hands of a few multinationals.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A schoolteacher found dead this week near a remote Alaska village was probably killed by wolves, Alaska State Troopers said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The wife and daughter of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were injured on Thursday when their vehicle was rear-ended by a truck on a highway, the senator's office said.

DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Unprecedented discounts after a series of damaging recalls boosted Toyota Motor Corp's U.S. sales in early March, as U.S. regulators weighed new auto safety measures.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many states have used funds from the $863 billion U.S. economic stimulus plan to help give a rising number of poor families emergency cash assistance, the Government Accountability Office said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States boosted its investigation of tax and other financial crimes by about 10 percent last year, tax authorities reported on Thursday, amid an increased push to pursue wealthy tax cheats.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A growing number of Americans, nearly half the country, think global warming worries are exaggerated and more people doubt that scientific warnings of severe environmental fallout will ever occur, according to a new Gallup poll.

DENVER (Reuters) - A member of a Denver-area Crips street gang was convicted on Thursday in the 2007 murder of Denver Broncos football player Darrent Williams after an altercation at a local nightclub.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former New Orleans police detective who now works as a U.S. immigration agent has pleaded guilty to helping cover up the shooting deaths of two people by police days after Hurricane Katrina, the Justice Department said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A California sushi chef and the restaurant in which he worked have been charged with illegally serving meat from an endangered Sei whale, the Justice Department said on Thursday.