ARLINGTON, Va. - President George Bush Monday honored U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and those still serving there in a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. "Those who serve are not fatalists or cynics. They know that one day this war will end, as all wars do," Bush said in his Memorial Day remarks. "Our duty is to ensure that its outcome justifies the sacrifices made by those who fought and died in it. ... [full story]

ST. LOUIS - The American Muslim Coalition engaged in its first event, honoring veterans at Missouri's Jefferson Barracks during a Memorial Day celebration. With more than 20 volunteers on hand, the newly formed group honored the former soldiers at the site's Veterans Affairs Medical Center buildings and offered their support to troops currently overseas, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Monday. Event organizer Dr. Zia Moiz Ahmad said Sunday's celebration was to show the Muslim community ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday Americans need a sense of balance when thinking about U.S. troop deaths in Iraq. "When you take a look at the life of a nation and all that's required to keep us free, we had more than 3,000 Americans murdered on 11 September, 2001," Pace said on CBS' "The Early Show." "The number who have died, sacrificed themselves since that time is ... [full story]

MCALESTER, Okla. - Many people enjoying their holiday weekend in an eastern Oklahoma county were greeted by a minor earthquake and two aftershock tremors. The Oklahoman reported Monday that Sunday's earthquake measuring 3.2 on the Richter scale was felt by residents in parts of Pittsburg County. Oklahoma Geological Survey chief geophysicist Jim Lawson said the quake and the two aftershocks that followed it, measuring 2.6 and 2.1 respectively, are not unusual for the area, the ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President George Bush said Memorial Day marks an opportunity for the United States to rededicate itself to "freedom's cause." Bush, in his Saturday radio address, related the story of Marine Sgt. David Christoff, who was killed in Iraq. Bush said Christoff joined the Marines on Sept. 12, 2001, telling the recruiter he was volunteering because, "I don't want my brother and sister to live in fear." After he died, Christoff's parents found ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - The plight of the poor and working class has become the primary focus of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards of North Carolina. "This is a huge moral issue facing the country," the former North Carolina senator told the Los Angeles Times as he began a Memorial Day swing through Iowa. "I don't see in polls that it is a driving issue (for voters), but it is for me." For more than two years ... [full story]

SAN ANTONIO - Heavy holiday weekend rain in Texas and Oklahoma closed roadways, sent a bus dangling over a bridge and trapped 1,000 people at a campground. In San Antonio, a Greyhound bus with 33 passengers aboard broke through a bridge railing and dangled over the Medina River after its driver lost control on the wet highway, the San Antonio Express-News reported. "Kids were crying and grown men were freaking out," college student Valerie Roa ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - A U.S. immigration service employee says his agency rejected a streamlining plan because it would have resulted in fewer application and renewal fees. Ombudsman Prakash Khatri says leaders of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services were offered a modernization program last year designed to slash waiting times for green cards and save some $350 million dollars, The Washington Post reports. But Khatri says the plan he authored was rejected because ending huge immigration ... [full story]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Japan has asked the International Whaling Commission, which was meeting in Alaska Monday, to lift a ban on commercial whaling. Japanese delegates have said they doubt the proposal will get the 75 percent support it needs from commission delegates, the Anchorage Daily News reported. As delegates gathered at an Anchorage hotel for the commission's first meeting in Alaska Sunday, hundreds of people marched in an anti-commercial whaling parade sponsored by the environmental ... [full story]

LOS ANGELES - A fire in a vacant Los Angeles building Sunday spread to vegetation a quarter of a mile away, and then damaged or destroyed 53 vehicles, fire officials said. The fire broke out Sunday afternoon in what the LA Fire Department called "a vacant and aging one-story" commercial structure. The building was fully involved in flames by the time the first firefighters arrived, and flames had already spread to nearby vegetation, rubbish and ... [full story]