City officials spent much of Wednesday working on a revised plan after the National Weather Service issued a foreboding forecast for the Red River: a 41-foot crest predicted to hit Saturday. The last flood even near that level was in 1997, when the river crested at 39.6 feet. The record for the Red River in Fargo, the state's most populous city, was set in 1897 at 40.1 feet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Red River was ...

Andy Murray maintained his recent dominance over Roger Federer with a 6-3 4-6 6-1 victory over the world number two in the semifinals of the Masters Series tournament at Indian Wells. The 21-year-old Scot will play top-ranked Rafael Nadal or home hope Andy Roddick in Sunday's final in California. Since losing to Federer in last year's U.S. Open final, Murray has won their last four meetings and holds a 6-2 career record against the Swiss star. Murray, who has won ...

The U.S. Postal Service will be cutting more than 3,000 jobs and offering nearly a quarter of its work force early retirement as part of its efforts to streamline operations amid the worsening economy, the agency said Friday. Among the job cuts are 1,400 district administrative staff positions and another 1,400 mail processing and management jobs nationwide. More than 500 employees will be out of a job with the closure of six district offices that house only administrative functions, the ...

The Internal Revenue System is bracing for a deluge of amended tax returns from tens of thousands of victims caught up in the recent wave of multi-billion dollar Ponzis and other frauds, most notably the sensational swindle perpetrated by Bernie Madoff, and R. Allen Stanford's $8 billion certificates of deposits scam. Rough IRS numbers on Madoff's theft alone could total from $7 to $10 billion in refunds due victims, according to accountant tallies. But don't feel too bad ...

Google plans to unveil a service called Google Voice on Thursday that indicates Google wants to do with your telephone communications what companies such as Yahoo have done with e-mail. Google Voice, the new version of the GrandCentral technology Google acquired in July 2007, has the potential to make the search giant a middleman in an important part of people's lives, telephone communications. With the service, people can pick a new phone number from Google Voice; when others call ...

Brian Adkins, a newly assigned American diplomat in Ethiopia, was found dead last weekend at his home in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, an embassy spokesman and a senior State Department official told CNN. Terry J. Sedlacek was charged with fatally shooting Fred Winters, the pastor of First Baptist Church. Winters was shot during Sunday morning services. Prosecutors also charged Sedlacek with two counts of aggravated battery in the alleged stabbings of parishioners Terry Bullard and Keith Melton. Their injuries ...

At a time when the U.S. Postal Service says it is experiencing a financial crisis, it purchased a $1.2 million home from an employee so he could relocate, a CNN investigation has found. Postal Service spokesman Greg Frey said the home will be resold, as others have been. "It's not like we threw away a million dollars," Frey told CNN. "We are hoping it's going to go for the appraised value." But a real estate agent in the area said ...

Ukraine's Security Service launched a raid on the country's state-run gas company Wednesday, searching for documents related to a gas deal with Russia, a spokesman for the company said. A group of about 30 gunmen wearing masks and carrying machine guns entered the offices of Naftogaz and took control of every floor of the company's building in the capital of Kiev, Naftogaz spokesman Valentyn Zemlyansky said. Operatives from the security service then began a search for various company documents, including ...

An Ethiopian immigrant with a history of mental health problems is in custody after being accused of mailing a letter with HIV-tainted blood to Barack Obama when he was president-elect, according to court records. Saad Bedrie Hussein told investigators that he is an admirer of Obama and that the letter -- containing his photo, an admission ticket to Obama's election night victory party in Chicago's Grant Park and six index cards containing writing and reddish stains -- was his way ...

British prosecutors said Thursday they will not seek charges against accused Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon, which puts him one step closer to being extradited to the United States to face charges. The Crown Prosecution Service said its decision comes despite McKinnon's admission that he broke the law and intentionally gained unauthorized access to computer systems. "Although there is sufficient evidence to prosecute Mr. McKinnon for these offenses, the evidence we have does not come near to reflecting the criminality that ...