<p><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/highestrated/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/tropical_weather_mexico"><img src="http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080723/capt.543dcb39b6c645e5880136f2c23a6603.mexico_hurricane_dolly_mxev106.jpg?x=130&y=86&q=85&sig=jFXIIX.EuiDg0BHurFRu5g--" align="left" height="86" width="130" alt="Evacuees from Hurricane Dolly rest at a convention center in Matamoros, Mexico, Wednesday, July 23, 2008. Hurricane Dolly's leading edge blew down signs, damaged an apartment complex and knocked out electricity to thousands as it hit the Gulf Coast on either side of the Texas-Mexico border early Wednesday. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)" border="0" /></a>AP - Hurricane Dolly toppled trees and sent billboards flying Wednesday in the Mexican city of Matamoros, and authorities south of the U.S. border warned of possible flooding.</p><br clear="all"/>
<p><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/highestrated/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/storm_dolly_dc"><img src="http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20080724/2008_07_24t010227_450x307_us_storm_dolly.jpg?x=130&y=88&q=85&sig=yi_H4uoe_NTS9ncY.Yunlw--" align="left" height="88" width="130" alt="A woman shields her baby from the rain after evacuating from a flooded neighbourhood in Matamoros July 23, 2008. (Tomas Bravo/Reuters)" border="0" /></a>Reuters - Hurricane Dolly moved inland
after tearing into the South Texas coast on Wednesday with 95
mph (150 kph) winds, pouring torrential rain on the U.S.-Mexico
border area before being downgraded to a tropical storm.</p><br clear="all"/>
<p><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/highestrated/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/mrap_driving_alerts"><img src="http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080724/capt.f877b1286d3b474cb8b2b667b728d5a8.mrap_driving_alerts_wx102.jpg?x=130&y=88&q=85&sig=CNIrxrKLI5B6f14Jv4iwJg--" align="left" height="88" width="130" alt="In this June 19, 2008 file photo, U.S. soldiers inspect a damaged mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle (MRAP) following a roadside bomb explosion targeting an American patrol in Baghdad Thursday, June 19, 2008. Two fatal MRAP rollovers and dozens of other accidents over the past eight months have heightened concerns among Pentagon leaders about how the MRAPs are operated, according to military documents and Associated Press research. .(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)" border="0" /></a>AP - The towering trucks that give U.S. troops the best protection against roadside bombs and enemy bullets also make them vulnerable to routine hazards like sharp turns, rutted roads and rickety bridges.</p><br clear="all"/>
AP - A man pleaded guilty Wednesday to snatching an 18-year-old from a store parking lot, raping her and strangling her with her own belt before dumping her body in a park.
AP - Ailing Fidel Castro said Wednesday that Cuba's president was right to adopt a "dignified silence" over a Moscow newspaper report that Russia may send nuclear bombers to the island, and said Cuba doesn't owe any explanation to Washington about the story.
AP - A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself shortly after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house that day, she would be dead.
<p><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/highestrated/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/minimum_wage"><img src="http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080723/capt.d4cd10ad09af4e6d8f8c867385a8d21e.minimum_wage_canu101.jpg?x=130&y=87&q=85&sig=80YMdZHJhyveOHFvW_ySPA--" align="left" height="87" width="130" alt="Employee David Allen pulls shopping carts back to the store at Costco in Alhambra, Calif., Wednesday July 23, 2008. The federal minimum wage is expected to increase 70 cents per hour Thursday to $6.55 per hour. It's the second in a three-phase hike that will increase the minimum federal pay rate to $7.25 per hour. The increase was approved by Congress last year and was the first hike in minimum wage in more than a decade. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)" border="0" /></a>AP - About 2 million Americans get a raise Thursday as the federal minimum wage rises 70 cents. The bad news: Higher gas and food prices are swallowing it up, and some small businesses will pass the cost of the wage hike to consumers.</p><br clear="all"/>
AP - All six crew members aboard a B-52 bomber that crashed off Guam were killed, the Air Force said Wednesday as the search effort shifted focus from rescue to recovery of the crew and pieces of the wreckage.
The Christian Science Monitor - It was an average-looking letter that landed in Paul Weaver's mailbox. But bearing news that his veteran's disability benefits had been stopped, it felt more like a ton of crashing bricks.
<p><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/highestrated/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/japan_earthquake"><img src="http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080723/capt.196247b9a7da4a728d2a172a7e4bf9b8.japan_earthquake_tok801.jpg?x=82&y=130&q=85&sig=2QaB8CFVVtHMxREVcKISSw--" align="left" height="130" width="82" alt="People clean up the pieces of glasses shattered by a strong earthquake at an auto dealership in Karumai, Iwate prefecture Thursday, July 24, 2008. A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 struck off the northern Japanese coast early Thursday, injuring at least 91 people, causing blackouts and landslides, officials said. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)" border="0" /></a>AP - A powerful earthquake rattled parts of northern Japan early Thursday, injuring more than 100 people, triggering landslides and cutting power to thousands of people, officials said.</p><br clear="all"/>
Reuters - The European Commission will propose
forcing U.S. diplomats to apply for visas to travel to the
European Union from January 1, 2009 unless Washington moves
towards granting citizens of all EU states visa-free entry.
LiveScience.com - With Hurricane Dolly bearing down on Brownsville, Texans can say
they know a thing or two about horrific storms. The state is second
only to Florida in the number of direct hurricane hits.
<p><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/highestrated/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/onlinebankingwidespreadsecurityflawsrevealed"><img src="http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20080716/i/r834082853.jpg?x=130&y=88&q=85&sig=E7H7AHo_WPjGEdcVTZCEOg--" align="left" height="88" width="130" alt="A generic picture of a woman in an office using a computer mouse. REUTERS/Catherine Benson" border="0" /></a>LiveScience.com - Online bankers, beware. More than 75 percent of bank Web sites surveyed by a research team had at least one design flaw that could make customers vulnerable to cyber thieves.</p><br clear="all"/>
<p><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/highestrated/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/farmworker_death"><img src="http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080724/capt.684007d5f1734477a4c5bf48a5d97f1f.farmworker_death_fx105.jpg?x=130&y=92&q=85&sig=AzF9g6TgG2DVbzlA3T2wow--" align="left" height="92" width="130" alt="In this June 2, 2008 file photo, Josefina Flores, right, carries a photograph of Maria Isabel Vasques Jimenez during a march to protest her death, near Thornton, Calif. On Wednesday, July 23, 2008, the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health fined Atwater-based Merced Farm Labor a record $262,700 for violating eight workplace safety requirements, in some cases intentionally. Authorities believe 17-year-old Jimenez died on May 14, 2008, because her supervisors denied her access to shade and water as she pruned white wine grapes for more than nine hours in nearly triple-digit heat. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)" border="0" /></a>AP - The employer of a pregnant teenager who died of heat stroke after pruning grapevines for nine hours in hot weather was hit Wednesday with the highest fine ever issued to a California farming operation.</p><br clear="all"/>
AP - Many banks are unwittingly training their online customers to take risks with their passwords and other sensitive account information, leaving them more vulnerable to fraud, new research shows.
<p><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/highestrated/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/gm_toyota_sales"><img src="http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080723/capt.c776178df0804cff8020cf3a04829f86.gm_toyota_sales_xits105.jpg?x=130&y=86&q=85&sig=RBhtbQRE86Tc2Ae4ZyjqSA--" align="left" height="86" width="130" alt="Visitors look at Toyota 'Lexus' displayed at the Toyota Motor Corp.'s showroom Toyota Mega Web in Tokyo Wednesday, July 23, 2008. Toyota sold more than 4.8 million vehicles worldwide in the first half, up 2 percent from the same period a year earlier, the Japanese automaker said. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)" border="0" /></a>AP - General Motors Corp., pummeled by falling U.S. sales and high gas prices, lost the global sales lead to Toyota Motor Corp. in the first half of this year, but the churning market makes it difficult to predict which automaker will end the year on top.</p><br clear="all"/>
<p><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/highestrated/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/oil_spill_louisiana_dc"><img src="http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080724/capt.2cd1d4818ff5420b937849b41cbad230.mississippi_river_collision_ny112.jpg?x=130&y=86&q=85&sig=ZnweWHQymAXoy8a7A8WSRg--" align="left" height="86" width="130" alt="In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard a 41-foot smallboat from Coast Guard Station New Orleans patrols a safety zone around the partially sunken barge Wednesday July 23, 2008 as industry officials prepare a salvage plan for the barge. Early Wednesday morning the motor vessel Tintomara and the tugboat Mel Oliver collided in the Mississippi River in New Orleans spilling approximately 419,286 gals. of number six fuel oil. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard - Petty Officer 2nd Class Thomas M. Blue)" border="0" /></a>Reuters - A chemical tanker split a fuel barge in
half on the Mississippi River on Wednesday, spilling thousands
of gallons of fuel oil and forcing the closure of a 58-mile
(93-km) stretch from New Orleans southward that could last for
days, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said.</p><br clear="all"/>
