Nation

Hurricane Gustav strengthened into a dangerous storm Saturday, and as city officials started evacuation plans, some residents weren't waiting to be told to leave.

Gustav swelled to a fearsome Category 3 hurricane with winds of 120 mph (195 kph) as it shrieked toward the heartland of Cuba's cigar industry Saturday on a track to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, three years after Hurricane Katrina.

Operation Secure Magnolia is under way and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour came to tell the Coast on Friday that they are prepared for Hurricane Gustav.

Two airliners were one minute from colliding when at least one of the planes turned away from the other over the Atlantic Ocean this week, federal authorities said Friday.

The mother of a missing Florida girl was back in jail on check fraud and theft charges just over a week after being released on bond for charges related to her daughter's disappearance.

Police with bullhorns plan to go street to street this weekend with a tough message about getting out ahead of Hurricane Gustav: This time there will be no shelter of last resort. The doors to the Superdome will be locked. Those who stay will be on their own.

DNA evidence has linked an air conditioning repairman to the stabbing deaths of three women, including a former girlfriend of actor Ashton Kutcher, police said Friday.

A co-defendant in the bizarre bank robbery plot that led to the collar-bomb death of a Pennsylvania pizza delivery man more than five years ago will plead guilty next week, his defense attorney told The Associated Press on Friday.

The Maine artist who brought LOVE to the world is doing the same with HOPE.

He was a respected former NYPD detective and a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War who struggled in recent months with inoperable liver cancer.