:: National News ::

• APNewsBreak: Terror suspect worked at nuke plants (AP)

  AP - A spokesman for a group of nuclear power plants in New Jersey says a U.S. man charged in Yemen with being a member of al-Qaida had previously worked at the plants.

  
  

• NYC to pay up to $657M to settle WTC health cases (AP)

  AP - After years of fighting in court, lawyers representing the city, construction companies and more than 10,000 ground zero rescue and recovery workers have agreed to a settlement that could pay up to $657.5 million to responders sickened by dust from the destroyed World Trade Center.

• Lesbian teen in prom flap sues, returns to school (AP)

  AP - Constance McMillen didn't believe her Mississippi school district would really call off her senior prom rather than allow her to show up with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo. On Thursday, a day after the Itawamba County school board did just that, the 18-year-old lesbian high school senior reluctantly returned to campus to some unfriendly looks, she said.

  
  

• Indiana man who murdered 2 executed in Texas (AP)

  AP - An Indiana man, whose cross-country crime spree with his girlfriend a decade ago ended in a gun battle with police in San Francisco, was executed Thursday in Texas for killing a sheriff's officer.

  
  

• APNewsBreak: Calif. murder suspect broke parole (AP)

  AP - A convicted sex offender charged with murdering one California teenager and under investigation for another killing violated his parole by moving too close to a school but was allowed to remain free, according to records obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

  
  

• Toyota 'mystified' by runaway Prius case in Calif. (AP)

  AP - A Toyota executive said Thursday the company is "mystified" by a report that a California man's Prius gas pedal became stuck and caused the car to speed out of control on a California freeway.