AP - The U.S. military is reinforcing the sides of its topline mine-resistant vehicles to shore up what could be weak points as troops see a spike in armor-piercing roadside bombings across Iraq, The Associated Press has learned.

AP - Barack Obama all but erased Hillary Rodham Clinton's once-imposing lead among national convention superdelegates on Friday and won fresh labor backing as elements of the Democratic Party began coalescing around the Illinois senator for the fall campaign.

AP - Big corporations give him money. Presidential candidates seek his endorsement. He has influential friends in Congress and the governor's mansion. The Rev. Al Sharpton has emerged over the past decade as perhaps the nation's most prominent civil rights leader, a status that was demonstrated again this week when he led protests against police brutality that briefly shut down six of Manhattan's major bridges and tunnels.

AP - More aid is on the way to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar — but so is the heavy rain. A week after Cyclone Nargis flattened low-lying villages and killed whole families at a time, the military junta finally agreed Friday to allow a U.S. cargo plane to bring in food and other supplies to the isolated country. Myanmar gave the green light after confiscating other shipments, prompting the U.N. to order a temporary freeze in shipments.

AP - The sheriff of the remote region where Charles Manson hid after a killing spree in the summer of 1969 said Friday that he will allow researchers to begin digging into the sandy soil in search of possible human remains.

AP - It's a happy Mother's Day for an Arkansas woman — she's pregnant with her 18th child. Michelle Duggar, 41, is due on New Year's Day, and the latest addition will join seven sisters and 10 brothers. There are two sets of twins.

AP - Jon Edwards often manages what appears impossible. He has recovered precious data from computers wrecked in floods and fires and dumped in lakes. Now Edwards may have set a new standard: He found information on a melted disk drive that fell from the sky when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in 2003.

AP - A judge in Florida says the 17-year-old son of wrestler Hulk Hogan should serve eight months in jail for reckless driving. Nick Bollea was led off to begin his sentence immediately after Friday's ruling. He will be on five years' probation and lose his driving privileges for three years.

AP - Seattle slugger Richie Sexson was suspended for six games and fined Friday by Major League Baseball after charging the mound and throwing his helmet at a Texas pitcher the previous night.

AP - The U.S. military is reinforcing the sides of its topline mine-resistant vehicles to shore up what could be weak points as troops see a spike in armor-piercing roadside bombings across Iraq, The Associated Press has learned.

AP - Barack Obama all but erased Hillary Rodham Clinton's once-imposing lead among national convention superdelegates on Friday and won fresh labor backing as elements of the Democratic Party began coalescing around the Illinois senator for the fall campaign.

AP - Big corporations give him money. Presidential candidates seek his endorsement. He has influential friends in Congress and the governor's mansion. The Rev. Al Sharpton has emerged over the past decade as perhaps the nation's most prominent civil rights leader, a status that was demonstrated again this week when he led protests against police brutality that briefly shut down six of Manhattan's major bridges and tunnels.

AP - More aid is on the way to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar — but so is the heavy rain. A week after Cyclone Nargis flattened low-lying villages and killed whole families at a time, the military junta finally agreed Friday to allow a U.S. cargo plane to bring in food and other supplies to the isolated country. Myanmar gave the green light after confiscating other shipments, prompting the U.N. to order a temporary freeze in shipments.

AP - The sheriff of the remote region where Charles Manson hid after a killing spree in the summer of 1969 said Friday that he will allow researchers to begin digging into the sandy soil in search of possible human remains.

AP - It's a happy Mother's Day for an Arkansas woman — she's pregnant with her 18th child. Michelle Duggar, 41, is due on New Year's Day, and the latest addition will join seven sisters and 10 brothers. There are two sets of twins.

AP - Jon Edwards often manages what appears impossible. He has recovered precious data from computers wrecked in floods and fires and dumped in lakes. Now Edwards may have set a new standard: He found information on a melted disk drive that fell from the sky when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in 2003.

AP - A judge in Florida says the 17-year-old son of wrestler Hulk Hogan should serve eight months in jail for reckless driving. Nick Bollea was led off to begin his sentence immediately after Friday's ruling. He will be on five years' probation and lose his driving privileges for three years.

AP - Seattle slugger Richie Sexson was suspended for six games and fined Friday by Major League Baseball after charging the mound and throwing his helmet at a Texas pitcher the previous night.

Reuters - Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah group took control of the Muslim half of Beirut on Friday in what the U.S.-backed governing coalition described as "an armed and bloody coup."

Reuters - The United Nations said it would resume aid flights to cyclone-struck Myanmar despite the military government's seizure of food supplies on Friday, and Myanmar approved one U.S. aid flight.

Reuters - Democrat Barack Obama turned his focus to a general election showdown with John McCain on Friday and said the Republican White House candidate would continue the failed policies of President George W. Bush.

Reuters - Did U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain vote for President George W. Bush in 2000?

Reuters - Canadian health officials said on Friday that a death and reported outbreak of flu-like symptoms aboard a cross-Canada train were not due to an infectious disease and in fact were likely not related at all.

Reuters - The Dalai Lama says he understands why Tibetan exiles were angry that the Olympic torch reached the top of Mount Everest but had advised them against protesting.

AFP - The UN said Friday it would resume aid flights into Myanmar after a suspension triggered by a tussle with the military regime over two planeloads of goods meant for desperate cyclone survivors.

AFP - Hezbollah fighters, their guns blazing, seized control of west Beirut on Friday after three days of deadly street battles with pro-government foes pushed Lebanon dangerously close to all-out civil war.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 15: Coming HomeIn this final chapter of "A World of Conflict," Kevin Sites returns home to the U.S., only to confirm what he suspected -- that in the year that he was gone little had changed.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 14: Israel-Hezbollah WarThe war between Israel and Hezbollah shook the landscape in the Middle East.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 13: Sri LankaKevin Sites covered Sri Lanka as violence erupted between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels, pushing a nation with so much to lose back to the brink of all-out war. In rebel-held territory Sites interviewed Tiger fighters about their tactics and reported on the many effects of war still seen in the region.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 12: Nepal and KashmirKevin Sites covered Nepal during a time of sweeping political change that followed mass nationwide protests, forcing the autocratic King to cede power.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 11: Child BrideIn Afghanistan, Kevin Sites met a 12-year-old girl named Gulsoma, whose incredible story of resilience resonated with millions of people worldwide. She was only six years old when she was sold to a neighbor family in Kandahar as a child bride.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 10: AfghanistanReporting from Afghanistan in spring 2006, more than four years after the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban, Kevin Sites found that war is not over in the country.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Nine: ChechnyaIn Chechnya during the winter of 2005-2006, Kevin Sites reported on a region still reeling from lingering conflict between Russia and Islamic separatists. The conflict engulfed Chechnya in the 1990s, and even now, half of the population is yet to return. Those that have eke out a living amid the rubble.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Eight: Iran

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Seven: IsraelIn Israel, Kevin Sites interviewed Kinneret Boosany, a victim of a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv cafe in 2002.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Six: Lebanon and Gaza

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Five: IraqA year after the Nov. 2004 Battle of Fallujah, Kevin Sites returned to Iraq to gauge progress on a different fight in the turbulent city: rebuilding and improving security.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Four: UgandaWinston Churchill once dubbed Uganda the "Pearl of Africa." But this pearl has had its blemishes in the 43 years since its independence, as Kevin Sites discovered in northern Uganda.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Three - Democratic Republic of the CongoKevin Sites visits a nation that was once considered the battleground of Africa's "First World War." Along the way he interviews former child soldiers as well as the victims of the Congo's brutal rape epidemic, where civilian women have become the target of the many armies and militias operating in the eastern part of the nation.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - "A World of Conflict" is the documentary about the "Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone" project, in which veteran war correspondent Kevin Sites reported from every major global conflict in one year, in an effort to understand the costs of a world perpetually at war.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - "A World of Conflict" is the documentary about the "Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone" project, in which veteran war correspondent Kevin Sites reported from every major global conflict in one year, in an effort to understand the costs of a world perpetually at war.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Global conflicts continue to rage around the world; though we can't cover all of them at the same time, we're committed to keeping you informed by bringing you timely updates from sources we trust, including journalistic colleagues and freelancers.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Global conflicts continue to rage around the world; though we can't cover all of them at the same time, we're committed to keeping you informed by bringing you timely updates from sources we trust, including journalistic colleagues and freelancers.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, Marine Captain Josh Rushing was sent into the action, but not actual combat. He was posted at the U.S. media center in Doha, Qatar, to take on the world's press corps. Strangely, as a relatively junior officer, he was made point person for arguably the Middle East's most influential Arab news channel: Al Jazeera.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - In June, the Hot Zone reported the details of a recent massacre reportedly committed by Rwandan Hutu militia in eastern Congo in which 18 civilians, including six children, were killed.

Climate change threatens many animals -- but with any luck, some will handle weather shifts with as much aplomb as Parus major, a colorful songbird also known as the great tit.

In a study published today in Science, ornithologists from the University of Oxford tracked the egg-laying times of great tits in Wytham, England. Since the mid-1970s, temperatures in Wytham have risen steadily, hastening the start of spring by two weeks. The birds have followed suit, timing their breeding to coincide with earlier hatches of their favorite food source, a species of moth caterpillar.

The birds' adaptation appears to be based in what's known as phenotypic plasticity -- the ability of a creature to respond to changes in its environment -- rather than natural selection favoring birds with earlier breeding times.

Such plasticity allows the birds to respond quickly to climate change. Although there's no guarantee that they could handle more-radical warming, the findings strike a rare optimistic note in a chorus of warnings about climate-change-induced animal doom.

"These changes were driven not by evolution, but by the inbuilt ability of individuals to respond to their environment," said study co-author Ben Sheldon. "If driven by natural selection, this adaptation wouldn't have happened so rapidly. In terms of matching environmental change, this is more effective."

Great tits walk a fine line. If they lay their eggs just a few days late, the winter moth caterpillars on which they rely for springtime sustenance will have already hatched and departed when their chicks are hungriest.

But some environmental cue -- most probably temperature-related, though the researchers aren't sure -- triggers timely egg-laying in Wytham's great tits. Whether spring comes early or late, they've laid their eggs on time ever since scientists started tracking them in the early 1960s.

This versatility, said Sheldon, is produced by individual adaptive mechanisms, rather than long-term calibration by natural selection that favors earlier-laying birds.

"The temperature is changing in one direction, but each year it fluctuates a little bit. Natural selection would have trouble keeping up with those fluctuations," said Sheldon.

Such plasticity is good news for the birds.

"You can have rapid evolutionary responses to climate change -- but plasticity, if it does the right thing, can occur more quickly," said Andrew Hendry, a McGill University biologist who has studied the effects of climate change on animals.

"If plasticity is common in these traits that are influenced by climate change, it will aid population persistence," added Hendry, who was not involved in the study.

The findings in Wytham run contrary to those in another great-tit population in the Netherlands. Though they experienced similar weather patterns, the Dutch birds failed to lay their eggs on time.

Some populations may prove better able than others to handle climate change, said Sheldon, but he warned against expecting plasticity to handle the worst of our greenhouse excesses.

"We've seen these birds adapt to a 1.5-degree rise over the last three decades, but there's no guarantee they could cope with another five degrees," he said.