NATIONAL STORIES

NEW YORK (AP) -- The memorial service for Michael Jackson may be a tough ticket live, but it shouldn't be hard to find it on television.

OCRACOKE, N.C. (AP) -- Authorities say a fireworks explosion on a North Carolina island only reachable by ferry has killed one worker and critically injured four others.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Former music manager Allen Klein, a no-holds-barred businessman who bulldozed his way into and out of deals with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, has died.

GAFFNEY, S.C. (AP) -- Authorities say a teenage girl shot in her father's store has become the fifth person slain by a suspected serial killer in South Carolina.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Some visitors to the Statue of Liberty have a special reason to appreciate Independence Day.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Reigning champ Joey Chestnut takes on six-time titleholder Takeru Kobayashi in Coney Island's annual hot-dog eating contest.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea said North Korea has fired a seventh missile off its eastern coast.

KABUL (AP) -- A truck bombing outside a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan has triggered a two-hour gunbattle that was ended with airstrikes.

WASILLA, AK (NBC) -- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has announced she is resigning in the next few weeks. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated as Governor later this mont

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A law enforcement official says the powerful sedative Diprivan was found in Michael Jackson's home.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A search is under way in eastern Afghanistan for a soldier apparently being held by Taliban insurgents after he walked off his base without his body armor or weapon.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The question of when and where a public memorial service will be held for Michael Jackson has finally been answered. But how city officials will handle the likelihood of a massive crowd remains to be settled.

BEIJING (AP) -- China reported its first swine flu-related death Thursday, while Australia recorded its 10th death linked to the virus.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistani police said a bomb has exploded by a government vehicle near the capital, wounding about 20 people.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq is planning to push back its second oil bidding round to develop 11 oil and gas fields after a disappointing showing in the first offer.

BARNEGAT LIGHT, N.J. (AP) -- State officials are trying to trace the source of medical waste that washed ashore along an 8-mile stretch of southern New Jersey beaches.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Senator-elect Al Franken is turning a celebration rally at Minnesota's Capitol into an extended thank-you to his supporters.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is not going to fight a nearly $500,000 judgment for a Library of Congress hiree who lost the job while undergoing a gender change from a man to a woman.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- A Shiite cleric whose followers have been blamed in some of Iraq's worst violence has given a cautious welcome to the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from cities.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- That middle-age girth among baby boomers appears to be following them into retirement.

CANTON, Mass. (AP) -- Dunkin' Donuts has temporarily stopped selling hot chocolate and Dunkaccino brand beverages after learning equipment used at a supplier's facility might have been contaminated with salmonella.

PARIS (AP) -- France's transport minister says one of the black boxes of the Yemeni jetliner that crashed in the Indian Ocean has been found.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- More than seven months after the election, Democrat Al Franken is finally heading to the U.S. Senate.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM (AP) -- Former Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici has undergone shoulder surgery in a Baltimore hospital.

MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) -- Moscow police investigators say they don't have any suspects yet but could file charges as soon as Friday in connection with the death of a 28-year-old pregnant school teacher.

MCKEES ROCKS, PA (AP) -- The funeral for television product pitchman Billy Mays will be held Friday in the Pittsburgh suburb where he was born and raised.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A private research group is reporting Tuesday that consumers' confidence in the economy has fallen unexpectedly in June as shoppers fret about job security.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Protesters in more than a dozen cities across the country are demanding that a group of mortgage companies who benefited from federal bailout money participate in a government program designed to prevent foreclosures.

CAIRO (AP) -- A Comoros police official says a child has been rescued alive from the sea in the Airbus 310 crash off the Indian Ocean island.

VIAREGGIO, Italy (AP) -- The exact death toll is unclear as hundreds of rescuers in Italy search through the rubble of a freight train derailment and explosion in a small Italian town.