TYLER, Texas (AP) - State and federal law enforcement agencies were vigorously working Tuesday to try to find out who has been setting fire to churches in eastern Texas.

Fire broke out at two churches about three miles apart Monday night in a rural area northwest of Tyler, which is about 85 miles southeast of Dallas. Investigators have not confirmed them as arson, but they were reported within an hour of one another and eight other churches have been intentionally torched in the state since the start of the year.

"We would just like to find out why this is going on and please stop it," Smith County Fire

Marshal Jim Seaton said.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is leading the investigation into the string of arsons. Agency spokesman Tom Crowley said Tuesday it's too early to conclude the latest fires were arson.-

Nearby fire departments have...

NEAR LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S. Army soldiers launched a preliminary operation Tuesday in support of a planned U.S.-Afghan...

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. (AP) - Authorities have called on residents of more than 500 homes in the wildfire-scarred Southern California foothills to evacuate by Tuesday morning, fearing that heavy rains from a new round of storms could cause more mudslides.

Weather forecasters issued a...

TOKYO (AP) - Toyota says it is recalling about 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to fix brake problems - the latest in a string of embarrassing safety lapses at the world's largest automaker.

"I don't see Toyota as an infallible company that never makes mistakes," President Akio Toyoda said at a press conference Tuesday in Tokyo. "We will face up to the facts and correct the problem, putting customers' safety and convenience first."

With the Prius announcement, the number of vehicles recalled globally by Toyota Motor Corp. has ballooned to 8.5

million, including for floor mats which can trap gas pedals and faulty gas pedals that are slow to return to the idle position. The 2010 Prius wasn't part of the earlier recalls.

There have been about 200 complaints in Japan and the U.S. about a delay when the brakes in the Prius were pressed in cold conditions and on some bumpy roads. The delay...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - The United Nations has warned that it will cut off shipments of free medicine beginning immediately to any Haitian hospitals that it finds are charging patients.

When the catastrophic earthquake struck Jan. 12, authorities immediately decided to make all medical care free. More than 200 international medical relief groups have sent in teams to help, and millions of dollars of donated medicine has been

flown in.

U.N. officials told The Associated Press that about a dozen hospitals - both public and private - have begun charging patients for medicine. The officials said they could not immediately provide the names of the hospitals but said they were in several parts of the country, including Port-au-Prince.

"The money is huge," said...

In the news…

…We reported a few weeks back that Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominee Kage Baker was gravely ill with cancer.  Sadly, Baker lost her fight January 31, at...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Republicans' first test of their new Senate clout could come in a vote to block President Barack Obama's choice of a union attorney for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board.

Senate Democrats need 60 votes, one more than they control since Scott Brown of Massachusetts was sworn into office last week, to clear a GOP procedural hurdle to advance Craig Becker to a final Senate confirmation vote. That procedural vote had been scheduled for Monday but was postponed until...