USA

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean Thursday urged Florida and Michigan party officials to come up with plans to repeat their presidential nominating contests so that their delegates can be counted. The states would have to fund such do-overs. The committee stripped both states, which wanted more influence in picking a nominee, of all delegates for holding primaries earlier than permitted.

Home foreclosures continued to climb in the final quarter of last year, when 0.83 percent of all mortgages fell into foreclosure, surpassing the previous high of 0.78 percent set the prior quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Thursday.

Facing a projected operating deficit of $1 billion this year, the largest since 1995, the US Postal Service wants to explore the possibility of renting space in thousands of post offices to banks and other commercial interests, Postmaster General John Potter told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday. This could help offset revenues lost as online bill-paying and anti-junk mail efforts increase.

American fighter jets intercepted a Russian bomber Wednesday and escorted it out of an area off the Korean coast occupied by the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and its accompanying ships, US defense officials said.

A three-day, man-made flood, created by releasing 300,000 gallons of water per second at the Glen Canyon Dam (above) near the Arizona-Utah border, will end Friday. The goal is to spread sediment and restore sandbars. Interior officials have twice before unleashed waters from Lake Powell into the Colorado River, which has lost 98 percent of the sediment it once deposited in the Grand Canyon.

Mike Huckabee's advisers moved quickly to craft a strategy for keeping the excitement generated by his ultimately unsuccessful presidential bid alive, possibly with an eye to a future run for the White House, The Washington Post said Thursday. The former Arkansas governor, who conceded the GOP nomination to Sen. John McCain of Arizona, may look for a radio show or other forum to build a conservative coalition.

Acting on a proposal by McKay Hutch, 14, the city council of South Pasadena, Calif., has declared this week and every first week of March hereafter as No Cussing Week. The proclamation aims to remind people to be more civil. Above, McKay, who started a high school No Cussing Club, joins his dad at the family's restaurant.