USA

US factories, mines, and utilities operated at 79.7 percent of capacity in April, the first time the rate has fallen below 80 percent since 2005, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday. Declining car sales were a contributing factor.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, is tentatively scheduled to be arraigned with four coconspirators before a Guantánamo Bay war court judge on June 5, a military official said Wednesday. Mohammed has confessed, but under harsh interrogation methods that have been called into question.

The House Armed Services Committee Thursday approved a bill calling for a 3.9 percent pay raise for troops next year. The Senate version does as well.

The House passed a $290 billion farm bill decisively enough Wednesday to protect it from an expected veto by President Bush, who calls it a "bloated." Much of the money will go toward farm subsidies and nutrition programs. The Senate was expected to pass it Thursday.

Under the threat of impeachment because of a sexual-harassment investigation, Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann resigned Wednesday.

Former North Carolina Sen. and presidential candidate John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama Wednesday as his choice to be the Democratic nominee during a rally in Michigan. Edwards said Obama shared his antipoverty agenda.

Fisheries officials who suspected foul play in the deaths of six salmon-eating sea lions in the Columbia River earlier this month said Wednesday the animals probably died from the heat below the Bonneville Dam.

Jack Grinold, the sports information director at Northeastern University in Boston for the past 47 years, said it was "time to give back" in announcing his $1 million gift to endow the school's athletic operations.