"We just need to work out some way to get them off ... We can't keep them here any longer." Those are the words of a ExpressJet pilot earlier this month who begged airport officials to allow her passengers to deplane and go inside the airport. Instead, the passengers were forced to spend six hours stuck on the cramped plane in an incident that the Department of Transportation now decries for its "complete lack of common sense."

The global spread of swine flu will speed up in the coming months, and nations must step up preparations, the World Health Organization says. "At a certain point, there will seem to be an explosion in case numbers," a WHO official warns. Nearly one-third of the world's population could become infected, according to the group.

In a forthcoming book, former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge says fellow Cabinet members urged him to raise the terrorism threat level just before the 2004 presidential vote. The level wasn't changed. Frances Townsend, President George Bush's homeland security adviser, says politics never influenced the alert level.

U.S. and Canadian authorities are hunting for reality TV contestant Ryan Jenkins, 32, who has been charged with killing his ex-wife, a former swimsuit model. The body of Jasmine Fiore, 28, was found Saturday in Los Angeles. Her teeth and fingers were missing, and a preliminary coroner's report says she was strangled.

Rain ahead of Hurricane Bill begins pelting Bermuda as the island braces for coastal flooding. The storm isn't a major threat, but forecasters say it will whip up high waves and rip currents along the eastern U.S. coast over the weekend.
Also: See Hurricane's Projected Path

A Colorado cold case suffers a setback when police learn that the woman identified as a 1954 murder victim has actually been living in Australia for decades. Police say they're back to square one in the case of a so-called "Jane Doe" whose body was found along a Boulder creek. But they expressed relief that Katherine Farrand Dyer, now 84, is alive.