PHOENIX (Reuters) - Convicted killer Jodi Arias feels betrayed by an Arizona jury that found her guilty of murder in the brutal slaying of an ex-boyfriend, according to an interview aired on Wednesday as that same jury weighed whether to sentence her to death.

MOORE, Oklahoma (Reuters) - Tornado survivors thanked God, sturdy closets and luck in explaining how they lived through the colossal twister that devastated an Oklahoma town and killed 24 people, an astonishingly low toll given the extent of destruction.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Army sergeant at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point has been accused of videotaping female cadets in the shower, a defense official said on Wednesday, the latest in a series of sex-related incidents that has rocked the military.

MOORE, Oklahoma (Reuters) - A miniature bookcase with children's books spilling out is among the few furnishings still standing amid the tornado-torn rubble of what once was the Briarwood Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma.

ORLANDO, Fla./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An FBI agent shot and killed a man of Chechen origin who turned violent while being questioned on Wednesday about his connection to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of two Chechen brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Higher-than-expected revenue from state income tax enabled Illinois to reduce its unpaid bills to $5.8 billion from $8.5 billion at the beginning of April, the state comptroller said on Wednesday while cautioning the improvement could be short lived.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles Councilman Eric Garcetti has been elected mayor of the United States' second-largest city after defeating his rival by a margin of 8 points, according to preliminary results.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Chicago Board of Education is due to vote on Wednesday on a controversial proposal to close 54 schools in the country's third-largest public school district in what would be the largest mass school closing in the nation.

May 22 (NEW YORK) - More Americans will take to the road over the Memorial Day holiday weekend this year than in 2012, but overall travel is expected to decline slightly, as high airfares ground would-be flyers, travel group AAA said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two years after resigning from Congress in a lewd photo scandal, former U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner announced in a video message early on Wednesday he is running for New York City mayor.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The parents of an American engineer found dead in Singapore last year said on Wednesday they will not take part in the rest of a coroner's inquiry into his death, which they say was linked to a project involving the transfer of sensitive technology to China.

(Reuters) - The embattled mayor of Pennsylvania's financially crippled capital of Harrisburg was ousted on Tuesday when she lost the Democratic primary to the owner of an independent bookstore.

NEWARK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday refused to overturn the prison sentences of two New Jersey men convicted on terrorism charges, rejecting the argument that the decision was tainted by the Boston Marathon bombing.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Thousands of healthcare workers walked off the job at the University of California's five medical centers on Tuesday, delaying emergency care, surgeries, diagnostic procedures and other medical treatment throughout the state.

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - The family of a San Diego woman killed in an encounter with the U.S. Border Patrol filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit on Tuesday alleging a plainclothes agent used excessive force when he opened fire on the woman as she tried to flee in a car.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A self-described anarchist from Brooklyn who refused to testify before a federal grand jury thought to be investigating a 2008 bomb explosion in New York's Times Square was sent to jail on Tuesday after being found in civil contempt.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers frustrated by a spate of high-profile military sexual assault cases unveiled draft proposals in the House of Representatives on Tuesday to crack down on the crime, but they stopped short the kind of overhaul sought by some officials.

(Reuters) - Officials with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board say they may never know what caused last month's deadly fertilizer-plant explosion in Texas because of interference by federal and Texas agencies, according to a letter sent Tuesday by the head of the regulatory board to U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.

MOORE, Oklahoma (Reuters) - Rescuers went building to building in search of victims and thousands of survivors were homeless on Tuesday after a massive tornado tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, wiping out whole blocks of homes and killing at least 24 people.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City is seeing a spike in anti-gay attacks, with two assaults coming within days of the fatal shooting of a gay man over the weekend, the city's police commissioner said on Tuesday.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Less than three hours after a deadly twister on Monday flattened a swath of Moore, Oklahoma, tornado warning sirens sounded in Joplin, Missouri, 215 miles to the northeast.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Convicted killer Jodi Arias asked jurors on Tuesday to spare her the death penalty and sentence her to life in prison for killing her ex-boyfriend, reversing statements she made after her conviction that she preferred death to incarceration.

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court struck down an Arizona law on Tuesday that bans abortions from 20 weeks gestation, saying it violated "unalterably clear" U.S. Supreme Court rulings that women have a right to terminate pregnancies until a fetus is viable.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The commanding general at the U.S. Army Training Center at Fort Jackson in South Carolina was suspended from his position on Tuesday amid allegations of misconduct, including adultery and having a physical altercation, the military said.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Texas House passed a measure on Tuesday that would prevent the state from expanding its Medicaid program as outlined by President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law.

(Reuters) - The Peace Corps said on Tuesday it will start accepting applications next month from same-sex couples who want to volunteer together as part of the overseas service program.

(Reuters) - Florida's Miami-Dade County on Tuesday promised to spend $1.6 billion on fixes for its dilapidated, accident-prone sewer system in a deal meant to settle a lawsuit with federal and state environmental officials.

(Reuters) - Moore, Oklahoma, has had the bad luck of being hit by two highly destructive tornadoes, both in the month of May, 14 years apart.

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court struck down an Arizona law on Tuesday that bans abortions from 20 weeks gestation, saying it violated "unalterably clear" U.S. Supreme Court rulings that women have a right to terminate pregnancies until a fetus is viable.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a New York art dealer with tax fraud in connection with the sale of paintings she claimed to be the works of celebrated abstract expressionists, but some of which the government said were fakes.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama believes firmly in freedom of the press and does not want journalists to be prosecuted for doing their jobs, the White House said on Tuesday, responding to criticism about his administration's investigations of leaks to reporters.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Thousands of healthcare workers walked off the job at the University of California's five medical centers on Tuesday, delaying surgeries, diagnostic procedures, treatments and emergency care throughout the state.

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A national atheist group said it plans to donate enough books on its views to be placed in all Georgia state park cabins after the state's governor said Bibles should remain at the vacation properties despite an atheist's recent complaint.

MIAMI (Reuters) - The family of a 22-year-old man who was shot 16 times by police two years ago during a hip-hop festival in Miami Beach filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Tuesday against two Miami area police departments.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Convicted killer Jodi Arias testified on Tuesday that she can effect positive change in prison if jurors sentence her to a life term and spare her the death penalty for brutally killing her ex-boyfriend in Arizona five years ago.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The son-in-law of Osama bin Laden and former spokesman for al Qaeda, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to kill Americans, was warned on Tuesday that his three chosen lawyers may not get clearance to review classified evidence in the case.

DALLAS (Reuters) - Leaders of Boy Scout groups across the country will vote this week on a controversial proposal that would remove the organization's ban on gay scouts but not gay adult leaders.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the U.S. government had properly classified top secret more than 50 images of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden taken after his death, and that the government did not need to release them.

(Reuters) - Vermont on Monday became the fourth U.S. state to end legal penalties for doctors who prescribe medication to terminally ill patients seeking to end their own lives.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Jodi Arias, convicted of brutally murdering her ex-boyfriend, is expected on Tuesday to address a jury in Arizona tasked with deciding whether she should join the small group of women sitting on death row in the United States.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - One of Alaska's most active volcanoes, which has been belching ash and spewing lava since last week, has forced regional flight cancellations and dusted some nearby communities with ash, scientists and local officials said on Monday.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nearly 13,000 healthcare employees at five University of California medical centers plan to strike on Tuesday in a move that threatens to back up emergency rooms and already has forced the postponement of elective surgeries.

WESTPORT, Connecticut (Reuters) - Connecticut rail commuters endured crowded and rerouted rides in to work on Monday, as Metro-North worked to repair the busiest U.S. rail line after a two-train collision and derailment injured more than 70 people late last week.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration has decided to give the Pentagon control of some drone operations against terrorism suspects overseas that are currently run by the CIA, several U.S. government sources said on Monday.

BOSTON (Reuters) - A federal judge approved a request by accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers that his jailers hand over their files on him, including suicide watch logs and psychological data, according to court documents released on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - High-tech systems for tracking the movements of immigrants and other foreigners when leaving the United States would be installed at major U.S. airports under a plan approved by a congressional panel on Monday.

BOSTON (Reuters) - A federal judge approved a request by accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers that his jailers hand over their files on him, including suicide watch logs and psychological data, according to court documents released on Monday.

MOORE, Oklahoma (Reuters) - A huge tornado with winds of up to 200 miles per hour devastated the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on Monday, ripping up at least two elementary schools and a hospital and leaving a wake of tangled wreckage.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The federal judge who will rule in a class-action lawsuit accusing New York City police of racial profiling in their "stop and frisk" crime-fighting tactic expressed interest in having police officers wear cameras as the trial concluded on Monday.

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Thousands of people have protested against the prosecution of an 18-year-old Florida high school senior after her parents launched an Internet petition claiming she was charged with sex crimes only because her lover, a then 14-year-old schoolmate, was another girl.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - An Arizona judge denied a defense attorney's request for a mistrial on Monday in the death penalty phase of Jodi Arias' sensational murder trial, after a long-time friend declined to testify as a character witness, citing threats.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. authorities brought criminal charges against three New York University researchers on Monday, alleging they conspired to take bribes from Chinese medical and research outfits for details about NYU research into magnetic resonance imaging technology.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday appointed a special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism as a new State Department report warned about incidents in Venezuela, Egypt and Iran.

WESTPORT, Connecticut (Reuters) - Connecticut rail commuters endured crowded and rerouted rides in to work on Monday, as Metro-North worked to repair the busiest U.S. rail line after a two-train collision and derailment injured more than 70 people late last week.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago police arrested about two dozen people on Monday who were protesting against the planned closure of 54 schools in the country's third-largest school district, ahead of a planned Wednesday vote on the matter.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to weigh whether federal law prevented a customer from suing an airline for kicking him out of its frequent flyer program for allegedly complaining too frequently about the service.

(Reuters) - A tornado was on the ground in the Oklahoma City metropolitan are on Monday, live television showed, and the National Weather Service warned of tornadoes in two counties of central Oklahoma.

TALLAHASSEE (Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott signed the largest budget in his state's history on Monday while vetoing a college tuition increase and axing $368 million in projects he said did not meet his Republican criteria of job creation, education improvement and holding down the cost of government.

(Reuters) - A massive storm front swept north through the central United States on Sunday, hammering the region with fist-sized hail, blinding rain and tornadoes, including a half-mile wide twister that struck near Oklahoma City. News reports said at least one person had died.

OMAHA (Reuters) - Investigators in Omaha are looking at whether the murders discovered last week of a doctor and his wife are connected to the unsolved 2008 murders of a young boy and his family's housekeeper, police said on Monday.

ST. LOUIS, Mo (Reuters) - Five people were killed and six were injured Monday morning when a van carrying them home from a religious gathering in California rolled over off of Interstate 70 near Vandalia in southern Illinois, police said.

(Reuters) - Vermont on Monday became the fourth U.S. state to end legal penalties for doctors who prescribe medication to terminally ill patients seeking to end their own lives.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Delving into the controversial relationship between government and religion, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider whether a town in New York could allow members of the public, who in practice were nearly all Christian clergy, to open meetings with a prayer.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Crude oil tanker ships were temporarily unable to reach the five Houston-area refineries on Monday after a seven-mile section of the Houston Ship Channel was shut by the U.S. Coast Guard for the search for a person who jumped or fell from a bridge over the waterway.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of people living in poverty in U.S. suburbs surpassed the number of poor in cities over the past decade, driven by strong growth in overall suburban populations, according to an analysis released on Monday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In October 2004, then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger rolled up to a pioneering fueling station at Los Angeles International Airport in a hydrogen-powered metallic blue Hummer loaned to him by General Motors Corp.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a case involving whistleblowers at Fidelity Investments, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider whether mutual fund employees are subject to the same whistleblower protections as workers at publicly traded companies.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A dangerous, half mile-wide tornado struck near Oklahoma City Sunday afternoon, part of an extreme weather system moving through the central U.S. and stretching from north Texas to Minnesota.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an Alaskan village's claim that it should be able to sue oil companies and utilities for damages attributed to climate change.

SHERIDAN, Illinois (Reuters) - With the U.S. spring planting season off to a historically slow start, an increasing number of farmers are counting on powerful tools to catch up: Monster machines that sow 36 rows of corn at once and feature high-tech innovations like computer-guided directional equipment.

WATFORD CITY, North Dakota (Reuters) - In towns across North Dakota, the wellhead of the North American energy boom, the locals have taken to quoting the adage: "Whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting."

HOUSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - For the past three years, the boom in the U.S. shale oil industry has outstripped all expectations. Production surged far faster than any forecasts; drillers raced to secure space in new pipelines to get their crude to market.

BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut (Reuters) - Thousands of Connecticut commuters should brace for travel chaos on Monday as Metro-North workers repair damage on the United States' busiest rail line caused by the collision of two trains, officials warned on Sunday.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Bond restructurings, negotiated settlements with bondholders and bond insurers, and tough talk with unionized workers are on the agenda as Detroit's emergency financial manager tries to meet a self-imposed, six-week deadline to decide whether the city can get through its financial crisis without a bankruptcy filing.

BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut (Reuters) - Thousands of Connecticut commuters should brace for travel chaos on Monday as Metro-North workers repair damage on the United States' busiest rail line caused by the collision of two trains, officials warned on Sunday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A dangerous, half mile-wide hurricane struck near Oklahoma City Sunday afternoon, part of an extreme weather system moving through the central U.S. and stretching from north Texas to Minnesota.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Greenwich Village, the birthplace of the U.S. gay rights movement, remained in shock on Sunday over the shooting death of a gay man by a gunman who police said uttered anti-gay slurs before targeting the victim.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Bond restructurings, negotiated settlements with bondholders and bond insurers, and tough talk with unionized workers are on the agenda as Detroit's emergency financial manager tries to meet a self-imposed, six-week deadline to decide whether the city can get through its financial crisis without a bankruptcy filing.