USA

More tornadoes hit the nation's midsection Saturday, with at least 18 deaths reported after twisters roared through northeastern Oklahoma and southwestern Missouri.

Doug Goodyear, the man picked by the John McCain presidential campaign to serve as coordinator of September's Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., resigned Saturday "so as not to become a distraction." Goodyear quit hours after Newsweek reported that his lobbying firm used to represent Burma's military regime, which has been slow to accept outside help after a devastating cyclone hit May 3.

Postage rates change Monday, with the price to send a letter increasing a penny to 42 cents.

News Corp., the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, Saturday withdrew its $580 million bid to acquire Newsday, the Long Island-based daily. News Corp. already owns The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and two area TV stations.

Rather than refine a problem-riddled section of "virtual fence" installed on the Arizona-Mexico border, Boeing, the contractor, said it will replace the prototype with new virtual fencing there and possibly on Michigan's border with Canada, near Detroit, by the end of this year.

Waste Management Inc. has announced plans to convert part of its fleet of trucks to run on biogas. The fuel will be produced at a new plant, expected to open next year near Livermore, Calif., that will purify and liquefy landfill gas.