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The year before a souring economy caused endowments to fall, jobs to be cut and pay to be frozen, presidents of major private research universities across the country had an extraordinary year for pay increases.

When Yosemite National Park-bound visitors emerge from their cars at Half Dome View for a first glimpse of distant splendors, they probably pay no attention to the scattering of boulders on their right.

BETHESDA, Md. - A yellow ribbon -- ceramic to withstand the passage of time -- still hangs from the old oak tree in L. Bruce Laingen's front yard, a 30-year-old reminder of the Minnesota farm boy's ordeal as the highest-ranking diplomat among 52 U.S. Embassy workers held hostage in Iran for 444 days.

They may be kept with the best of intentions, but exotic pets can create havoc at home and in nature.

Sometimes they turn on their owners, as happened to Kelly Ann Walz, 37, of Saylorsburg, Pa., who was mauled to death Oct. 4 by a 350-pound black bear while cleaning its cage.

WASHINGTON - In a move that marks the first federal attempt to aid tens of thousands of homeowners with properties containing potentially toxic Chinese drywall, lawmakers have acted to make them eligible for the same low-interest loans available to disaster victims.

Sometime in the coming weeks, Pennsylvania state workers will bring permanent neutrality to the world's largest football trophy -- a bridge.

They will mount a "Rochester-Monaca Bridge" sign on the east end of the span over the Ohio River and a "Monaca-Rochester Bridge" sign on its west end.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A Sacramento jury set an eye-popping standard this week on the cost of radio station contests that kill and the resulting loss of a mother's love and a wife's companionship.

The tab for Entercom Sacramento LLC came to $16,577,118 in the water-intoxication death of Jennifer Lea Strange in a contest put on by radio station KDND "The End" (107.9 FM).

WASHINGTON - There's a huge clog in the American economy, one that is blocking a pipeline to innovation that has always set this country apart and fostered prosperity.

You've heard the advice before: Check your kid's candy bucket after going trick-or-treating on Halloween. Throw away any treats from a neighbor handing out homemade goodies. Sometimes hospitals even offer to X-ray the candy just to make sure there isn't a needle in that Snickers bar.

NEW DELHI - Nagesh Simha knows about pain. He has had three kidney transplants, one of which led to such severe complications that he had to have both hips replaced. But when he's not a patient, he's a surgeon, supervising a cancer hospice in Bangalore -- where he sees patients in what he calls the "catastrophic pain" that frequently accompanies the disease.