Mitt Romney is pressing to refocus the Republican presidential race on jobs and the economy in the sprint to Super Tuesday’s contests next week, looking to blunt Rick Santorum’s efforts to sow doubts about his record on social issues.

AN American journalist held for four months in Iran was freed yesterday and reunited with her parents after an appeals court suspended her eight-year prison sentence on charges of spying for the US.

A LAWYER for a jailed American journalist in Iran said yesterday he was optimistic that an appeals court will reduce her eight-year prison sentence for allegedly spying for the United States.

An American journalist jailed in Iran has been convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison just days after she was tried behind closed doors, her lawyer said today.

Bone-chilling cold in the US slowed the rise of the already record-high Red River early today as weary volunteers waited and watched to see if all their hard work had been enough to save the Midwestern US city of Fargo, North Dakota, from major flooding.

RESIDENTS of south Fargo, North Dakota, evacuated their homes early yesterday as the Red River rose to its highest level in 112 years and a crack appeared in a sandbag dike.

Barack Obama spent the US Independence Day holiday in the western state of Montana, watching a parade, eating a hot dog and trying to woo moderate voters in the traditionally Republican stronghold.

A flight attendant angry about his work route started a fire in a toilet, forcing an emergency landing, authorities said today.

Nicholas Geranios, Coeur D’Alene

Authorities were today trying to determine what caused a teenager to gun down his grandfather, put on the man’s police-issue belt and bullet-proof vest, and drive his marked squad car to a high school, where he began shooting his classmates at will.