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DALLAS – Two Dallas residents have been accused of separate schemes to impersonate hurricane evacuees and bilk the Federal Emergency Management Agency out of thousands of dollars, authorities said. Lakietha Hall, 35, was arrested Wednesday and charged with stealing more than $65,000 in FEMA money, according to a release from …

WASHINGTON – Millions of low-income families will face a bleak winter because Congress failed to deliver home-heating funds, Northeast lawmakers warned Thursday. “It was the wrong choice for the American people in this cold holiday season,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who led a Senate fight for fuel assistance. Home-heat …

LONDON – British pop star Robbie Williams accepted undisclosed libel damages Tuesday from publishers of a newspaper and magazines that had claimed he was a homosexual. The defendants, British publishing groups MGN Limited, publisher of The People, a Sunday tabloid, and Northern & Shell PLC, publisher of Star and Hot …

WASHINGTON – President Bush will address the nation about Iraq on Sunday evening, his first speech from the Oval Office since he announced the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. The address at 9 p.m. EST comes on the heels of a two-week, four-speech blitz to build support …

NEW ORLEANS – Eight sections of steel sheet pulled from a failed New Orleans levee Tuesday appear to have been driven into the ground to the specified depth, contradicting earlier tests, engineers said. The sheet pilings were removed as part of an investigation into why the flood wall at the …

NEW YORK – Both Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. (BSC) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) posted record revenues and record earnings for a record 2005 on Thursday. Yet Wall Street treated the two investment banks very differently. Bear Stearns saw its stock climb sharply, mostly due to a settlement with …

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – One of Saudi Arabia‘s most wanted terror suspects killed five policemen in drive-by shootings Tuesday before security forces wounded and captured him, the Interior Ministry said. The capture of Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Mohammed al-Suwailmi was the latest in a series of successes by Saudi security forces in …

HOUSTON – A prime defendant in the Enron Corp. criminal trial has struck a plea deal with prosecutors, potentially bolstering the government’s case against company founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. Richard Causey was expected to plead guilty Wednesday afternoon …

LATROBE, Pa. – Most U.S. troops will leave Iraq within a year because the Army is “broken, worn out” and “living hand to mouth,” Rep. John Murtha told a civic group. Two weeks ago, Murtha created a storm of comment when he called for U.S. troops to leave Iraq now. …

This is a partial transcript of “The Big Story With John Gibson,” December 2, 2005, that has been edited for clarity. DAVID ASMAN, GUEST HOST: Some new statistics indicate our counter-terrorism operations in Iraq are actually working. U.S. military officials say the number of suicide bombings fell to their lowest …