The doctor is in for hundreds of children who families previously were unable to afford healthcare.

Citing successful results from last year's controversial decision to extend the winter holiday for Napa students, the Napa Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously Thursday night to schedule a three-week winter recess again in the 2006-07 school year.

George Altamura, one of Napa's most prominent property owners, has sold a small piece of his real estate holdings to the Napa Flood Control and Water Conservation District.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Thursday gave its blessing to the renewal of the USA Patriot Act after adding new privacy protections designed to strike a better balance between civil liberties and the government's power to root out terrorists.

SANTA ROSA -- A Presbyterian minister accused of marrying two lesbian couples in violation of the faith's position on same-sex unions admitted Thursday that she officiated at the weddings, but said she was following both her conscience and the couples' wishes.

WASHINGTON -- In the hectic, confused hours after Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast, Louisiana's governor hesitantly but mistakenly assured the Bush administration that New Orleans' protective levees were intact, according to new video obtained by The Associated Press showing briefings that day with federal officials.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgency-related violence last year killed more than twice as many Iraqi civilians -- 4,024 people -- as Iraqi soldiers and police, according to government figures obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican miners and steel workers began lifting strikes across the country Thursday, a day after staging walkouts in support of a union boss faced with a leadership challenge.

NEW DELHI -- Reversing decades of U.S. policy, President Bush ushered India into the world's exclusive nuclear club Thursday with a landmark agreement to share nuclear reactors, fuel and expertise with this energy-starved nation in return for its acceptance of international safeguards.