AUSTIN, Texas — Watching her battered brother lay on the pavement outside her home, struggling to breathe as he choked on his own blood, Margaret Morales couldn’t fathom why someone would beat him so badly.

SAN DIEGO — Five men pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of kidnapping and torture in what prosecutors said was a sophisticated kidnap-for-ransom ring.

SANTA CRUZ — Santa Cruz High School may soon become the county’s first sun-powered school.

NEW ORLEANS — Large areas of this city, including sections that are being rebuilt, remain at risk from flooding despite more than $1 billion in work to fix and upgrade the hurricane protection system, according to a new Army Corps of Engineers report released Wednesday.

FRESNO — Homeless people likely will have a harder time setting up encampments in the city under a law that has won preliminary approval.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Federal agents arrested 81 suspected illegal immigrants during a raid at a manufacturing plant in the Poconos. The company said an agency that provides temporary workers was responsible.

PORTAGE, Wis. — Three adults and a 15-year-old girl were charged Wednesday in connection with two shocking discoveries police made when they found a missing 2-year-old: a severely burned and blood-streaked 11-year-old boy, and the body of his mother, buried in the back yard.

VILLA PARK — A 4-year-old girl slipped unnoticed to the bottom of a backyard swimming pool and drowned during her brother’s 6th birthday party.

LOS ANGELES — Two immigrants who claim they were drugged against their will while being prepared for deportation sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration came out strongly against a bipartisan effort by Sens. Charles Grassley and Barack Obama to make the immigration bill easier on employers.

SAN FRANCISCO — Joe Harris, who for nearly half a century helped sopranos, baritones and tenors dress for their parts at the San Francisco Opera, has died. He was 82.