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Contractors will help pay the cost of completing the Interstate 485 loop around Charlotte, then will be reimbursed by the state, according to a plan announced Monday morning by Gov. Bev Perdue.

Internal e-mails reveal new allegations of misspending at the Mecklenburg Department of Social Services, raising more questions about what happened to money intended to help needy children.

A scathing performance audit of the Golden LEAF foundation said it did not adequately monitor the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars, violated the state open meetings act and failed to cooperate fully with the audit.

In response to "30 McCrory precincts powered Foxx victory" (Nov. 5) and related articles:

From an editorial published in The Mountaineer (of Waynesville) on Nov. 4:

From Kim Lanphear and Maria Smithson, president and member, respectively, of the Myers Park IB Parent Advisory Council:

Anonymous comments from our readers on the issues of the day.

Winston-Salem-based tobacco giant Reynolds American Inc. is moving to buy a Swedish maker of products that help people stop smoking, the Wall Street Journal reported.

A comparison of health care bills before Congress:

The White House, growing concerned that the congressional timetable for passing a health care overhaul could slip into next year, is stepping up pressure on the Senate for quick action, with President Barack Obama appearing Sunday in the Rose Garden to call on senators to "take up the baton and bring this effort to the finish line."

In the summer of 2008, Charlotte-based steelmaker Nucor decided to raise some cash. It issued new shares of stock and floated some corporate bonds.

A suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday in a market in northwest Pakistan crowded with shoppers ahead of a Muslim holiday, killing 12 people, including a mayor who once supported but had turned against the Taliban, officials said.

The embattled Afghan president pledged Sunday that there would be no place for corrupt officials in his new administration - a demand made by Washington and its international partners as they ponder sending more troops to confront the Taliban and shore up his government.

After nearly a dozen delays and a final, rowdy session, Iraq's parliament on Sunday passed a law setting national elections for January, averting for now a political crisis that threatened to unravel the country's slow progress toward stability.

With concerts and memorials, Germans today will celebrate the day the Berlin Wall came crashing down 20 years ago.

Here are the winning numbers selected Sunday.

Steven Begleiter's bet on a pair of queens cost the former Bear Stearns Cos. executive $22 million and a chance to win the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Harald Jaeger was a loyal East German border guard, trusted to command a crossing point to the west on The Wall. .

A key U.S. senator said Sunday he'll start a probe of whether the Army missed signs the man accused of a rampage at Fort Hood had embraced an increasingly extremist view of Islam.