AP - Barack Obama swept to the Democratic presidential nomination Wednesday night, a transforming triumph that made him the first black American to lead a major party into the fall campaign for the White House. Thousands of national convention delegates stood and cheered as they made history.   [ Full Story ]

AP - Baseball's replay central is an 18-by-24 foot room on the fifth floor of a former baking factory in Manhattan's Meatpacking District that's crammed with so many computers and television screens that it looks like NASA's Mission Control.   [ Full Story ]

AP - Marion "Suge" Knight was jailed Wednesday on assault and drug charges after he was accused of beating his girlfriend while brandishing a knife near the Las Vegas Strip, police said.   [ Full Story ]

AP - Four jail inmates who authorities say helped eight others make a brazen escape were charged Wednesday, as officials kept up the search for the five prisoners who remain on the loose, including a convicted murderer.   [ Full Story ]

AP - More ominous signs Wednesday have scientists saying that a global warming "tipping point" in the Arctic seems to be happening before their eyes: Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is at its second lowest level in about 30 years.   [ Full Story ]

AP - On the eve of Hurricane Katrina's third anniversary, a nervous New Orleans watched Wednesday as another storm threatened to test everything the city has rebuilt, and officials made preliminary plans to evacuate people, pets and hospitals in an attempt to avoid a Katrina-style chaos.   [ Full Story ]

Reuters - Mortgage-finance company Fannie Mae on Wednesday announced a management shake-up in an effort to come to grips with mounting credit losses and a shrinking capital base.   [ Full Story ]

Reuters - Stocks rose on Wednesday as surprisingly strong data on durable goods orders soothed some concern about the sluggish economy while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led a rally in financial shares.   [ Full Story ]

Reuters - The Federal Reserve must be "very vigilant" amid strained financial markets while exercising patience over interest rates as it waits for inflation to ease, a top Fed policy-maker said on Wednesday.   [ Full Story ]