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11 killed in spring storm

EAGLE PASS, Texas - Search teams worked their way through wreckage-strewn neighborhoods in this border town today after a tornado killed at least 10 people, destroyed two schools and damaged hundreds of homes.

At least of three of the victims died just across the border from Eagle Pass in Piedras Negras, Mexico.

On the U.S. side, five of the dead were in a mobile home when the storm slammed it against a school building.

Lightning was blamed for an 11th death today as the huge weather system plowed through the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys.

The severe weather also spun off tornadoes Tuesday in Oklahoma and Colorado, caused flooding in Iowa and Nebraska, and piled snow more than a foot deep in the Rockies.

3 officers shot; 1 dies

MARGARETVILLE, N.Y. - A state trooper was shot to death and another was wounded in this Catskill Mountains town today as police chased a suspect in the shooting of a third trooper hours earlier, authorities said.

The hunt for the suspect started after a trooper was shot in the torso during a traffic stop in the Margaretville area Tuesday. Police said the officer's body armor saved him from serious injury, but the suspect escaped.

A stolen minivan the suspect had been driving was found abandoned.

Sen. McCain makes candidacy official

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - Republican John McCain of Arizona - senator, ex-Navy pilot and former prisoner of war in Vietnam - officially declared his 2008 candidacy for president today, casting himself as the most qualified person to lead the country in wartime.

"We face formidable challenges, but I'm not afraid of them. I'm prepared for them," McCain said. "I'm not the youngest candidate. But I am the most experienced," added the 70-year-old, stressing wisdom acquired over time rather than the decades themselves.

McCain said the United States must "rethink and rebuild" the structure and mission of military intelligence sectors and law enforcement agencies; improve U.S. alliances and strengthen diplomacy with other nations; "marshal all elements of American power"; and "preserve our moral credibility, and remember that our security and the global progress of our ideals are inextricably linked."

Hog farms got pet food

WASHINGTON - Salvaged pet food contaminated with an industrial chemical was sent to hog farms in as many as six states, federal health officials said.

It was not clear whether any hogs that ate the tainted feed then entered the food supply for humans.

Hogs at a farm in California ate the contaminated products, according to the Food Safety and Inspection Service. Officials were trying to determine whether hogs in New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Ohio may have also eaten the tainted food, the FSIS said Tuesday.

Ranger told not to talk

WASHINGTON - An Army Ranger who was with Pat Tillman when the former NFL star was cut down by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004 has told Congress that his commanding officer had ordered him to keep quiet about what happened.

The military at first portrayed Tillman's death as the result of heroic combat with the enemy. Army Spc. Bryan O'Neal told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Tuesday that when he got the chance to talk to Tillman's brother, who had been in a nearby convoy on the fateful day, "I was ordered not to tell him what happened."

Teacher of year named

WASHINGTON - Andrea Peterson, an elementary school music teacher from Granite Falls, Wash., has been named the national teacher of the year by the Council of Chief State School Officers.

She will receive the honor Thursday.

Peterson, 33, has taught in the Granite Falls district for 10 years.

Police: No Cho link found

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Computer files, cell phone records and e-mails have yielded no link between 23-year-old loner Seung-Hui Cho and his victims in the Virginia Tech massacre last week.

State Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty on Tuesday said authorities have found no evidence that could begin to explain the massacre that ended when Cho took his own life.

Flaherty said there was no evidence about what triggered Cho's massacre or whether he handpicked his 32 victims.

New plan for injured vets

WASHINGTON - Injured soldiers and veterans grappling with backlogs and red tape will now fill out less paperwork, get more screenings for brain injury and go through an improved disability claims system, a presidential task force said.

Responding to criticism about poor treatment of injured soldiers, the interagency task force headed by Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson released its report and recommendations Tuesday for immediately improving veterans' care.

The panel found government procedures now are unwieldy, with unacceptable gaps as servicemembers and veterans move from military hospitals to the VA's vast network of 1,400 hospitals and clinics.