USA

Randal McCloy Jr., the lone survivor of the West Virginia coal mine explosion that took 12 lives last week, is "still not out of the woods" and faces a "long recovery," according to a medical spokesman who said he was stable enough to be flown Saturday from Pittsburgh, where he was undergoing special treatment, to a closer-to-home hospital in Morgantown, W.Va.

The National Urban League said it would oppose any rebuilding plan for New Orleans that threatens to eliminate neighborhoods most heavily damaged by hurricane Katrina. Marc Morial, the league's president and former New Orleans mayor, raised concern that devastated neighborhoods might be converted into marshland or open space. The city is expected to release a rebuilding proposal this week.

New postal rates, which took effect Sunday, raised the cost of a first-class stamp from 37 cents to 39 cents. Prices last went up in June 2002. Legislation that requires the Postal Service to place $3 billion in an escrow account this year is behind the rate hike.

The checkout date for hurricane Katrina evacuees temporarily housed in hotels remains a moving target. Federal officials extended the government-support program for thousands of people from Feb. 7 to Feb. 13 - and possibly longer. Meanwhile in New Orleans, a judge said that about 100 hurricane-displaced tenants ordered out of their temporary hotel quarters in the Maison St. Charles should be allowed to return. The hotel said it needed the rooms for guests.

Better body armor may have prevented or minimized many fatal torso wounds sustained by 93 Marines fighting in Iraq from March 2003 to June 2005, according to an unreleased Pentagon study obtained by the Associated Press. The study was undertaken to help the military determine possible redesign for the ceramic armor-plating.

Protesters against illegal immigration held "Stop the Invasion" demonstrations in 19 states Saturday, but were outnumbered and out-shouted in many cases by counter-protesters advocating for immigrant rights.