The Pentagon is asking Congress for more than $450 million for maintaining and upgrading the Guantanamo Bay prison that President Barack Obama wants to close.

In a May 17 letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer, U.S. Chemical Safety Board Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso asked the California Democrat to help the board obtain evidence under control of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that he contends is essential to the board's investigation.

A Coast Guard rescue swimmer whose disappearance led to a massive search in Hawaii pleaded guilty to desertion Tuesday, saying he left work one day, decided never to return and spent the next three months camping in the mountains. A military judge sentenced him to more than six months confinement and a bad conduct discharge.

The Highway Patrol says up to 30 people have suffered injuries in the collision of a commercial bus and a car on Interstate 75 in northwest Ohio.

In a surprise jailhouse interview just hours after a jury began deliberating her fate, Jodi Arias spoke out Tuesday about her murder trial, her many fights with her legal team and her belief that she "deserves a second chance at freedom someday." Arias spoke to The Associated Press as part of a series of interviews with media outlets that she selected.

A 15-year-old girl found dead in woods north of Bangor knew the man charged with killing her, her best friend said, contrary to early reports that before her disappearance she'd headed outside her Glenburn home to see someone she recently met on Facebook.

Five men are under round-the-clock U.S. surveillance in Libya, wanted for questioning in the attack last year on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

Jodi Arias begged jurors Tuesday to give her life in prison, saying she "lacked perspective" when she told a local reporter in an interview that she preferred execution to spending the rest of her days in jail.