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Oklahoma City's tap water has come in first place in a national taste test competition.

GENEVA (AP) — The Syrian civil war contributed to pushing the numbers of refugees and those displaced by conflict within their own nation to an 18-year high of 45.2 million worldwide by the end of 2012, the U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday. Those are the highest numbers since 1994, when people fled genocide in Rwanda and bloodshed in former Yugoslavia. By the end of last year, the world had 15.4 million refugees, 937,000 asylum seekers and 28.8 million people who had been forced to flee within the borders of their own countries, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a report. Of those, 17 percent were new to their situations in 2012: 1.1 million new refugees and 6.

DENVER (AP) — Bob and Barbara Schmidt dashed to their home on a dirt road in a heavily wooded area northeast of Colorado Springs as smoke from what would become the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history filled the air. After quickly grabbing a few items, they spotted their neighbors. "They were sitting on their porch, watching TV," said Bob Schmidt, adding his wife urged their neighbors to immediately flee as smoke rolled in at 4:35 p.m. on June 11. "They said they'd leave when they needed to." Marc and Robin Herklotz told the Schmidts they hadn't gotten automated calls from authorities ordering them to evacuate and that, while they were packing and monitoring the approaching blaze on TV, they weren't panickin

SEATTLE (AP) — A Boeing 787 flying from Denver to Tokyo diverted to Seattle because of an oil filter issue, a United Airlines spokeswoman said. An airline maintenance team was inspecting the jet after Flight 139 landed normally Tuesday afternoon at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, United spokeswoman Mary Ryan said in an email statement. United just put its 787s back in the air May 20 after smoldering batteries on two 787s owned by other airlines prompted authorities to ground the planes in January. The Tokyo-bound jet's problem was "completely unrelated to any battery issues," Boeing spokesman Kate Bergman told The Seattle Times on Tuesday evening. "We are aware of the situation, and we're working with Unit

A sunny day is ahead Wednesday in central Oklahoma. Winds will gust up to 21 mph

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Hastings, the war correspondent whose unflinching reporting from Afghanistan led to the resignation of a top U.S. army general, has died in a car accident in Los Angeles, according to his employer and family. Hastings, who was 33, was described by many of his colleagues as an unfailingly bright and hard-charging reporter who wrote stories that mattered. Most recently, he wrote about politics for the news website BuzzFeed, where the top editor said colleagues were devastated by the loss. "Michael was a great, fearless journalist with an incredible instinct for the story, and a gift for finding ways to make his readers care about anything he covered from wars to politicians," said Ben Smith, BuzzFee

Helen Kasony, 64, was last seen about 9:10 a.m. at the Walmart in Mena, Ark., on June 11, police said.

Sammie Lamont Wallace, 37, who was shot and killed by police during a standoff at a Midwest City Walmart, has a violent history and lengthy rap sheet, police in Dallas reported.

In Oklahoma, the National Council on Teacher Quality's Teacher Prep Review flagged East Central University's undergraduate elementary education program and Northeastern State University's undergraduate special education program with consumer alerts.

Owners still looking for displaced pets are encouraged to attend Sunday's adoption day at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds. Any pets still without owners will then be dispersed to local and national rescue groups.

A Cleveland County jury deliberated about four hours Tuesday before finding an Oklahoma City man guilty of first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of an Oklahoma City woman.

Fredric Hardeman Jr., 38, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in connection with the death of his 60-year-old mother, Ocie Hardeman, Oklahoma City police said.

Rayvon Johnson, 22, of Oklahoma City, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2011 deaths of Lamar Shirley and Marcel Grigsby. A third victim was the intended target, prosecutors said.

The state fire marshal's office can't account for a missing shotgun and has failed to meet its legal duty to annually inspect all Oklahoma correctional facilities, a state audit has revealed.

Oklahoma country music superstar Blake Shelton earned his third straight win as a coach on the hit reality TV show, while his fellow Oklahomans, Muskogee duo The Swon Brothers, finished in third place.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. foiled a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange because of the sweeping surveillance programs at the heart of a debate over national security and personal privacy, officials said Tuesday at a rare open hearing on intelligence led by lawmakers sympathetic to the spying. The House Intelligence Committee hearing provided a venue for officials to defend the once-secret programs and did little probing of claims that the collection of people's phone records and Internet usage has disrupted dozens of terrorist plots. Few details were volunteered. Army Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, said the two recently disclosed programs — one that gathers U.S. phone records and anot

DETROIT (AP) — After initially defying federal regulators, Chrysler abruptly agreed Tuesday to recall some older-model Jeeps with fuel tanks that could rupture and cause fires in rear-end collisions. But the recall, which came in an 11th-hour deal between the automaker and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, covers only 1.56 million of the 2.7 million Jeeps that the government wanted repaired. The rest are part of a "customer service action" and many may not get fixed. By giving in to government pressure, Chrysler sidesteps a showdown with NHTSA that could have led to public hearings with witnesses providing details of deadly crashes. The dispute could have landed in court and hurt Chrysler's image and its f

Joseph Moore, 33, was arrested on complaints of shooting with intent to kill and robbery after a man was shot Tuesday morning in Oklahoma City, police said.

A man approached the teller counter Tuesday afternoon at First Fidelity Bank, 700 SW 29, with a note demanding money, Special Agent Rick Rains said.

Four people told police they were robbed at gunpoint Friday at a convenience store in northwest Oklahoma City.