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ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota’s gubernatorial hopefuls have burned through donations just to win the backing of their parties, and with months to go until the general election, the top contenders have relatively little money left.

NEW ORLEANS — Gaffe-prone BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward — who incensed many on the Gulf Coast by saying he wanted his life back as they struggled with the fallout from the company’s massive oil spill — will be replaced, a senior U.S. government official said Sunday.

NEW YORK — Does that smart phone in your pocket contribute to rape and murder in the depths of Africa? Soon, you’ll know: A new U.S. law requires companies to certify whether their products contain minerals from rebel-controlled mines in Congo and surrounding countries.

HANOI, Vietnam — North Korea inflamed tensions over the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship by threatening the United States and South Korea on Friday with a “physical response” if they carry out naval maneuvers this weekend. The U.S. refused to back down.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Five U.S. governors visiting Iraq said Wednesday that conditions have improved, with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon pronouncing that President Barack Obama’s goal of reducing U.S. forces to 50,000 troops by Sept. 1 is achievable.

WASHINGTON — With a GOP filibuster safely broken, the Senate is poised to pass legislation restoring jobless benefits for millions of people unable to find work in the frail economic recovery.

Campus Ministry staff will begin the process this fall of transforming the current hall chaplain program into a peer ministry program, and when the new program is fully implemented by the fall of 2011, undergraduates serving as peer ministers will entirely replace live-in hall chaplains.

NEW ORLEANS — BP said its capped-off well appeared to be holding steady Friday morning, almost midway into a white-knuckle waiting period in which engineers watched the pressure gauges for signs of a leak.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota’s new chief justice, Lorie Skjerven Gildea, said Tuesday that her top priority will be securing enough money for a judicial system that’s slowing down due to budget cuts that have left the courts short-staffed.

“Ensuring adequate funding for the judiciary is the No. 1 priority,” Gildea said in an interview with The Associated Press, one day after she was ceremonially sworn in as Minnesota’s 22nd chief justice.

NASSAU, Bahamas — The American teenager who police call the “Barefoot Bandit” pleaded guilty Tuesday to a minor offense in the Bahamas and will be deported soon to face prosecution for a string of break-ins and plane thefts across the United States.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s party could lose its House majority in this fall’s elections, his spokesman said Sunday, perhaps trying to jolt Democratic voters with the specter of GOP lawmakers rolling back White House policies.

DOVER, N.H. — Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who campaigned in New Hampshire for John McCain during the 2008 presidential primary, said Saturday he would offer voters here the same kind of blunt talk and authenticity if he runs for president.

NEW ORLEANS — The BP oil leak could be completely contained as early as Monday if a new, tighter cap can be fitted over the blown-out well, the government official in charge of the crisis said Friday in some of the most encouraging news to come out of the Gulf in the 2 1/2 months since the disaster struck.

MINNEAPOLIS — An engineering company that consulted on the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis said Thursday it should not have to pay punitive damages because it didn’t know about the design flaw that caused the bridge to collapse in 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145.