It happened about 7 p.m. Thursday on the north part of the four-lane Interstate 5 bridge near Mount Vernon, about 60 miles north of Seattle and 40 miles south of the Canada border, and disrupted travel in both directions.

Initially, it wasn't clear if the bridge just gave way on its own. But at an overnight news conference, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste blamed it on a tractor-trailer carrying an oversize load that hit an upper part of the span. The vertical clearance from the roadway to the beam is 14.6 feet.

"For reasons unknown at this point in time, the semi struck the overhead of the bridge causing the collapse," Batiste said.

The truck made it off the bridge and the driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators. Authorities have not yet said what the truck was carrying.

Two other vehicles went into the water about 25 feet below as the structure crumbled. Three people were rescued and were recovering Friday.

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Lee Rigby, of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, who had joined the army in 2006, was posted in Cyprus, Afghanistan and Germany before becoming a recruiter, assisting with duties in the Tower of London.

"All he wanted to do from when he was a little boy was be in the Army," Rigby's family said in a statement issued through the Ministry of Defense. "He wanted to live life and enjoy himself."

The family said that Rigby would "do anything for anybody," always looked out for his sisters and took a "big brother" role with everyone he met.

"He was a loving son, husband, father, brother, and uncle, and a friend to many," the statement added.

Rigby, nicknamed Riggers, was an important member of the Corps of Drums who was known for his good nature and wit, as well as his love of his hometown soccer team, fellow soldiers said. Two men believed to have extremist Islamic beliefs are suspected of attacking and killing him.

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Yuichiro Miura, who also conquered the 29,035-foot peak when he was 70 and 75, reached the summit at 9:05 a.m. local time Thursday, according to a Nepalese mountaineering official and Miura's Tokyo-based support team.

Miura and his son Gota called them from the summit, prompting his daughter Emili to smile broadly and clap her hands in footage on public broadcaster NHK.

"I made it!" Miura said over the phone. "I never imagined I could make it to the top of Mt. Everest at age 80.  This is the world's best feeling, although I'm totally exhausted. Even at 80, I can still do quite well."

The climbers planned to stick around the summit for about half an hour, take photos and then start to descend, his office said.

Nepalese mountaineering official Gyanendra Shrestha, at Everest base camp, confirmed that Miura had reached the summit, making him the oldest person to do so.

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Ingrid Loyau-Kennett got off a bus and tried to reason with the two attackers after she tried to help the man lying on the street but found he had no pulse and was already dead.

The 48-year-old mother kept talking to the two bloody attackers before police came, trying to keep them calm.

Loyau-Kennett, who lives in Cornwall in southwest England, told several British media outlets Wednesday night and Thursday morning that she was returning from a trip to France and was visiting her children in London when the bus she was on stopped because of the melee.

She said she saw a crashed car and the victim lying on the street and tried to help him since she had been trained in first aid. She had determined the man was dead by the time the attackers confronted her.

She said a man "with a black hat and a revolver in one hand and a cleaver in the other came over" and excitedly warned her to stay away from the body.

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It was the 83-year-old grandmother's first time back at her home since a monstrous and deadly tornado ravaged her neighborhood in suburban Oklahoma City. Part of the roof was sitting in the front yard, and the siding from the front of the house was gone. As her son, Jeff, and her grandsons picked through what was left of her belongings, Arvin found some dark humor in the situation.

"Oh thank God," she said, laughing, when a grandson brought over her keys. "We can get in the house."

Monday's tornado killed at least 24 people, destroyed countless homes and reduced one elementary school almost entirely to rubble, killing seven children inside.

As state and federal officials work to set up disaster recovery centers to provide aid and assistance, Arvin and other residents of Moore are beginning the deliberate process of assessing what's left of their homes and possessions and what comes next.

Officials are still trying to make sense of what will be needed in the coming days, weeks and months: Will homes be rebuilt or torn down? Where will the children go to school? How much will it all cost?

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The 13-5 vote cleared the way for an epic showdown on the Senate floor on legislation that is one of President Barack Obama's top domestic priorities — yet also gives the Republican Party a chance to recast itself as more appealing to minorities.

The action sparked rejoicing from immigration activists who crowded into a Senate committee room to witness the proceedings. "Yes, we can! Si, se puede" they shouted, reprising the campaign cry from Obama's first run for the White House in 2008.

In addition to creating a pathway to citizenship for 11.5 million immigrants, the legislation creates a new program for low-skilled foreign labor and would permit highly skilled workers into the country at far higher levels than is currently the case.

At the same time, it requires the government to take costly new steps to guard against future illegal immigration.

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The storm stripped leaves off trees and left scores of blocks in Moore barren and dark. Rescuers walked through neighborhoods where Monday's powerful twister flattened home after home, to listen for any voices calling out from the rubble. A helicopter buzzed above, shining lights on crews below.

As Monday turned into Tuesday, the town of Moore, a community of 41,000 people 10 miles south of the city, braced for another long, harrowing day.

"As long as we are here ... we are going to hold out hope that we will find survivors," said Trooper Betsy Randolph, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

More than 120 people were being treated at hospitals, including about 50 children. Amy Elliott, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office, said Tuesday that there could be as many as 40 more fatalities from Monday's tornado.

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The storm laid waste to scores of buildings in Moore, a community of 41,000 people south of the city. Block after block lay in ruins. Homes were crushed into piles of broken wood. Cars and trucks were left crumpled on the roadside.

The National Weather Service issued an initial finding that the tornado was an EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale, the second most-powerful type of twister.

More than 120 people were being treated at hospitals, including about 70 children.

Rescuers launched a desperate rescue effort at the school, pulling children from heaps of debris and carrying them to a triage center.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin deployed 80 National Guard members to assist with search-and-rescue operations and activated extra highway patrol officers.

Fallin also spoke with President Barack Obama, who offered the nation's help and gave Fallin a direct line to his office.

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There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths, but the storm laid waste to scores of buildings in Moore, south of the city. Block after block of the community lay in ruins, with heaps of debris piled up where homes used to be. Cars and trucks were left crumpled on the roadside.

The National Weather Service issued an initial finding that the tornado was an EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale, the second most-powerful type of twister.

Volunteers and first responders were searching through debris looking for survivors. Television footage showed first-responders picking through rubble and twisted metal.

Oklahoma City Police Capt. Dexter Nelson said downed power lines and open gas lines posed a risk in the aftermath of the system.

The storm seemed to blow neighborhoods apart instantly, scattering shards of wood and pieces of insulation across the scarred landscape.

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Video showed homes and buildings in Moore, Okla., were reduced to rubble, and vehicles littered roadways south and southwest of Oklahoma City.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The suburb of Moore, where Monday's damage was concentrated, was hit hard by a tornado in 1999 that included the highest winds ever recorded near the Earth's surface.

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"You can see where there's absolutely nothing, then there are places where you have mobile home frames on top of each other, debris piled up," Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth said after surviving damage in the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park. "It looks like there's been heavy equipment in there on a demolition tour.

"It's pretty bad. It's pretty much wiped out," he said.

The Shawnee tornado was one of several that touched down in the nation's midsection Sunday. Twisters, hail and high winds also struck Iowa and Kansas as part of a massive, northeastward-moving storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota.

Across the state, 21 people were injured, not including those who suffered bumps and bruises and chose not to visit a hospital, said Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. Booth said six at Steelman Estates were hurt.

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Swift won eight of 11 awards, including top artist and top Billboard 200 album for "Red." She told the crowd: "You are the longest and best relationship I ever had."

She also had a colorful performance of her hit "22" — starting backstage and working her way to the main stage on the back of a bike with help from a dozen background dancers and a flurry of red balloons.

Justin Bieber also performed — twice — and was also a multiple winner with three awards, including top male artist, social artist and the fan-voted milestone award, beating out Swift and Bruno Mars. When accepting the latter — where boos were heard — he alluded to the tumultuous weeks he's had in the public eye.

"I'm 19 years old; I think I'm doing a pretty good job. And basically from my heart I really just want to say it should really be about the music, it should be about the craft that I'm making. This is not a gimmick," he said. "I'm an artist and I should be taken seriously and all this other bull should not be spoken."

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Karima El Mahroug’s testimony Friday at the trial of three former Berlusconi aides accused with procuring her and other woman for prostitution confirms a sexually charged atmosphere at the parties of the then-sitting premier. They deny the charges. The trial is separate from the one in which Berlusconi is charged with paying for sex with a minor — El Mahroug when she was 17 — and trying to cover it up.

El Mahroug, now 20, said she attended about a half-dozen parties, and that after each, he handed her an envelope with up to 3,000 euros ($3,900) in denominations of 500. She said she later received 30,000 euros cash from the former premier paid through an intermediary — money that she told Berlusconi she wanted to use to open a beautician salon, despite having no formal training.

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Obama said that he made "no apologies" for being concerned about national security -- the context in which the Justice Department's surveillance of journalists was couched. The media shield law the White House has asked Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.,  to introduce specifically includes the caveat that the media shield will exclude reporters who publish leaks deemed to cause “significant harm” to national security. Obama commented today that while he valued a free, independent press, "Leaks related to national security can put people at risk, they can put men and women in uniform that I've sent into the battlefield at risk ... U.S. national security is dependent upon those folks being able to operate with confidence that folks back home have their backs, so they're not just left out there high and dry."

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The worst-hit city Wednesday was Granbury, where authorities say a deadly tornado tore through two neighborhoods about 8 p.m. Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds delivered the death toll at a midnight news conference.

"Some were found in houses. Some were found around houses," Deeds said. He also said the total could climb as crews pick through the rubble of shattered homes.

About 50 people were taken to a Granbury hospital, where 14 were admitted for treatment of injuries and two were transferred to a hospital in Fort Worth, about 35 miles to the northeast, Deeds said.

As many as 100 people were injured, said Matt Zavadsky, spokesman for MedStar Mobile Healthcare. His company sent three ambulances and a medical bus from its Fort Worth base to Granbury.

Deeds said officials were trying to account for 14 people, but it was not clear if they were missing or were away from the area for other reasons.

Hardest hit were two neighborhoods, Rancho Brazos Estates and DeCordova Ranch, in the southern end of the town of about 8,000 residents about 65 miles southwest of Dallas.

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Attorneys Craig Weintraub and Jay Schlachet (SCHLACK-et) tell WKYC-TV that suspect Ariel Castro has been portrayed as a "monster" in the media, and after meeting with him Tuesday they don't see him that way.

Weintraub says it's unfair and offensive that "the media and the community want to demonize this man before they know the whole story."

Schlachet says details of Castro's innocence "will be disclosed as the case progresses."

Weintraub also says Castro "loves dearly" the child he fathered with alleged kidnap victim Amanda Berry while she was in captivity.

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In 2008, he was near tears as he told a judge: "I didn't mean to steal anything from anybody ... I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of it."

This time he will get to say much more testifying for at least a day about a strange Las Vegas hotel room confrontation that sent him to prison.

There is no jury and his fate will be determined by Clark County District Judge Linda Marie Bell.

"He's been wanting to tell his story. He's excited about telling his story," said Simpson attorney Ozzie Fumo.

When he went to trial in 2008 on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping, Simpson did not testify - a decision that one of his lawyers said was pushed upon him by another attorney he trusted so completely that he took his bad advice.

"It's going to be a long day," said his co-counsel, Patricia Palm, "He's going to have to testify to every point in the petition. But they can't do a little mini-retrial."

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The Islamic prayer service was held a day after the army ended a nearly three-week, painstaking search for bodies among the rubble and turned control of the site over to the civilian government for cleanup.

Recovery workers got a shocking boost Friday when they pulled a 19-year-old seamstress alive from the wreckage. But most of their work entailed removing corpses that were so badly decomposed from the heat they could only be identified if their cellphones or work IDs were found with them. The last body was found Sunday night.

Soldiers in camouflage, police and firefighters in uniform stood solemnly in neat rows near relatives of the dead. Many of the rescue workers had pained expressions on their faces. Tears rolled down the cheeks of one soldier.

The mourners raised their cupped hands in prayer and asked for the salvation of those who lost their lives when the Rana Plaza building came crashing down on April 24. They also appealed for divine blessings for the injured still in the hospital.

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The Oscar-winning actress and partner to Brad Pitt made the announcement in the form of an op-ed she authored for Tuesday's New York Times (http://nyti.ms/17o4A0f ) under the headline, "My Medical Choice." She writes that between early February and late April she completed three months of surgical procedures to remove both breasts.

Jolie, 37, writes that she made the choice with thoughts of her six children after watching her own mother die too young from breast cancer.

"My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56," Jolie writes. "She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was."

She writes that, "They have asked if the same could happen to me."

Jolie said that after genetic testing she learned she carries the "faulty" BRCA1 gene and had an 87 percent chance of getting the disease herself.

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In an online video, astronaut Chris Hadfield sings the David Bowie song "Space Oddity" while floating around in zero gravity aboard the International Space Station.

The video features shots of a floating guitar that would look like a Hollywood special effect anywhere else. It also shows arresting images of the space station orbiting over Earth.

Hadfield and astronaut Thomas Marshburn are scheduled to return to Earth on Monday.

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