A Philadelphia building that was being torn down collapsed with a thunderous boom Wednesday, raining bricks on a neighboring thrift store, killing six people and injuring at least 13 others in an accident that witnesses said was bound to happen.

Early reports from Mayor Michael Nutter had been that one woman had died in the Wednesday morning accident, but rescuers using buckets and their bare hands to move bricks and rubble kept working through the evening. Body bags were removed from the collapse site at night, and Nutter said at a news conference that authorities didn't know how many people had been in the thrift shop or on the sidewalk.

Bob Edwards was born before the first Model T rolled out of Henry Ford's factory in Detroit. He learned to drive in a French car that had a lever instead of a steering wheel. And he's still on the road, only now in a red four-wheel-drive Mitsubishi.

The oldest licensed driver in New Zealand, and one of the oldest in the world, has been driving for 88 of his 105 years and has no plans to give it up, just as he intends to keep working out every morning in his home gym, and to keep regularly cooking meals for himself and his wife, who's 91.

An aspiring half-marathon runner attributed her unbearable back pain to a two-hour training session. A day later, she was cradling a newborn.

Trish Staine, 33, says she had no idea she was pregnant before Monday's surprise birth. The Duluth mother of three said she hadn't gained any weight or felt fetal movement in the months before. And besides, her husband had a vasectomy.

The United States on Wednesday condemned a Hizbullah-backed assault on the Syrian town of Qusayr, saying the party's involvement threatens Lebanon's stability.

A White House statement condemned the Syrian regime's attack on the town, "which has killed untold numbers of civilians and is causing tremendous humanitarian suffering.”

The European Union's executive arm has given tiny Latvia the go-ahead to become the 18th country to join the troubled euro currency union next year.

EU officials say that Latvia's desire to join is a vote of confidence in the shared currency and disproves predictions that the eurozone might break up. The current 17-country group has struggled since 2009 with too much government debt, compounded now by a slack economy.

An Oregon company is recalling a frozen berry mix sold to Costco and Harris Teeter stores after the product has been linked to at least 49 hepatitis A illnesses in seven states.

The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that Townsend Farms of Fairview, Ore., is recalling its frozen Organic Antioxidant Blend, packaged under the Townsend Farms label at Costco and under the Harris Teeter brand at those stores.

NASA is preparing to launch its latest sun-monitoring satellite on a mission to improve space weather prediction.

The Iris satellite will observe a little-studied region of the sun that emits ultraviolet light. Scientists hope examining the sun's lower atmosphere would help them learn more about how this region drives solar wind and powers the corona, the sun's outer atmosphere seen during eclipses.

Software giant Microsoft has unveiled the updated version of its Windows 8 operating system at the world's second-largest computer show in Taipei.

Tami Reller, chief financial and marketing officer of the company's Windows Division, said that Windows 8.1 would be available on both PCs and tablets later this year.

A U.S. trade agency on Tuesday issued a ban on imports of Apple's iPhone 4 and a variant of the iPad 2 after finding the devices violate a patent held by South Korean rival Samsung Electronics.

Because the devices are assembled in China, the import ban would end Apple's ability to sell them in the U.S.

South Korea needed an equalizer in the seventh minute of injury time to earn a 1-1 draw with 10-man Lebanon in a 2014 World Cup qualifier on Tuesday.

Hassan Maatouk put the hosts ahead in the 12th minute after some poor defending allowed the forward to collect the ball before firing low and hard past goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong.