WASHINGTON -- The White House's director of postwar policy for Iraq, who was instrumental in helping to set up an interim government to lead that country until elections can be held, is stepping down. Robert Blackwill, a former ambassador to India, has overseen Iraq strategy at the National Security Council since mid-2003. He decided "some time ago" to depart government service after the presidential election, a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saturday.

Illinois man convicted of having explosives

ROCKFORD, Ill. -- A man who amassed explosives and made a list of public figures who were "marked to die" because of their liberal and anti-gun stances was convicted Friday in federal court. A federal jury found 20-year-old Michael Breit guilty of illegally receiving explosives and illegally receiving explosive materials with intent to kill, injure, intimidate people or damage property. Breit was charged in April after he accidentally fired an AK-47 assault rifle in his apartment in Rockford, about 80 miles northwest of Chicago.

N.C. officials: 31 E. coli cases linked to state fair

RALEIGH, N.C. -- An outbreak of E. coli cases linked to last month's North Carolina State Fair is bigger than previously thought, with 31 confirmed cases and another 71 under review, health officials said Saturday. The Department of Health and Human Services said it was investigating 103 additional cases of illness that had not yet been confirmed as E. coli infection, up from 39 on Friday.

-- From wire reports