NEW YORK (Reuters) - Thousands of workers who suffered health problems after the September 11 attacks in 2001 have reached a settlement worth up to $657.5 million with an insurer representing the city of New York, city officials and lawyers said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many states have used funds from the $863 billion U.S. economic stimulus plan to help give a rising number of poor families emergency cash assistance, the Government Accountability Office said on Thursday.

DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Unprecedented discounts after a series of damaging recalls boosted Toyota Motor Corp's U.S. sales in early March, as U.S. regulators weighed new auto safety measures.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States boosted its investigation of tax and other financial crimes by about 10 percent last year, tax authorities reported on Thursday, amid an increased push to pursue wealthy tax cheats.

ANKENY, Iowa (Reuters) - A coalition of family farmers, consumers and other critics of corporate agriculture on Thursday called on the U.S. government to crack down on what they see as unfair consolidation of the nation's food system into the hands of a few multinationals.

DENVER (Reuters) - A member of a Denver-area Crips street gang was convicted on Thursday in the 2007 murder of Denver Broncos football player Darrent Williams after an altercation at a local nightclub.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former New Orleans police detective who now works as a U.S. immigration agent has pleaded guilty to helping cover up the shooting deaths of two people by police days after Hurricane Katrina, the Justice Department said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A growing number of Americans, nearly half the country, think global warming worries are exaggerated and more people doubt that scientific warnings of severe environmental fallout will ever occur, according to a new Gallup poll.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A schoolteacher found dead this week near a remote Alaska village was probably killed by wolves, Alaska State Troopers said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A California sushi chef and the restaurant in which he worked have been charged with illegally serving meat from an endangered Sei whale, the Justice Department said on Thursday.