NEW YORK — Wall Street's deepening fears about a spreading credit crunch sent stocks plunging again Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrials extending their series of triple-digit swings and falling more than 380 points. The catalyst for the market's latest skid: a French bank's announcement that it was freezing three funds that invested in U.S. subprime mortgages.

The announcement by BNP Paribas raised the specter of a widening impact of U.S. credit market problems. The idea that anyone — institutions, investors, companies, individuals — can't get money when they need it unnerved a stock market that has suffered through weeks of volatility triggered by concerns about tight credit and bad subprime mortgages.

A move by the European Central Bank to provide more cash to money markets intensified Wall Street's angst. Although the bank's loan of more than $130 billion in overnight funds to banks at a low rate of 4 percent was intended to calm investors, Wall Street saw it as confirmation of the credit markets' problems. It was the ECB's biggest injection ever.

The Federal Reserve added a larger-than-normal $24 billion in temporary reserves to the U.S. banking system.

The concerns that arose in Europe and spilled onto Wall Street underscored the potential worldwide ramifications of an implosion of some subprime loans and perhaps also weakened arguments that strength in the global economy could help keep profit growth going in the U.S. among large companies that do business overseas.

AP IMPACT: Army may soon offer home buying, business seed money bonuses for new recruits

WASHINGTON — Need a down-payment for your home? Seed money to start a business? The Army wants to help — if you're willing to join up.

Despite spending nearly $1 billion last year on recruiting bonuses and ads, Army leaders say an even bolder approach is needed to fill wartime ranks.

Under a new proposal, men and women who enlist could pick from a "buffet" of incentives, including up to $45,000 tax-free that they accrue during their career to help buy a home or build a business. Other options would include money for college and to pay off student loans.

An Associated Press review of the increasingly aggressive recruiting offerings found the Army is not only dangling more sign-up rewards — it's loosening rules on age and weight limits, education and drug and criminal records.

It's all part of an Army effort to fill its ranks even as the percentage of young people who say they plan to join the military has hit a historic low — 16 percent by the Pentagon's own surveying — in the fifth year of the Iraq war.

Bush prods Musharraf to hold free elections, share intelligence, crack down on terrorists

WASHINGTON — President Bush said Thursday that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, his embattled war-on-terror partner, must hold free presidential elections, share intelligence and take "swift action" against terrorist leaders pinpointed in his country.

Bush, at a news conference, spent 45 minutes answering questions on an unusually broad set of issues. They ranged from Iran's role in Iraq, last week's bridge collapse in Minnesota, the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, a plunge in the home-mortgage market, the possible closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, tax policy and accountability in his administration.

Holding the session just before leaving Washington to spend much of the rest of the month on vacation and traveling, the president took a sharp parting shot at the Democratic-led Congress, which began an August recess last weekend.

"The problem in Congress is they have trouble actually focusing on priorities," Bush said. "The role of the president, it seems to me, is to help Congress focus on that which is important."

The White House and Congress are feuding over the dozen spending bills needed to fund the federal government's operations after the current fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.

If they survived, Utah miners would listen for rescue in darkness

HUNTINGTON, Utah — If the six trapped miners are alive, they may be sitting in inky darkness, their headlamps having burned out. Wearing thin work clothes in the 58-degree cold, they could be chilled to the bone if water is seeping into their chamber 150 stories below ground. How much air they might have is anyone's guess.

On Thursday, more than three days after the thunderous cave-in, a drilling rig on the mountain above the Crandall Canyon mine closed in on the men, trying to bore a hole a mere 2› inches wide to bring them air and lower a two-way communications device and a tiny camera to check for signs of life.

"We may get no noise," cautioned Bob Murray, part-owner of the mine. "They may be dead."

The drilling rig was erected 1,869 feet above the presumed location of the men and had drilled down 1,530 feet by late morning. It was expected to punch through late in the afternoon, Murray said.

But he warned that things could go wrong, including equipment breakdowns and the possibility the drill was off target. "We may not come out in the mine where we want to be. We may come out in a solid pillar and have to start all over again," Murray said.

Searchers find 2 more Minn. bridge collapse victims, bringing death toll to 7

MINNEAPOLIS — Searchers found two more bodies Thursday in the wreckage of the interstate bridge, bringing the death toll to seven with at least six missing more than a week after the bridge crumbled into the Mississippi River, authorities said.

Crews have been searching the site for the past week for eight people missing and presumed dead in the Aug. 1 collapse.

Dave Hayhoe, the police homicide unit commander, announced the recoveries ahead of a briefing on the investigation. He said the bodies were recovered by divers, but he gave no other information.

"Right now the first priority is notifying the families," Hayhoe said.

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office said the first body was found shortly after noon and wasn't immediately identified.

Monster truck plows into crowd of spectators in Illinois, injuring at least 9

DEKALB, Ill. — A monster truck performing stunts in front of an auto parts store plowed into a crowd of spectators Thursday, injuring at least nine people, officials said.

All were in fair condition at hospitals, and one person was being evaluated for possible admission, said Sharon Emanuelson, a spokeswoman for Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb.

Another three people refused medical treatment, Fire Chief Lanny Russell told The Daily Chronicle of DeKalb.

As part of the demonstration in a monster truck tour sponsored by Napa Auto Parts, the truck drove over and crushed four cars.

"After its third or fourth attempt of rolling over the cars, and getting back down to the street, it appeared to have lost control and at that point careened off to the left into part of the crowd that was watching the event," said City Manager Mark Biernacki.

Clinton's comments last year on nuclear weapons appear at odds with criticism of Obama

NEW YORK — Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, who chastised rival Barack Obama for ruling out the use of nuclear weapons in the war on terror, did just that when asked about Iran a year ago.

"I would certainly take nuclear weapons off the table," she said in April 2006.

Her views expressed while she was gearing up for a presidential run stand in conflict with her comments this month regarding Obama, who faced heavy criticism from leaders of both parties, including Clinton, after saying it would be "a profound mistake" to deploy nuclear weapons in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"There's been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That's not on the table," he said.

Clinton, who has tried to cast her rival as too inexperienced for the job of commander in chief, said of Obama's stance on Pakistan: "I don't believe that any president should make any blanket statements with respect to the use or non-use of nuclear weapons."

Foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain highlights danger of accidental spread of disease from labs

LONDON — Foot-and-mouth disease is so highly contagious — and such a threat to farm economies — that the United States won't allow researchers to work with the virus on the mainland. But in Britain, a lab making foot-and-mouth vaccines was located near herds of cattle and may have been the cause of a new outbreak.

Foot-and-mouth disease does not typically infect humans, but its appearance among farm animals can have a swift and far-reaching economic impact — several countries, including the United States, have banned imports of British livestock, and Britain has suspended exports of livestock, meat and milk products and destroyed more than 100 cows since the outbreak was discovered last week.

Britain's health and safety agency says there was a "strong probability" the outbreak originated at the Pirbright laboratory southwest of London and was spread by human movement. The laboratory houses both a government Institute for Animal Health research center and vaccine-maker Merial Animal Health.

Lab accidents have resulted in human cases of everything from meningitis to Ebola, but are rare and most are self-contained. Still, diseases that can kill humans have made it out of labs.

"With the amount of virus there is in laboratories around the world, I'm surprised that this kind of thing doesn't happen more often," said Dr. Juan Lubroth, head of infectious diseases at the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Britney Spears hits a car while parking, owner then sees it all on paparazzi video

LOS ANGELES — Oops, she dinged it again. Paparazzi took pictures and videos of a puppy-toting Britney Spears steering her car into another one as she tried to turn into a spot in a Studio City parking lot. Then assessing the damage to her own car only. Then heading off to shop.

But the tale of the tape made it clear to the owner of the parked car just who it was who scraped up her silver Mercedes-Benz.

Kim Robard-Rifkin, 59, told the entertainment Web site CelebTV.com on Wednesday that nobody from Spears' camp had contacted her about the damaged car.

"It's sad because I was really hoping she'd step up and be a mensch, be a human being," Robard-Rifkin said. "It was simply like my car didn't matter to her, my inconvenience didn't matter to her."

A video on CelebTV.com, taken Monday, shows the 25-year-old pop star (with a puppy on her lap) attempting to park her black convertible and hitting the adjacent car.

Fan favorite John Daly grips it and rips it and finds himself in the lead at PGA Championship

TULSA, Okla. — John Daly prepared for the PGA Championship by pulling slot machine handles. He dealt with the oppressive heat by smoking cigarettes and loading up on caffeine. Ask him how he became the leader after the first round and Daly's answer is honest: "I have no idea."

This was no heat-induced hallucination, golf fans. That was Daly's name atop the leaderboard Thursday at the PGA, a result as surprising to him as those who watched him sweating through his round of 3-under 67 at steamy Southern Hills.

"I can't remember, to tell you the truth," he said when asked to recount his birdies in the 95-plus-degree heat. "I only had like three heat strokes out there."

One thing was certain: The solid play that left him the clubhouse leader midway through Thursday's round, a shot ahead of Arron Oberholser and four clear of Tiger Woods came without the benefit of practice.