ANCHORAGE (AP) - Crews aboard two aircraft flew over an oil drilling ship Tuesday that went aground in a severe Alaska storm and saw no sign that the vessel was leaking fuel or that its hull had been breached.

ANCHORAGE - The beluga whales that swim in Cook Inlet off Alaska's largest city are continuing to struggle and appear headed for extinction if nothing changes, a government official said Friday.

ANCHORAGE - The Coast Guard was waiting for daylight Tuesday to see if an Alaska storm had abated enough to allow for flights over a drilling rig that ran aground in shallow water off a small island. About 250 people from the Coast Guard, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, state responders and others were involved in a response effort and waiting to know for sure what environmental impact the grounding might have caused.

ANCHORAGE - Authorities were trying to determine Monday what occurred along a major highway when a traffic stop for erratic driving ended with a woman being wounded during a shootout with an Alaska trooper. Troopers gave chase after receiving reports Sunday evening that a woman was driving erratically and firing a gun from a yellow sport utility vehicle on Sterling Highway on the Kenai Peninsula. An Alaska wildlife trooper tried to stop the SUV near Happy Valley, but the driver kept going then slowed the vehicle.

ANCHORAGE - A Canada-based mining company eyeing development of a huge copper and gold deposit near one of the world's premier salmon fisheries said Tuesday that $107 million has been allocated to prepare the mine for permitting later this year. Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. said the Pebble Mine project should be ready for permitting this fall in a process that could take several years. The 2012 work project money will be used to provide a detailed description of the proposed project.

NOME - Crews worked to build a path Sunday over a half-mile of Bering Sea ice for the final leg of a Russian tanker's mission to deliver fuel to a town isolated amid one of the most severe Alaska winters in decades. The tanker was moored roughly a half-mile from Nome's harbor after a Coast Guard cutter cleared a path for it through hundreds of miles of a slow journey stalled by thick ice and strong ocean currents.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- An unusual Bering Sea storm packing hurricane-force winds and 35-foot waves -- a type of storm not seen for decades in Alaska -- moved rapidly Tuesday toward the western Alaska coastline.The storm was traveling at 60 mph and had reached the western Aleutian Islands, said Andy Brown, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in Anchorage.The storm could reach the beachfront city of Nome by late Tuesday, with winds hitting 85 mph.

ANCHORAGE (AP) - Shifting ice in the Bering Sea is dramatically slowing a Russian tanker's mission to deliver fuel to an iced-in Alaska community. A Coast Guard spokesman said Monday that an icebreaker and a fuel tanker are encountering "some really dynamic ice" that is slowing the mission and sometimes forcing both vessels to come to a complete stop. But, "As long as we're making progress, we're going to Nome," said Anchorage Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class David Mosley.

ANCHORAGE - Rat Island was once over-run with rats. But with the rats dead and gone after having eaten grain pellets laced with poison, two Alaska Native groups say it's time for a name-change. They want the island to have back its original Aleut name: Hawadax.

ANCHORAGE - A body found near a lake north of Anchorage is not that of a barista missing for nearly two months after being kidnapped from a coffee stand, police said Wednesday. The body found by a person snowshoeing in a state park Tuesday evening is male, police department spokesman Dave Parker said Wednesday. The discovery of the remains led to speculation that it was 18-year-old Samantha Koenig. The young woman has not been seen since Feb. 1 when a surveillance camera captured images of her being led away from the coffee shack by a man who police believe was armed.