Police say a Bellevue man was dragged into a street when he tried to stop a thief from stealing his sport utility vehicle.

Omaha television station KETV reports  the incident began Wednesday morning when the man left his SUV running in his driveway to warm it up. When he came outside, another man had gotten into the SUV to steal it.

Police say the owner opened the driver’s door in an attempt to pull the man out, but was dragged off his feet and thrown across the street.

The owner called 911, and police chased the SUV through a city park. The thief abandoned the SUV and got away on foot.

The SUV, which was damaged after mowing down residential fences, was returned to its owner.

Federal appeals court judges seem skeptical of a group’s efforts to force the government to release photos and video taken of Osama bin Laden during and after a raid in which the terrorist leader was killed by U.S. commandos.

Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, is seeking the images through a Freedom of Information Act request. The Central Intelligence Agency found 52 responsive records, but withheld all of them, citing exemptions for classified materials and information specifically exempted by other laws.

Judicial Watch argued before a federal appeals court panel Thursday that the government didn’t provide a specific enough basis for denying the request. But Judge Merrick Garland said the government cited specific concerns that the images could be used by al Qaida for propaganda and to incite anti-American sentiment.

Herbalife came out swinging Thursday against claims made by hedge fund manager William Ackman that the business amounts to a pyramid scheme.

A series of executives looked to refute Ackman’s allegations during an analyst and investor meeting, laying out everything from how the business operates to who its customers are.

Critics have questioned the company’s business model, which uses a network of distributors to sell its nutritional supplements and weight-loss products in more than 80 countries.

The defense put forth by Herbalife Thursday comes a few weeks after Pershing Square Capital’s Ackman alleged Herbalife Ltd. was a pyramid scheme and that he was shorting the stock. Short-sellers make money when the shares they’re betting against decline.

The Food and Drug Administration is requiring makers of Ambien and similar sleeping pills to lower the dosage of their drugs, based on studies suggesting patients face a higher risk of injury due to morning drowsiness.

The agency says new research shows that the widely-used sleeping drugs remain in the blood at levels high enough to interfere with driving, which increases the risk of car accidents.

Regulators are ordering drug manufacturers to cut the dose of the medications in half for women, who process the drug more slowly. The FDA is also recommending that manufacturers use the lower doses for men, though it will not be mandatory.

The new doses apply to all insomnia treatments containing the drug zolpidem, which is sold under the brands Ambien, Edluar and Zolpimist.

A new report says the United States suffers far more violent deaths than any other wealthy nation, due in part to the widespread possession of firearms and the practice of storing them at home.

Gun violence is just one of many factors contributing to lower U.S. life expectancy, but the finding takes on urgency because the report comes less than a month after the shooting deaths of 20 children and six educators at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

The U.S. has about six violent deaths per 100,000 residents. None of the 16 other countries included in the review came close to that ratio.

For many years, Americans have been dying at younger ages than people in other wealthy countries. The U.S. also suffers high rates of drug-related deaths and infant mortality.

A national report says Nebraska was one of two states that experienced its hottest and driest year on record in 2012.

The  State of the Climate Report released Tuesday shows Nebraska and Wyoming broke their state records last year.

The National Climatic Data Center’s report shows the average annual U.S. temperature was 55.32 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s a full degree Fahrenheit warmer than the old 1998 record.

Iowa saw its second warmest year on record. It also had its 11th driest year.

U.S. temperature records go back to 1895. The yearly average is based on reports from more than 1,200 weather stations across the Lower 48 states.

Officials say a child from Lancaster County in southeast Nebraska has died from the flu.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday that the child’s death is the second attributed to the flu this season. A man in his 60s from Lancaster County also died earlier this season, though additional details were not available.

Health officials say children can be more susceptible to flu complications.

Officials have categorized the state’s flu level as widespread. That means cases have been reported in at least half the regions of the state, but it hasn’t peaked yet. Officials are calling it a heavy flu season for the state.

Officials say it’s not too late for people to get the flu vaccine.

A Nevada man caught hauling 136 pounds of pot through Nebraska in early 2011 has been sentenced to prison.

Lincoln media reports Michael Doyle, of Reno, Nev., was sentenced Tuesday to two to four years in prison. A Lancaster County judge dismissed his pleas for probation.

A Nebraska state trooper confiscated the drugs during a March 2011 traffic stop on Interstate 80 in Lincoln. Two pounds of hashish and a gun also were found in the truck.

Doyle later pleaded no contest to possession of more than a pound of marijuana and intent to deliver hashish.

Two more light earthquakes have been recorded near the spot where a major temblor struck over the weekend in Southeast Alaska.

The Alaska Earthquake Information Center say a magnitude 4.7 quake occurred Tuesday night, after a magnitude 4.0 quake earlier in the day.

The center says the evening quake was felt in Craig, Petersburg and Kupreanof and was centered 72 miles west of Craig. There were no immediate damage reports.

The earlier quake was centered 98 miles west-northwest of Craig.

Both were close to where Saturday’s powerful magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck. That earthquake prompted a tsunami warning for hundreds of miles of coastline in Alaska and Canada.

The alert was canceled when no damaging waves were generated.

The earthquake center says several aftershocks have occurred since Saturday.