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U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords arrived in North Carolina on Sunday to undergo "intensive" rehabilitation as she continues her recovery from being shot in the head in a mass shooting in January, her office said.

Morgan Stanley’s chairman John Mack will step down as chairman and leave the board of directors at the end of 2011. The widely expected move brings an end to a storied Wall Street career for Mack. The North Carolina native was CEO of Morgan Stanley from 2005 to 2009. Current CEO James Gorman will take over the chairman’s role.

A North Carolina man was convicted Saturday of second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of eight people at a nursing home in 2009, meaning he will not be eligible for the death penalty. The jury deliberated for two days before reaching the verdict against Robert Stewart, a 47-year-old disabled painter and National Guard veteran whose estranged wife worked at the facility.

Naiyana Patel, 33, is said to have killed her daughters, aged seven and four in Asheville, North Carolina, then tried to take her own life after a failed pregnancy.

From North Carolina to Pennsylvania, Hurricane Irene appeared to have fallen short of the doomsday predictions. But with rivers still rising, and roads impassable because of high water and fallen trees, it could be days before the full extent of the damage is known. More than 4.5 million homes and businesses along the coast lost power, and at least 14 deaths were blamed on the storm.

Airlines are scrapping more than 9,000 flights this weekend from North Carolina to Boston.

After pounding the Carolinas Saturday morning, Hurricane Irene churned up the Eastern Seaboard Saturday night with a fury that left at least eight people dead and 1.4 million homes and businesses without power.

New York became the latest state to declare a state of emergency in a scramble to get ahead of Hurricane Irene as the storm prepares to make a potentially deadly drive up the East Coast. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's declaration Thursday follows those of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue - whose state is projected to take the first hit Saturday when Hurricane Irene makes landfall in the U.S. - limited her declaration to counties east of Interstate 95.

With Hurricane Irene approaching, evacuations began on a tiny barrier island off North Carolina early Wednesday in a test of whether people in the crosshairs of the first serious hurricane along the East Coast in years would heed orders to get out of the way....

Projections have the storm, with potential wind speeds of 131 m.p.h., landing on the coast of North Carolina by this weekend.