FARGO, N.D. — Shifting from confident to jittery, flood fighters in and around Fargo intensified their dike-building yesterday after a dire new forecast called for the Red River to swell to its highest level ever by Saturday.

Authorities used air boats, helicopters and large military trucks to rescue dozens of residents in the North Dakota towns of Oxbow and Abercombie. And if the rising river weren't enough to heighten anxiety, 8 inches of snow blew in with ice and wind to handicap sandbagging efforts and close highways not already swamped with floodwater.

Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker pleaded for more sandbag volunteers and urged exhausted crews to raise the dikes another foot — to 43 feet — before Saturday's expected crest of 41 feet.

TEST PILOT KILLED IN CRASH OF F-22A RAPTOR

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — One of the Air Force's top-of-the-line F-22 fighter jets crashed yesterday in the high desert of Southern California, killing a test pilot for prime contractor Lockheed Martin Corp.

The F-22A Raptor crashed at 10 a.m. about 35 miles northeast of Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert. The pilot was David Cooley, 49, a 21-year Air Force veteran who joined Lockheed Martin in 2003, the company said. It did not release any details of the accident, including whether Cooley attempted to eject.

The radar-evading F-22s each cost $140 million.

TRIAL BEGINS FOR FORMER TAIWAN PRESIDENT

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan's defiant former president stood in the dock of a Taipei courtroom today, as his multimillion dollar graft trial began amid high security and his claims that the charges were politically motivated.

Chen Shui-bian, 58, faces life imprisonment if convicted on charges of embezzling $3.12 million from a special presidential fund, receiving bribes worth at least $9 million in connection with a government land procurement deal, and laundering part of the funds by wiring the money to Swiss bank accounts.

He has insistently denied the charges against him, saying they are part of an effort by President Ma Ying-jeou and his Nationalist Party to curry favor with rival China.

Chen was replaced by Ma last May after serving eight years in office.

NO RESCUE FOR WHALES THIS TIME AROUND

SYDNEY — Veterinarians shot the last three of a group of whales that stranded themselves for a second time on a remote Australian coast, saying there was no hope of saving them this time. Three others in the group of six died before rescuers could reach them, an official said today.

The six long-finned pilot whales that died yesterday were part of a pod of 10 that rescuers guided back out to sea on Tuesday. But less than a day later, surveillance aircraft spotted the six on a beach about four miles away from where they had been released. Two were already dead and one died while environment officials and veterinarians were on the way to the area.

Veterinarians shot the remaining three surviving animals because they were in such poor condition. The whales were too large for lethal injections.

GUIDE MAY HAVE LED PAIR ACROSS BORDER

SEOUL, South Korea — Two American journalists being held by North Korea may have been led across the border from China by a guide promising them exclusive footage of human trafficking or drug deals, an activist who helped organize their trip said yesterday.

The Rev. Chun Ki-won says he warned Laura Ling and Euna Lee not to stray into North Korean territory in the days before their March 17 detention.

The guide and a third American, cameraman Mitch Koss, reportedly escaped arrest last week but were detained by Chinese border guards. Koss has left the country, China's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

MAN ALLEGEDLY PUT MOM'S BODY IN FREEZER

COLCHESTER, N.Y. — An upstate New York man has been accused of stashing his 98-year-old mother's dead body in a freezer in their home so he could keep cashing her Social Security checks.

State police say they discovered Herta Auslander's body in a freezer chest in October after receiving a tip she had died more than a year earlier. An autopsy concluded she died of natural causes.

Roland Auslander, 69, was arrested yesterday after a stakeout at his home in Cooks Falls. He's charged with grand larceny, unlawful disposal of a body and forgery.