EVANSDALE, Iowa (AP) -- Investigators say they have evidence that leads them to believe two Iowa cousins who vanished last week are still alive.
FBI spokeswoman Sandy Breault said Saturday that authorities strongly believe 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey and 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins have not been killed.
She refused to say what led authorities to that conclusion, but told reporters that investigators are expanding their search beyond Iowa.
The announcement came a day after authorities said they believe the girls were abducted.
The girls vanished July 13 while riding their bikes near Meyers Lake in the northeast Iowa town of Evansdale. Their bikes were later found on a path near the lake.
Breault says investigators are interviewing "persons of interest" in the case, whom she declined to identify.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Gun control advocates sputter at their own impotence. The National Rifle Association is politically ascendant. And President Barack Obama pledges to safeguard the Second Amendment in his first official response to the deaths of at least 12 people in suburban Denver.
Once, every highly publicized outbreak of gun violence produced strong calls from Democrats and a few Republicans for tougher controls on firearms.
Now those pleas are muted.
It's been more than a decade since gun control advocates had a realistic hope of getting legislation passed.
In 1994, Congress approved a 10-year ban on military-style assault weapons. Some Democrats came to believe it contributed to their loss of the House months later.
By 2004, when the assault weapon ban lapsed, congressional Democrats made no serious attempt to pass an extension.

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Authorities say a police shooting that left a man dead escalated into a violent clash with witnesses throwing bottles at officers who responded by firing beanbag rounds.
Police Sgt. Bob Dunn says an officer shot the man in front of an apartment Saturday following a foot chase. He later died at a hospital.
Dunn said that as police were investigating at the scene, an angry group of people confronted officers and began throwing bottles at them. He said that as officers detained several people, the crowd advanced on officers so they fired tear gas and beanbag rounds at them.
Witness video broadcast on KCAL-TV showed a chaotic scene as police tried to disperse the crowd.
Dunn said he didn't know what led to the shooting.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Prosecutors in New Jersey have released the names of three children and a teenager killed along with an adult in a fast-moving apartment fire in Newark.
But the cause of the Friday blaze remained under investigation Saturday night.
Two siblings -- 2-year-old Javena Joseph and 3-year-old Javens Joseph -- were found dead in a third-floor apartment. Their parents and two other children were able to escape.
The man, 44-year-old Shelton Freeman, was found in another third-floor apartment, along with 5-year-old Angela Williams and 17-year-old Nazir Blackstone.
Essex County prosecutors say all five victims appear to have died of smoke inhalation.
Fire officials say the blaze started around 1:40 a.m. in a vacant house and quickly spread next door. Four other buildings were damaged. About 15 people were displaced.

OLD FORGE, N.Y. (AP) -- State troopers say a police officer in New York shot and killed his son, mistaking him for an intruder.
Troopers say Parry Police Department Officer Michael Leach called 911 to report the shooting early Saturday. He was staying at the Clark Beach Motel and shot someone he believed to be an intruder. But the man turned out to be his 37-year-old son, Matthew Leach, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard.
Troopers say Leach used his department-issued .45-caliber Glock handgun in the shooting. He was hospitalized after the shooting.
The investigation is continuing.