Romney, Santorum swap charges in fiery 20th debate (AP)
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:27:37 GMT
AP - Primed for a fight, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum swapped heated accusations about the health care, earmarks and federal bailouts Wednesday night in the 20th and possibly final debate of the roller-coaster race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Poll: Obama benefitting from improving economy (AP)
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:29:52 GMT
AP - President Barack Obama is reaping political benefits from the country's brighter economic mood. A new poll shows that Republicans and Democrats alike are increasingly saying the nation is heading in the right direction and most independents now approve the way he's addressing the nation's post-recession period.

Shelling kills 2 Western journalists in Syria (AP)
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:29:58 GMT
AP - Syrian gunners pounded an opposition stronghold where the last dispatches from a veteran American-born war correspondent chronicled the suffering of civilians caught in the relentless shelling. An intense morning barrage killed her and a French photojournalist — two of 74 deaths reported Wednesday in Syria.

Newark mayor: NYPD Muslim files 'deeply offensive' (AP)
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:30:07 GMT
AP - The mayor and police director of New Jersey's largest city said Wednesday the New York Police Department misled their city and never told them it was conducting a widespread spying operation on Newark's Muslim neighborhoods. Had they known, they said, they never would have allowed it.

2nd degree murder verdict in lacrosse death trial (AP)
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:24:08 GMT
AP - Jurors found a former University of Virginia lacrosse player guilty of second-degree murder Wednesday in the drunken, jealousy-fueled slaying of his ex-girlfriend, rejecting a verdict of first-degree murder and a possible life sentence.

Police: Girl forced to run 3 hours dies; 2 charged (AP)
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:26:34 GMT
AP - At a doublewide trailer along a dirt road in rural Alabama, authorities say 9-year-old Savannah Hardin was forced to run for three hours as punishment for having lied to her grandmother about eating candy bars. The severely dehydrated girl had a seizure and her death days later was ruled a homicide.

Teenage girl dies after inhaling helium at party (AP)
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:26:35 GMT
AP - Last weekend, 14-year-old Ashley Long told her parents she was going to a slumber party. But instead of spending the night watching videos and eating popcorn two blocks away, she piled into a car with a bunch of her friends and rode to a condo in Medford, Ore., where police say the big sister of one of her friends was throwing a party with booze and marijuana.

Police say love triangle led to CA murder-suicide (AP)
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:26:38 GMT
AP - A 73-year-old gunman entangled in a love triangle shot and killed the treasurer of a remote-controlled airplane club who police said was having an affair with the estranged wife of the attacker.

Cowell: 'X Factor' wants 2 female judges, 2 hosts (AP)
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:22:50 GMT
AP - Simon Cowell is playing it coy about rumors that Fergie, Britney Spears and Janet Jackson are being considered for "The X Factor."

Man's childhood comic collection fetches $3.5M (AP)
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:22:51 GMT
AP - Billy Wright plunked down dime after dime for comic books while growing up in the late 1930s and early 1940s, caring for the collection he started around the age of 9 until his death more than half a century later. On Wednesday, most of that collection sold for a whopping $3.5 million.