• 
  FACT CHECK: Obama off on thrifty spending claim

  The White House is aggressively pushing the idea that, contrary to widespread belief, President Barack Obama is tightfisted with taxpayer dollars. To back it up, the administration cites a media report that claims federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since the Eisenhower years.

• 
  NJ man charged with murdering NY boy Patz in 1979

  Thirty-three years to the day after 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished without a trace while walking to catch a school bus, a man accused of strangling him and dumping his body with the trash was arraigned on a murder charge on Friday in a locked hospital ward where he was being held as a suicide risk.

• 
  More travelers to hit the road this Memorial Day

  More Americans will hit the road this holiday weekend than a year ago. And they'll have a bit more money to spend thanks to lower gas prices.

• 
  Dragon makes history with space station docking

  The private company SpaceX made history Friday with the docking of its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, the most impressive feat yet in turning routine spaceflight over to the commercial sector.

• 
  Activists: Troops kills up to 50 in central Syria

  President Bashar Assad's forces killed at least 50 civilians, including 13 children, in central Syria on Friday, activists said, in one of the highest death tolls in one specific area since an internationally-brokered cease-fire went into effect last month.

• House experience a minus for some Senate hopefuls

  U.S. House members who are trying to make the step up to the Senate this year are finding themselves on the defensive about Washington experience that traditionally has been a big asset.

• 
  Typical CEO made $9.6M last year, AP study finds

  Profits at big U.S. companies broke records last year, and so did pay for CEOs.

• 
  What's an American Indian? Warren case stirs query

  What, exactly, makes someone American Indian? Even Indians themselves don't agree as they debate the case of Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, whose disputed claim of Native American identity is shining a rare spotlight on the malleable nature of Indian heritage and the long history of murky claim to such ancestry.

• 
  Pa. mother charged with killing her toddler twins

  A woman was charged Friday with killing her 18-month-old twins, named Adam and Eve, in the family home. Police said she also attempted suicide by cutting her wrists.

• 
  'Idol' moves toward lower payouts for runners-up

  Coming in second on "American Idol" may still be a path to superstardom, but it no longer offers guaranteed paychecks worthy of the next pop idol or rock star.

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• Egyptians vote to pick president for first time

  Egyptians began voting freely on Wednesday for the first time to pick their president in a wide open election that pits Islamists against men who served under deposed leader Hosni Mubarak.

• Euro zone officials agree to prepare for Greek exit scenario

  Euro zone officials have agreed that each euro zone country must prepare an individual contingency plan in the eventuality that Greece decides to leave the single currency area, two eurozone officials said on Wednesday.

• 
  Bankia, Catalonia pile on Spanish debt worries

  Financial troubles at a big Spanish bank and one of the country's richest regions, Catalonia, piled on problems on Friday for the Madrid government and for investors who question whether it can pay its debts without help from euro zone allies.

• Syrian forces kill 50 in Homs province: opposition group

  At least 50 people, including 13 children, were killed when Syrian forces tried to break into the town of Houla in Homs province on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activists said.

• 
  Murder arraignment 33 years after New York boy vanished

  A man who confessed to strangling Etan Patz faced arraignment for murder on Friday, exactly 33 years after the 6-year-old boy vanished from his New York neighborhood and soon changed the way the nation responds to missing children.

• IAEA finds higher-grade uranium trace in Iran: sources

  U.N. nuclear inspectors have found uranium traces in an Iranian underground site refined to a somewhat higher level than the enrichment work normally done there, but still well below the weapons-grade threshold, diplomatic sources said on Friday.

• 
  Astronauts snare SpaceX Dragon capsule: NASA

  Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon cargo ship on Friday, the first privately owned vehicle to reach the orbital outpost.

• Housing market recovery gains traction

  The U.S. spring home-selling season got off to a strong start in April, with rising sales and prices providing evidence that a housing market recovery was gaining some traction.

• 
  Exclusive: U.S. probes China's ZTE over tech sales to Iran

  The Department of Commerce is investigating Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp for allegedly selling embargoed U.S. computer products to Iran.

• 
  Jury deliberates sixth day in John Edwards' trial

  Jurors began their sixth day of deliberations on Friday in former Senator John Edwards' federal campaign finance case, with hundreds of trial exhibits at their disposal to help decide the ex-presidential candidate's fate.

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• 
  Police: Ind. gunman shoots self, taken to hospital

  A gunman looking for someone he believed owed him money shot himself inside an Indiana real estate office, where he'd held hostages for several hours earlier, and was taken to a hospital, police said Friday.

• 
  Typical CEO made $9.6M last year, AP study finds

  Profits at big U.S. companies broke records last year, and so did pay for CEOs.

• 
  NJ man charged with murdering NY boy Patz in 1979

  Thirty-three years to the day after 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished without a trace while walking to catch a school bus, a man accused of strangling him and dumping his body with the trash was arraigned on a murder charge on Friday in a locked hospital ward where he was being held as a suicide risk.

• 
  Hurricane Bud roars toward Mexican coast

  Hurricane Bud weakened Friday as it headed toward a string of laid-back beach resorts and small mountain villages on Mexico's Pacific coast south of Puerto Vallarta. Two people, one of them from France, were reported missing in a separate storm in Cuba.

• Raid admiral's toughest fight: winning Washington

  The commander in charge of the raid to kill Osama bin Laden is defending his proposal that would give him more authority to send special operations forces overseas to address problems like terrorists or sudden Arab Spring-style unrest.

• 
  50 years on, fire still burns underneath Pa. town

  Fifty years ago on Sunday, a fire at the town dump ignited an exposed coal seam, setting off a chain of events that eventually led to the demolition of nearly every building in Centralia — a whole community of 1,400 simply gone.

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  Edwards juror issue arises; case stops for weekend

  The judge in the John Edwards trial abruptly closed the courtroom Friday to talk to attorneys about an issue with a juror and sent the panel home after six days of deliberations with a stern warning not to talk about the case.

• Biden recalls pain after death of wife, daughter

  Visibly pained, Vice President Joe Biden recalls the wrenching sorrow of losing his first wife and his daughter to a car accident in 1972.

• 
  Dragon makes history with space station docking

  The private company SpaceX made history Friday with the docking of its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, the most impressive feat yet in turning routine spaceflight over to the commercial sector.

• 
  Sandusky charity to shut down, transfer programs

  The charity for troubled youths started by Jerry Sandusky more than three decades ago — and through which the retired Penn State assistant football coach met the boys he is charged with sexually abusing — said Friday it is seeking court approval to shut down and transfer its programs to a Texas-basd youth ministry that serves abused and neglected children.

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• 
  Egypt results point to deeply divisive runoff race

  The Muslim Brotherhood's candidate and a veteran of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak's autocratic regime will face each other in a runoff election for Egypt's president, according to first-round results Friday. The divisive showdown dismayed many Egyptians who fear either one means an end to any democraic gains produced by last year's uprising.

• 
  Activists: Troops kills up to 50 in central Syria

  President Bashar Assad's forces killed at least 50 civilians, including 13 children, in central Syria on Friday, activists said, in one of the highest death tolls in one specific area since an internationally-brokered cease-fire went into effect last month.

• 
  UN agency finds higher enrichment at Iranian site

  Inspectors have located radioactive traces at an Iranian underground bunker, the U.N. atomic agency said Friday — a finding that could mean Iran has moved closer to reaching the uranium threshold needed to arm nuclear missiles.

• 
  New telescope to be in South Africa, Australia

  Australia and South Africa will share hosting of a giant radio telescope made up of thousands of separate dishes and intended to help scientists figure out the make-up of the universe, the international consortium overseeing the project announced Friday.

• Ex-Senegalese president denies he stole cars, art

  The ex-president of Senegal won praise from around the world earlier this year when he gracefully conceded defeat, even picking up the phone to congratulate his longtime rival, a move that momentarily erased the memories of a violent election season.

• 
  Exclusive: China leadership rules Bo case isolated, limits purge: sources

  Chinese President Hu Jintao has demanded senior Communist Party officials stifle tensions over the ousting of ambitious politician Bo Xilai and show unity as they prepare for a change of leadership, sources briefed on recent meetings said.

• Egyptians vote to pick president for first time

  Egyptians began voting freely on Wednesday for the first time to pick their president in a wide open election that pits Islamists against men who served under deposed leader Hosni Mubarak.

• Syrian forces kill 50 in Homs province: opposition group

  At least 50 people, including 13 children, were killed when Syrian forces tried to break into the town of Houla in Homs province on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activists said.

• Exclusive: Syria grain trade signals alarm for Assad

  Syria is struggling to meet its grain import needs because of sanctions, raising the risk of bread shortages that could sap public support for President Bashar al-Assad as he tries to snuff out a 15-month-old uprising.

• 
  Exclusive: U.S. probes China's ZTE over tech sales to Iran

  The Department of Commerce is investigating Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp for allegedly selling embargoed U.S. computer products to Iran.

More

• FACT CHECK: Obama off on thrifty spending claim

  The White House is aggressively pushing the idea that, contrary to widespread belief, President Barack Obama is tightfisted with taxpayer dollars.

• House experience a minus for some Senate hopefuls

  U.S. House members who are trying to make the step up to the Senate this year are finding themselves on the defensive about Washington experience that traditionally has been a big asset.

• 
  FACT CHECK: Romney off on Obama's love for unions

  When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney decried President Barack Obama as beholden to the nation's teachers' unions and unable to stand up for reform, he glossed over four years of a relationship that has been anything but cozy.

• 
  Obama strikes at Romney in Iowa, seeks 2008 energy

  President Barack Obama delivered his harshest rebuttal yet to rival Mitt Romney on Thursday, dismissing his challenger's claims as "a cowpie of distortions" while seeking to rekindle the all-but-faded Iowa magic that launched him in 2008. Escalating his criticism of Romney's background as a venturecapitalist, Obama said it wasn't adequate preparation for the presidency.

• 
  Romney running mate search enters audition phase

  Mitt Romney's vice presidential search has entered a new phase: auditions.

• 
  THE RACE: Presidential race is most costly ever

  The battle between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney will be the most expensive presidential contest ever — by a long shot.

• Pool access for the disabled sparks controversy

  The Obama administration is sidestepping an election-year confrontation with the hotel industry and other pool owners to give them more time to comply with access rules for the disabled.

• 
  Texas Senate race a new test for GOP establishment

  The story line on the Republican Senate race in Texas is a now familiar one: A veteran politician supported by the GOP establishment is challenged by a young insurgent backed by national conservative groups.

• 
  GOP's Rubio plans to sell books in swing states

  Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is planning a swing-state summer bus tour that will also roll through South Carolina, the early presidential primary battleground.

• 
  AdWatch: Romney "day one" vows oversimplify

  TITLE: "Day One: Part Two."

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• German doctors apologize for Nazi-era crimes

  Germany's medical association has adopted a declaration apologizing for sadistic experiments and other actions of doctors under the Nazis.

• Pool access for the disabled sparks controversy

  The Obama administration is sidestepping an election-year confrontation with the hotel industry and other pool owners to give them more time to comply with access rules for the disabled.

• 
  P&G to add latches to make detergent packs safer

  The maker of Tide Pods will create a new double-latch lid to deter children from accessing and eating the brightly colored detergent packets, a company spokesman said Friday.

• 
  Missouri opts for untested drug for executions

  The same anesthetic that caused the overdose death of pop star Michael Jackson is now the drug of choice for executions in Missouri, causing a stir among critics who question how the state can guarantee a drug untested for lethal injection won't cause pain and suffering for the condemned.

• 
  Man says Ore. psychiatrist told him he wasn't gay

  Max Hirsh says he sensed something wasn't quite right when the psychiatrist focused on his failures with sports and teenage girls, as well as his deficient relationships with older men, particularly his father.

• Report: State tobacco prevention funding lacking

  States have spent only about 3 percent of the billions they've received in tobacco taxes and legal settlements over the last decade to fund tobacco prevention programs, making it harder to reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco use, according to a report released Thursday by the federal Ceners for Disease Control and Prevention.

• 
  A smoke-free country? New Zealand taxes aim for it

  There are smoke-free bars, smoke-free parks, even smoke-free college campuses. But a smoke-free country?

• Food stamp fraud raising concerns in gov't offices

  Food stamp recipients are ripping off the government for millions of dollars by illegally selling their benefit cards for cash — sometimes even in the open, on eBay or Craigslist — and then asking the government for replacement cards.

• UN: Fukushima workers' deaths not from radiation

  A year after an earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima disaster, a United Nations agency preparing a report on the health effects says none of the six former reactor workers who have died since the catastrophe perished due to the effects of radiation.

• 
  Born to run barefoot? Some end up getting injured

  Swept by the barefoot running craze, ultramarathoner Ryan Carter ditched his sneakers for footwear that mimics the experience of striding unshod.

More

• 
  Dragon makes history with space station docking

  The private company SpaceX made history Friday with the docking of its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, the most impressive feat yet in turning routine spaceflight over to the commercial sector.

• New telescope to be in South Africa, Australia

  Australia and South Africa will share hosting of a giant radio telescope made up of thousands of separate dishes and intended to help scientists figure out the make-up of the universe, the international consortium overseeing the project announced Friday.

• 
  Say cheese! NASA Mars rover photographs own shadow

  Even robots like to have fun. NASA's rover on Mars showed off its playful side by snapping a picture of its own shadow. It's the latest self-portrait since the rover, named Opportunity, landed on the red planet in 2004.

• 
  Is China poor? Key question at climate talks

  Another round of U.N. climate talks closed Friday without resolving how to share the burden of curbing man-made global warming, mainly because countries don't agree on who is rich and who is poor.

• 
  Global warming winner: Once rare butterfly thrives

  Global warming is rescuing the once-rare brown Argus butterfly, scientists say.

• 
  Italy doctors save baby with smallest artificial heart

  Italian doctors have saved the life of a 16-month-old boy by implanting the world's smallest artificial heart to keep the infant alive until a donor was found for a transplant.

• Astronauts snare SpaceX Dragon capsule: NASA

  Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon cargo ship on Friday, the first privately owned vehicle to reach the orbital outpost.

• Gevo starts up first new plant, shares jump

  (Reuters) - Gevo Inc started production at a converted ethanol plant in Minnesota, bringing on line the world's first commercial-scale facility to make advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals. Shares rose more than 9 percent.

• Decision time on site for giant radio telescope

  The location of a huge radio telescope strong enough to detect extraterrestrial life in the far reaches of the universe could be settled on Friday when the group in charge of the project meets in the Netherlands.

More

• 
  Streaker at Cardinals game says he lost a bet

  A streaker who ran naked onto the field during a Cardinals game says he did so because he lost a bet.

• NYC's famed Algonquin cat, Matilda, is back

  Matilda the cat is back at work at New York City's Algonquin Hotel.

• 
  Park of animatronic dinosaurs opening in NJ

  A new family attraction featuring more than 30 animatronic dinosaurs opens this holiday weekend on 20 acres of woods and grass in northern New Jersey.

• Priest apologizes for unholy language on Facebook

  A British priest has apologized for some unholy language on his Facebook page, his bishop says.

• Upstate NY biker loses license for 170 mph ride

  A 25-year-old upstate New York man has admitted driving his motorcycle at 170 mph as he tried to get away from police who caught him speeding on the Thruway.

• Police say roving cows drank Mass. backyard brews

  Police say a roving group of cows crashed a small gathering in a Massachusetts town and bullied the guests for their beer.

• 
  Tornado doesn't stop Kansas couple's wedding day

  In the plains of central Kansas, tornadoes are so unremarkable that guests barely flinched as a barrel-racing bride wed her bull-riding groom with a twister dropping from the sky just miles away.

• 
  Police: British bandits foiled by glued-up bills

  Three bandits were foiled in Britain when their attempt to pry open a stolen cash box ran up against a new security system that slathered the bills with glue.

• Cougar reluctant to leave cage in Wash. state

  Wildlife agents in Washington state were ready to release a captured cougar back into the wild, but it didn't want to go.

• Cops: Pa. men mistook Bible for purse in snatching

  Police say two western Pennsylvania men mistook a woman's Bible carrying case for a purse when they tried to snatch it from her, knocking her to the ground.

More

• 
  Apple CEO Cook gives up $75M in stock dividends

  Apple CEO Tim Cook is giving up $75 million in dividends on restricted stock that the company is awarding to all of its employees.

• Alibaba.com $2.5B privatization bid approved

  Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group's $2.5 billion bid to take its Hong Kong-listed unit private was cleared Friday by minority shareholders, easing the way for CEO Jack Ma to gain more control over his company's destiny.

• Morgan Stanley may refund some Facebook investors

  Morgan Stanley, the lead investment bank in Facebook's troubled initial public offering, will compensate retail investors who overpaid when they bought Facebook's stock in Friday's IPO, according to a source familiar with the matter.

• Yahoo kills 'Livestand' just 6 months after debut

  Yahoo has killed Livestand, a tablet magazine, just six months after its debut on the iPad.

• 
  Dragon makes history with space station docking

  The private company SpaceX made history Friday with the docking of its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, the most impressive feat yet in turning routine spaceflight over to the commercial sector.

• New Google data show Microsoft's piracy problems

  Google's Internet search engine receives more complaints about websites believed to be infringing on Microsoft's copyrights than it does about material produced by entertainment companies pushing for tougher online piracy laws.

• 
  Broadcasters sue Dish over ad-skipping DVR service

  Broadcasters Fox, NBC and CBS sued Dish Network Corp. on Thursday over a service that offers commercial-free TV.

• 
  Facebook launches iPhone camera app

  Facebook's rocky initial public offering hasn't stopped life at the world's biggest online social network. On Thursday, the company unveiled a camera app for the iPhone.

• 
  Times-Picayune to cut paper to 3 days a week

  The Times-Picayune, one of the nation's oldest newspapers, will no longer offer print editions seven days a week and instead plans to offer three printed issues a week starting in the fall. The change means New Orleans would become the largest metro area in the nation without a daily newspaper in te digital age.

• 
  Say cheese! NASA Mars rover photographs own shadow

  Even robots like to have fun. NASA's rover on Mars showed off its playful side by snapping a picture of its own shadow. It's the latest self-portrait since the rover, named Opportunity, landed on the red planet in 2004.

More