AP Top News at 3:50 p.m. EDT

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Twin suicide car bombs exploded outside a military intelligence building and killed 55 people Thursday, tossing mangled bodies in the street in the deadliest attack against a regime target since the Syrian uprising began 14 months ago. The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney apologized Thursday to classmates he may have offended by "hijinks and pranks during high school" and insisted he didn't know that some were gay. The Republican presidential candidate issued the apology during a hastily arranged radio interview after The Washington Post reported Thursday that he had held down classmate John Lauber and cut off his bleached blond hair when they were students at a prestigious boarding school in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The GOP-controlled House Thursday passed legislation to replace a looming 10 percent cut to the military budget with cuts to domestic programs like food stamps and health care. The partisan 218-199 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where it's a dead letter with Democratic leaders, who insist on keeping the automatic cuts in place until Republicans agree to a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts to address the nation's deficit woes.

PHOENIX (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department sued America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff Thursday, a rare step for the agency after months of negotiations failed to reach a settlement over allegations that his department racially profiled Latinos in his trademark immigration patrols. Federal officials said that only once before has the agency filed a lawsuit against a police department that they were unable to reach an agreement with in the 18-year history of the DOJ's police reform efforts. The lawsuit means that a federal judge will decide the escalating standoff with Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi manhunt for a fugitive accused of kidnapping and a double slaying had small town residents on lockdown Thursday and shattered the feeling of safety in a place where everyone knows their neighbors. The hunt for Adam Mayes and the two young sisters he is accused of kidnapping has encompassed parts of at least three counties in northern Mississippi. Federal agents, state troopers and SWAT teams wearing protective gear and armed with high powered rifles have made multiple forays into the woods in search of Mayes or a hideout he may have used.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Prosecutors rested their case against John Edwards on Thursday after calling to the witness stand some of his closest friends and advisers, many of whom gave dramatic, often unflattering testimony about the former presidential candidate whose once-promising political career collapsed amid a sex scandal. Edwards is accused of being the mastermind behind a plan to use secret payments from two wealthy campaign donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008. The trial centers on whether Edwards knew what the money was being used for, and when he knew it.

NEW YORK (AP) - A change to the design of a needle that will sit atop One World Trade Center is raising questions over whether the building will still be America's tallest when completed. The 408-foot-tall needle will no longer be enclosed in a fiberglass-and-steel enclosure called a radome, a feature that was recently removed from the original design because the building's developer says it would be impossible to properly maintain or repair it.

MOUNT SALAK, Indonesia (AP) - The crash of a new, Russian-made jetliner into a jagged, Indonesian volcano during a flight to impress potential buyers threw doubt on dozens of plane sales Thursday just as Moscow seeks a comeback in foreign markets. All 45 people aboard were feared dead. Search and rescue teams climbed through the mist-shrouded, jungly terrain for nearly 20 hours to reach the site where the plane roared in at nearly 480 mph (800 kph) Wednesday, exploding and raining debris down a nearly vertical slope.

NEW YORK (AP) - Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Charles Baird is going off the grid for a year. The 40-year-old oil company employee and filmmaker from Anchorage will move to the mostly uninhabited Latouche Island in Alaska's Prince William Sound at the end of May, completing a dream he's been contemplating for 17 years.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Twin suicide car bombs exploded outside a military intelligence building and killed 55 people Thursday, tossing mangled bodies in the street in the deadliest attack against a regime target since the Syrian uprising began 14 months ago. The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney apologized Thursday to classmates he may have offended by "hijinks and pranks during high school" and insisted he didn't know that some were gay. The Republican presidential candidate issued the apology during a hastily arranged radio interview after The Washington Post reported Thursday that he had held down classmate John Lauber and cut off his bleached blond hair when they were students at a prestigious boarding school in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The GOP-controlled House Thursday passed legislation to replace a looming 10 percent cut to the military budget with cuts to domestic programs like food stamps and health care. The partisan 218-199 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where it's a dead letter with Democratic leaders, who insist on keeping the automatic cuts in place until Republicans agree to a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts to address the nation's deficit woes.

PHOENIX (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department sued America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff Thursday, a rare step for the agency after months of negotiations failed to reach a settlement over allegations that his department racially profiled Latinos in his trademark immigration patrols. Federal officials said that only once before has the agency filed a lawsuit against a police department that they were unable to reach an agreement with in the 18-year history of the DOJ's police reform efforts. The lawsuit means that a federal judge will decide the escalating standoff with Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi manhunt for a fugitive accused of kidnapping and a double slaying had small town residents on lockdown Thursday and shattered the feeling of safety in a place where everyone knows their neighbors. The hunt for Adam Mayes and the two young sisters he is accused of kidnapping has encompassed parts of at least three counties in northern Mississippi. Federal agents, state troopers and SWAT teams wearing protective gear and armed with high powered rifles have made multiple forays into the woods in search of Mayes or a hideout he may have used.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Prosecutors rested their case against John Edwards on Thursday after calling to the witness stand some of his closest friends and advisers, many of whom gave dramatic, often unflattering testimony about the former presidential candidate whose once-promising political career collapsed amid a sex scandal. Edwards is accused of being the mastermind behind a plan to use secret payments from two wealthy campaign donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008. The trial centers on whether Edwards knew what the money was being used for, and when he knew it.

NEW YORK (AP) - A change to the design of a needle that will sit atop One World Trade Center is raising questions over whether the building will still be America's tallest when completed. The 408-foot-tall needle will no longer be enclosed in a fiberglass-and-steel enclosure called a radome, a feature that was recently removed from the original design because the building's developer says it would be impossible to properly maintain or repair it.

MOUNT SALAK, Indonesia (AP) - The crash of a new, Russian-made jetliner into a jagged, Indonesian volcano during a flight to impress potential buyers threw doubt on dozens of plane sales Thursday just as Moscow seeks a comeback in foreign markets. All 45 people aboard were feared dead. Search and rescue teams climbed through the mist-shrouded, jungly terrain for nearly 20 hours to reach the site where the plane roared in at nearly 480 mph (800 kph) Wednesday, exploding and raining debris down a nearly vertical slope.

NEW YORK (AP) - Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Charles Baird is going off the grid for a year. The 40-year-old oil company employee and filmmaker from Anchorage will move to the mostly uninhabited Latouche Island in Alaska's Prince William Sound at the end of May, completing a dream he's been contemplating for 17 years.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Twin suicide car bombs exploded outside a military intelligence building and killed 55 people Thursday, tossing mangled bodies in the street in the deadliest attack against a regime target since the Syrian uprising began 14 months ago. The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney apologized Thursday to classmates he may have offended by "hijinks and pranks during high school" and insisted he didn't know that some were gay. The Republican presidential candidate issued the apology during a hastily arranged radio interview after The Washington Post reported Thursday that he had held down classmate John Lauber and cut off his bleached blond hair when they were students at a prestigious boarding school in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The GOP-controlled House Thursday passed legislation to replace a looming 10 percent cut to the military budget with cuts to domestic programs like food stamps and health care. The partisan 218-199 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where it's a dead letter with Democratic leaders, who insist on keeping the automatic cuts in place until Republicans agree to a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts to address the nation's deficit woes.

PHOENIX (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department sued America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff Thursday, a rare step for the agency after months of negotiations failed to reach a settlement over allegations that his department racially profiled Latinos in his trademark immigration patrols. Federal officials said that only once before has the agency filed a lawsuit against a police department that they were unable to reach an agreement with in the 18-year history of the DOJ's police reform efforts. The lawsuit means that a federal judge will decide the escalating standoff with Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi manhunt for a fugitive accused of kidnapping and a double slaying had small town residents on lockdown Thursday and shattered the feeling of safety in a place where everyone knows their neighbors. The hunt for Adam Mayes and the two young sisters he is accused of kidnapping has encompassed parts of at least three counties in northern Mississippi. Federal agents, state troopers and SWAT teams wearing protective gear and armed with high powered rifles have made multiple forays into the woods in search of Mayes or a hideout he may have used.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Prosecutors rested their case against John Edwards on Thursday after calling to the witness stand some of his closest friends and advisers, many of whom gave dramatic, often unflattering testimony about the former presidential candidate whose once-promising political career collapsed amid a sex scandal. Edwards is accused of being the mastermind behind a plan to use secret payments from two wealthy campaign donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008. The trial centers on whether Edwards knew what the money was being used for, and when he knew it.

NEW YORK (AP) - A change to the design of a needle that will sit atop One World Trade Center is raising questions over whether the building will still be America's tallest when completed. The 408-foot-tall needle will no longer be enclosed in a fiberglass-and-steel enclosure called a radome, a feature that was recently removed from the original design because the building's developer says it would be impossible to properly maintain or repair it.

MOUNT SALAK, Indonesia (AP) - The crash of a new, Russian-made jetliner into a jagged, Indonesian volcano during a flight to impress potential buyers threw doubt on dozens of plane sales Thursday just as Moscow seeks a comeback in foreign markets. All 45 people aboard were feared dead. Search and rescue teams climbed through the mist-shrouded, jungly terrain for nearly 20 hours to reach the site where the plane roared in at nearly 480 mph (800 kph) Wednesday, exploding and raining debris down a nearly vertical slope.

NEW YORK (AP) - Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Charles Baird is going off the grid for a year. The 40-year-old oil company employee and filmmaker from Anchorage will move to the mostly uninhabited Latouche Island in Alaska's Prince William Sound at the end of May, completing a dream he's been contemplating for 17 years.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Twin suicide car bombs exploded outside a military intelligence building and killed 55 people Thursday, tossing mangled bodies in the street in the deadliest attack against a regime target since the Syrian uprising began 14 months ago. The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney apologized Thursday to classmates he may have offended by "hijinks and pranks during high school" and insisted he didn't know that some were gay. The Republican presidential candidate issued the apology during a hastily arranged radio interview after The Washington Post reported Thursday that he had held down classmate John Lauber and cut off his bleached blond hair when they were students at a prestigious boarding school in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The GOP-controlled House Thursday passed legislation to replace a looming 10 percent cut to the military budget with cuts to domestic programs like food stamps and health care. The partisan 218-199 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where it's a dead letter with Democratic leaders, who insist on keeping the automatic cuts in place until Republicans agree to a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts to address the nation's deficit woes.

PHOENIX (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department sued America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff Thursday, a rare step for the agency after months of negotiations failed to reach a settlement over allegations that his department racially profiled Latinos in his trademark immigration patrols. Federal officials said that only once before has the agency filed a lawsuit against a police department that they were unable to reach an agreement with in the 18-year history of the DOJ's police reform efforts. The lawsuit means that a federal judge will decide the escalating standoff with Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi manhunt for a fugitive accused of kidnapping and a double slaying had small town residents on lockdown Thursday and shattered the feeling of safety in a place where everyone knows their neighbors. The hunt for Adam Mayes and the two young sisters he is accused of kidnapping has encompassed parts of at least three counties in northern Mississippi. Federal agents, state troopers and SWAT teams wearing protective gear and armed with high powered rifles have made multiple forays into the woods in search of Mayes or a hideout he may have used.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Prosecutors rested their case against John Edwards on Thursday after calling to the witness stand some of his closest friends and advisers, many of whom gave dramatic, often unflattering testimony about the former presidential candidate whose once-promising political career collapsed amid a sex scandal. Edwards is accused of being the mastermind behind a plan to use secret payments from two wealthy campaign donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008. The trial centers on whether Edwards knew what the money was being used for, and when he knew it.

NEW YORK (AP) - A change to the design of a needle that will sit atop One World Trade Center is raising questions over whether the building will still be America's tallest when completed. The 408-foot-tall needle will no longer be enclosed in a fiberglass-and-steel enclosure called a radome, a feature that was recently removed from the original design because the building's developer says it would be impossible to properly maintain or repair it.

MOUNT SALAK, Indonesia (AP) - The crash of a new, Russian-made jetliner into a jagged, Indonesian volcano during a flight to impress potential buyers threw doubt on dozens of plane sales Thursday just as Moscow seeks a comeback in foreign markets. All 45 people aboard were feared dead. Search and rescue teams climbed through the mist-shrouded, jungly terrain for nearly 20 hours to reach the site where the plane roared in at nearly 480 mph (800 kph) Wednesday, exploding and raining debris down a nearly vertical slope.

NEW YORK (AP) - Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Charles Baird is going off the grid for a year. The 40-year-old oil company employee and filmmaker from Anchorage will move to the mostly uninhabited Latouche Island in Alaska's Prince William Sound at the end of May, completing a dream he's been contemplating for 17 years.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Twin suicide car bombs exploded outside a military intelligence building and killed 55 people Thursday, tossing mangled bodies in the street in the deadliest attack against a regime target since the Syrian uprising began 14 months ago. The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney apologized Thursday to classmates he may have offended by "hijinks and pranks during high school" and insisted he didn't know that some were gay. The Republican presidential candidate issued the apology during a hastily arranged radio interview after The Washington Post reported Thursday that he had held down classmate John Lauber and cut off his bleached blond hair when they were students at a prestigious boarding school in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The GOP-controlled House Thursday passed legislation to replace a looming 10 percent cut to the military budget with cuts to domestic programs like food stamps and health care. The partisan 218-199 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where it's a dead letter with Democratic leaders, who insist on keeping the automatic cuts in place until Republicans agree to a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts to address the nation's deficit woes.

PHOENIX (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department sued America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff Thursday, a rare step for the agency after months of negotiations failed to reach a settlement over allegations that his department racially profiled Latinos in his trademark immigration patrols. Federal officials said that only once before has the agency filed a lawsuit against a police department that they were unable to reach an agreement with in the 18-year history of the DOJ's police reform efforts. The lawsuit means that a federal judge will decide the escalating standoff with Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi manhunt for a fugitive accused of kidnapping and a double slaying had small town residents on lockdown Thursday and shattered the feeling of safety in a place where everyone knows their neighbors. The hunt for Adam Mayes and the two young sisters he is accused of kidnapping has encompassed parts of at least three counties in northern Mississippi. Federal agents, state troopers and SWAT teams wearing protective gear and armed with high powered rifles have made multiple forays into the woods in search of Mayes or a hideout he may have used.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Prosecutors rested their case against John Edwards on Thursday after calling to the witness stand some of his closest friends and advisers, many of whom gave dramatic, often unflattering testimony about the former presidential candidate whose once-promising political career collapsed amid a sex scandal. Edwards is accused of being the mastermind behind a plan to use secret payments from two wealthy campaign donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008. The trial centers on whether Edwards knew what the money was being used for, and when he knew it.

NEW YORK (AP) - A change to the design of a needle that will sit atop One World Trade Center is raising questions over whether the building will still be America's tallest when completed. The 408-foot-tall needle will no longer be enclosed in a fiberglass-and-steel enclosure called a radome, a feature that was recently removed from the original design because the building's developer says it would be impossible to properly maintain or repair it.

MOUNT SALAK, Indonesia (AP) - The crash of a new, Russian-made jetliner into a jagged, Indonesian volcano during a flight to impress potential buyers threw doubt on dozens of plane sales Thursday just as Moscow seeks a comeback in foreign markets. All 45 people aboard were feared dead. Search and rescue teams climbed through the mist-shrouded, jungly terrain for nearly 20 hours to reach the site where the plane roared in at nearly 480 mph (800 kph) Wednesday, exploding and raining debris down a nearly vertical slope.

NEW YORK (AP) - Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Charles Baird is going off the grid for a year. The 40-year-old oil company employee and filmmaker from Anchorage will move to the mostly uninhabited Latouche Island in Alaska's Prince William Sound at the end of May, completing a dream he's been contemplating for 17 years.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Twin suicide car bombs exploded outside a military intelligence building and killed 55 people Thursday, tossing mangled bodies in the street in the deadliest attack against a regime target since the Syrian uprising began 14 months ago. The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney apologized Thursday to classmates he may have offended by "hijinks and pranks during high school" and insisted he didn't know that some were gay. The Republican presidential candidate issued the apology during a hastily arranged radio interview after The Washington Post reported Thursday that he had held down classmate John Lauber and cut off his bleached blond hair when they were students at a prestigious boarding school in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The GOP-controlled House Thursday passed legislation to replace a looming 10 percent cut to the military budget with cuts to domestic programs like food stamps and health care. The partisan 218-199 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where it's a dead letter with Democratic leaders, who insist on keeping the automatic cuts in place until Republicans agree to a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts to address the nation's deficit woes.

PHOENIX (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department sued America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff Thursday, a rare step for the agency after months of negotiations failed to reach a settlement over allegations that his department racially profiled Latinos in his trademark immigration patrols. Federal officials said that only once before has the agency filed a lawsuit against a police department that they were unable to reach an agreement with in the 18-year history of the DOJ's police reform efforts. The lawsuit means that a federal judge will decide the escalating standoff with Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi manhunt for a fugitive accused of kidnapping and a double slaying had small town residents on lockdown Thursday and shattered the feeling of safety in a place where everyone knows their neighbors. The hunt for Adam Mayes and the two young sisters he is accused of kidnapping has encompassed parts of at least three counties in northern Mississippi. Federal agents, state troopers and SWAT teams wearing protective gear and armed with high powered rifles have made multiple forays into the woods in search of Mayes or a hideout he may have used.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Prosecutors rested their case against John Edwards on Thursday after calling to the witness stand some of his closest friends and advisers, many of whom gave dramatic, often unflattering testimony about the former presidential candidate whose once-promising political career collapsed amid a sex scandal. Edwards is accused of being the mastermind behind a plan to use secret payments from two wealthy campaign donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008. The trial centers on whether Edwards knew what the money was being used for, and when he knew it.

NEW YORK (AP) - A change to the design of a needle that will sit atop One World Trade Center is raising questions over whether the building will still be America's tallest when completed. The 408-foot-tall needle will no longer be enclosed in a fiberglass-and-steel enclosure called a radome, a feature that was recently removed from the original design because the building's developer says it would be impossible to properly maintain or repair it.

MOUNT SALAK, Indonesia (AP) - The crash of a new, Russian-made jetliner into a jagged, Indonesian volcano during a flight to impress potential buyers threw doubt on dozens of plane sales Thursday just as Moscow seeks a comeback in foreign markets. All 45 people aboard were feared dead. Search and rescue teams climbed through the mist-shrouded, jungly terrain for nearly 20 hours to reach the site where the plane roared in at nearly 480 mph (800 kph) Wednesday, exploding and raining debris down a nearly vertical slope.

NEW YORK (AP) - Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Charles Baird is going off the grid for a year. The 40-year-old oil company employee and filmmaker from Anchorage will move to the mostly uninhabited Latouche Island in Alaska's Prince William Sound at the end of May, completing a dream he's been contemplating for 17 years.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Twin suicide car bombs exploded outside a military intelligence building and killed 55 people Thursday, tossing mangled bodies in the street in the deadliest attack against a regime target since the Syrian uprising began 14 months ago. The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney apologized Thursday to classmates he may have offended by "hijinks and pranks during high school" and insisted he didn't know that some were gay. The Republican presidential candidate issued the apology during a hastily arranged radio interview after The Washington Post reported Thursday that he had held down classmate John Lauber and cut off his bleached blond hair when they were students at a prestigious boarding school in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The GOP-controlled House Thursday passed legislation to replace a looming 10 percent cut to the military budget with cuts to domestic programs like food stamps and health care. The partisan 218-199 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where it's a dead letter with Democratic leaders, who insist on keeping the automatic cuts in place until Republicans agree to a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts to address the nation's deficit woes.

PHOENIX (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department sued America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff Thursday, a rare step for the agency after months of negotiations failed to reach a settlement over allegations that his department racially profiled Latinos in his trademark immigration patrols. Federal officials said that only once before has the agency filed a lawsuit against a police department that they were unable to reach an agreement with in the 18-year history of the DOJ's police reform efforts. The lawsuit means that a federal judge will decide the escalating standoff with Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi manhunt for a fugitive accused of kidnapping and a double slaying had small town residents on lockdown Thursday and shattered the feeling of safety in a place where everyone knows their neighbors. The hunt for Adam Mayes and the two young sisters he is accused of kidnapping has encompassed parts of at least three counties in northern Mississippi. Federal agents, state troopers and SWAT teams wearing protective gear and armed with high powered rifles have made multiple forays into the woods in search of Mayes or a hideout he may have used.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Prosecutors rested their case against John Edwards on Thursday after calling to the witness stand some of his closest friends and advisers, many of whom gave dramatic, often unflattering testimony about the former presidential candidate whose once-promising political career collapsed amid a sex scandal. Edwards is accused of being the mastermind behind a plan to use secret payments from two wealthy campaign donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008. The trial centers on whether Edwards knew what the money was being used for, and when he knew it.

NEW YORK (AP) - A change to the design of a needle that will sit atop One World Trade Center is raising questions over whether the building will still be America's tallest when completed. The 408-foot-tall needle will no longer be enclosed in a fiberglass-and-steel enclosure called a radome, a feature that was recently removed from the original design because the building's developer says it would be impossible to properly maintain or repair it.

MOUNT SALAK, Indonesia (AP) - The crash of a new, Russian-made jetliner into a jagged, Indonesian volcano during a flight to impress potential buyers threw doubt on dozens of plane sales Thursday just as Moscow seeks a comeback in foreign markets. All 45 people aboard were feared dead. Search and rescue teams climbed through the mist-shrouded, jungly terrain for nearly 20 hours to reach the site where the plane roared in at nearly 480 mph (800 kph) Wednesday, exploding and raining debris down a nearly vertical slope.

NEW YORK (AP) - Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Charles Baird is going off the grid for a year. The 40-year-old oil company employee and filmmaker from Anchorage will move to the mostly uninhabited Latouche Island in Alaska's Prince William Sound at the end of May, completing a dream he's been contemplating for 17 years.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Twin suicide car bombs exploded outside a military intelligence building and killed 55 people Thursday, tossing mangled bodies in the street in the deadliest attack against a regime target since the Syrian uprising began 14 months ago. The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney apologized Thursday to classmates he may have offended by "hijinks and pranks during high school" and insisted he didn't know that some were gay. The Republican presidential candidate issued the apology during a hastily arranged radio interview after The Washington Post reported Thursday that he had held down classmate John Lauber and cut off his bleached blond hair when they were students at a prestigious boarding school in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The GOP-controlled House Thursday passed legislation to replace a looming 10 percent cut to the military budget with cuts to domestic programs like food stamps and health care. The partisan 218-199 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where it's a dead letter with Democratic leaders, who insist on keeping the automatic cuts in place until Republicans agree to a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts to address the nation's deficit woes.

PHOENIX (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department sued America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff Thursday, a rare step for the agency after months of negotiations failed to reach a settlement over allegations that his department racially profiled Latinos in his trademark immigration patrols. Federal officials said that only once before has the agency filed a lawsuit against a police department that they were unable to reach an agreement with in the 18-year history of the DOJ's police reform efforts. The lawsuit means that a federal judge will decide the escalating standoff with Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi manhunt for a fugitive accused of kidnapping and a double slaying had small town residents on lockdown Thursday and shattered the feeling of safety in a place where everyone knows their neighbors. The hunt for Adam Mayes and the two young sisters he is accused of kidnapping has encompassed parts of at least three counties in northern Mississippi. Federal agents, state troopers and SWAT teams wearing protective gear and armed with high powered rifles have made multiple forays into the woods in search of Mayes or a hideout he may have used.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Prosecutors rested their case against John Edwards on Thursday after calling to the witness stand some of his closest friends and advisers, many of whom gave dramatic, often unflattering testimony about the former presidential candidate whose once-promising political career collapsed amid a sex scandal. Edwards is accused of being the mastermind behind a plan to use secret payments from two wealthy campaign donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008. The trial centers on whether Edwards knew what the money was being used for, and when he knew it.

NEW YORK (AP) - A change to the design of a needle that will sit atop One World Trade Center is raising questions over whether the building will still be America's tallest when completed. The 408-foot-tall needle will no longer be enclosed in a fiberglass-and-steel enclosure called a radome, a feature that was recently removed from the original design because the building's developer says it would be impossible to properly maintain or repair it.

MOUNT SALAK, Indonesia (AP) - The crash of a new, Russian-made jetliner into a jagged, Indonesian volcano during a flight to impress potential buyers threw doubt on dozens of plane sales Thursday just as Moscow seeks a comeback in foreign markets. All 45 people aboard were feared dead. Search and rescue teams climbed through the mist-shrouded, jungly terrain for nearly 20 hours to reach the site where the plane roared in at nearly 480 mph (800 kph) Wednesday, exploding and raining debris down a nearly vertical slope.

NEW YORK (AP) - Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Charles Baird is going off the grid for a year. The 40-year-old oil company employee and filmmaker from Anchorage will move to the mostly uninhabited Latouche Island in Alaska's Prince William Sound at the end of May, completing a dream he's been contemplating for 17 years.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Twin suicide car bombs exploded outside a military intelligence building and killed 55 people Thursday, tossing mangled bodies in the street in the deadliest attack against a regime target since the Syrian uprising began 14 months ago. The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney apologized Thursday to classmates he may have offended by "hijinks and pranks during high school" and insisted he didn't know that some were gay. The Republican presidential candidate issued the apology during a hastily arranged radio interview after The Washington Post reported Thursday that he had held down classmate John Lauber and cut off his bleached blond hair when they were students at a prestigious boarding school in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The GOP-controlled House Thursday passed legislation to replace a looming 10 percent cut to the military budget with cuts to domestic programs like food stamps and health care. The partisan 218-199 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where it's a dead letter with Democratic leaders, who insist on keeping the automatic cuts in place until Republicans agree to a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts to address the nation's deficit woes.

PHOENIX (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department sued America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff Thursday, a rare step for the agency after months of negotiations failed to reach a settlement over allegations that his department racially profiled Latinos in his trademark immigration patrols. Federal officials said that only once before has the agency filed a lawsuit against a police department that they were unable to reach an agreement with in the 18-year history of the DOJ's police reform efforts. The lawsuit means that a federal judge will decide the escalating standoff with Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi manhunt for a fugitive accused of kidnapping and a double slaying had small town residents on lockdown Thursday and shattered the feeling of safety in a place where everyone knows their neighbors. The hunt for Adam Mayes and the two young sisters he is accused of kidnapping has encompassed parts of at least three counties in northern Mississippi. Federal agents, state troopers and SWAT teams wearing protective gear and armed with high powered rifles have made multiple forays into the woods in search of Mayes or a hideout he may have used.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Prosecutors rested their case against John Edwards on Thursday after calling to the witness stand some of his closest friends and advisers, many of whom gave dramatic, often unflattering testimony about the former presidential candidate whose once-promising political career collapsed amid a sex scandal. Edwards is accused of being the mastermind behind a plan to use secret payments from two wealthy campaign donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008. The trial centers on whether Edwards knew what the money was being used for, and when he knew it.

NEW YORK (AP) - A change to the design of a needle that will sit atop One World Trade Center is raising questions over whether the building will still be America's tallest when completed. The 408-foot-tall needle will no longer be enclosed in a fiberglass-and-steel enclosure called a radome, a feature that was recently removed from the original design because the building's developer says it would be impossible to properly maintain or repair it.

MOUNT SALAK, Indonesia (AP) - The crash of a new, Russian-made jetliner into a jagged, Indonesian volcano during a flight to impress potential buyers threw doubt on dozens of plane sales Thursday just as Moscow seeks a comeback in foreign markets. All 45 people aboard were feared dead. Search and rescue teams climbed through the mist-shrouded, jungly terrain for nearly 20 hours to reach the site where the plane roared in at nearly 480 mph (800 kph) Wednesday, exploding and raining debris down a nearly vertical slope.

NEW YORK (AP) - Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Charles Baird is going off the grid for a year. The 40-year-old oil company employee and filmmaker from Anchorage will move to the mostly uninhabited Latouche Island in Alaska's Prince William Sound at the end of May, completing a dream he's been contemplating for 17 years.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Twin suicide car bombs exploded outside a military intelligence building and killed 55 people Thursday, tossing mangled bodies in the street in the deadliest attack against a regime target since the Syrian uprising began 14 months ago. The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney apologized Thursday to classmates he may have offended by "hijinks and pranks during high school" and insisted he didn't know that some were gay. The Republican presidential candidate issued the apology during a hastily arranged radio interview after The Washington Post reported Thursday that he had held down classmate John Lauber and cut off his bleached blond hair when they were students at a prestigious boarding school in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The GOP-controlled House Thursday passed legislation to replace a looming 10 percent cut to the military budget with cuts to domestic programs like food stamps and health care. The partisan 218-199 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where it's a dead letter with Democratic leaders, who insist on keeping the automatic cuts in place until Republicans agree to a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts to address the nation's deficit woes.

PHOENIX (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department sued America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff Thursday, a rare step for the agency after months of negotiations failed to reach a settlement over allegations that his department racially profiled Latinos in his trademark immigration patrols. Federal officials said that only once before has the agency filed a lawsuit against a police department that they were unable to reach an agreement with in the 18-year history of the DOJ's police reform efforts. The lawsuit means that a federal judge will decide the escalating standoff with Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi manhunt for a fugitive accused of kidnapping and a double slaying had small town residents on lockdown Thursday and shattered the feeling of safety in a place where everyone knows their neighbors. The hunt for Adam Mayes and the two young sisters he is accused of kidnapping has encompassed parts of at least three counties in northern Mississippi. Federal agents, state troopers and SWAT teams wearing protective gear and armed with high powered rifles have made multiple forays into the woods in search of Mayes or a hideout he may have used.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Prosecutors rested their case against John Edwards on Thursday after calling to the witness stand some of his closest friends and advisers, many of whom gave dramatic, often unflattering testimony about the former presidential candidate whose once-promising political career collapsed amid a sex scandal. Edwards is accused of being the mastermind behind a plan to use secret payments from two wealthy campaign donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008. The trial centers on whether Edwards knew what the money was being used for, and when he knew it.

NEW YORK (AP) - A change to the design of a needle that will sit atop One World Trade Center is raising questions over whether the building will still be America's tallest when completed. The 408-foot-tall needle will no longer be enclosed in a fiberglass-and-steel enclosure called a radome, a feature that was recently removed from the original design because the building's developer says it would be impossible to properly maintain or repair it.

MOUNT SALAK, Indonesia (AP) - The crash of a new, Russian-made jetliner into a jagged, Indonesian volcano during a flight to impress potential buyers threw doubt on dozens of plane sales Thursday just as Moscow seeks a comeback in foreign markets. All 45 people aboard were feared dead. Search and rescue teams climbed through the mist-shrouded, jungly terrain for nearly 20 hours to reach the site where the plane roared in at nearly 480 mph (800 kph) Wednesday, exploding and raining debris down a nearly vertical slope.

NEW YORK (AP) - Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Charles Baird is going off the grid for a year. The 40-year-old oil company employee and filmmaker from Anchorage will move to the mostly uninhabited Latouche Island in Alaska's Prince William Sound at the end of May, completing a dream he's been contemplating for 17 years.