BEIRUT (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....

2/22/2012 4:09:18 PM

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Rick Santorum acknowledged Wednesday that he's probably running behind Mitt Romney in Arizona, but he implored a tea party crowd not to settle for "a Johnny-come-lately to the conservative cause."...

2/22/2012 4:33:37 PM

WASHINGTON (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....

2/22/2012 4:08:34 PM

NEWARK, N.J. (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....

2/22/2012 4:25:20 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama rolled out a corporate tax overhaul plan Wednesday that lowers rates but also eliminates loopholes and subsidies cherished by the business world. A long-shot for action in an election year, the plan nevertheless stamps Obama's imprint on one of the most high-profile issues of the presidential campaign....

2/22/2012 4:17:58 PM

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) -- Washington state cannot force pharmacies to sell Plan B or other emergency contraceptives, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, saying the state's true goal was to suppress religious objections by druggists - not to promote timely access to the medicines for people who need them....

2/22/2012 4:06:06 PM

EAGLE POINT, Ore. (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....

2/22/2012 4:29:26 PM

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Millions of people have endured a colonoscopy, believing the dreaded exam may help keep them from dying of colon cancer. For the first time, a major study offers clear evidence that it does....

2/22/2012 4:28:10 PM

DALLAS (AP) -- The bulk of a man's childhood comic book collection that included many of the most prized issues ever published sold at auction Wednesday for about $3.5 million....

2/22/2012 4:40:32 PM

MARANA, Arizona (AP) -- Tiger Woods had to go the distance to get to the second round of the Match Play Championship....

2/22/2012 4:30:08 PM