WASHINGTON (AP) - Just as Mitt Romney and other Republicans had cut into the Democrats' advantage with female voters, a tea party-backed Senate candidate's awkward remark - that if rape leads to pregnancy it's "something God intended" - has propelled the emotional issue of abortion back to the political forefront. It's put GOP candidates in tight races, from the presidential candidate on down, on the defensive.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Britney Spears' ex-manager described from the witness stand Wednesday a scene of domestic warfare, saying the superstar's father chased him around a kitchen, punched him and threatened his life.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The official voting record makes it appear that state lawmakers were eager to wade into the politically sensitive debate about whether certain people listed as child abusers when they were minors should be given a second chance.
Five people were shot and at least two died in shootings at a business and a residence in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey on Wednesday.
NEW YORK (AP) - The latest federal lawsuit over alleged mortgage fraud paints an unflattering picture of a doomed lender: Executives at Countrywide Financial urged workers to churn out loans, accepted fudged applications and tried to hide ballooning defaults.
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) - Two hours after the U.S. Consulate came under attack in Benghazi, Libya, the White House was told that a militant group was claiming responsibility for the violence that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
WESTMINSTER, Colo. (AP) - A teenage boy who lived just a mile from a 10-year-old Colorado girl who was abducted and killed earlier this month has been arrested in her death, along with a May attack on a runner, authorities said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. sales of new homes jumped last month to the highest level in more than two years, further evidence of a sustained housing recovery that could help lift the lackluster economy.
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP) - Google and its street-view cameras already have taken users to narrow cobblestone alleys in Spain using a tricycle, inside the Smithsonian with a push cart and to British Columbia's snow-covered slopes by snowmobile.
NEW YORK (AP) - Scientists in Oregon have created embryos with genes from one man and two women, using a provocative technique that could someday be used to prevent babies from inheriting certain rare incurable diseases.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said Wednesday that he is standing by his statement that when a woman becomes pregnant during a rape "that's something God intended." He says some people have twisted the meaning of his comment.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - An untended dump truck rolled down a Hollywood street Tuesday and smashed into a commuter bus, which then collided head-on with a car and left 27 people injured, authorities said.
DENVER (AP) - Exasperated veterans who work part-time for the Veterans Administration while attending college say their paychecks are sometimes weeks late, leaving them in trouble with bill collectors or having to borrow money to avoid eviction.
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - The endgame at hand, President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney plunged into the final two weeks of an excruciatingly close race for the White House Tuesday with TV advertising nearing an astronomical $1 billion and millions of Americans casting early ballots in all regions of the country.
CAIRO (AP) - An Egyptian court on Tuesday asked the country's highest tribunal to rule on whether to disband the body tasked with writing a new constitution. The delay in a ruling is a possible blow to liberals, since it could give Islamists time to finish drafting the contested document.
MOORE, Okla. (AP) - Helmeted rescue workers raced Tuesday to complete the search for survivors and the dead in the Oklahoma City suburb where a mammoth tornado destroyed countless homes, cleared lots down to bare red earth and claimed 24 lives, including those of nine children.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Summoned by Congress, a key figure in the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups plans to invoke her constitutional right against self-incrimination and decline to testify at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Officials at the University of California, Los Angeles say a man was found dead on campus after an apparent fall from a building.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Far-reaching legislation that grants a chance at citizenship to millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a solid bipartisan vote Tuesday night after supporters somberly sidestepped a controversy over the rights of gay spouses.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - About 17,000 Californians with serious medical problems will be moved from a state-run stopgap health insurance program to a federal plan starting in July, ensuring they will have no break in medical coverage until the national health care reforms kick in next year, state officials announced this week.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California is sending six specially trained urban search-and-rescue workers to Oklahoma to assist recovery efforts after Monday's tornado.
CALABASAS, Calif. (AP) - Many areas of sprawling Point Mugu State Park that have been off-limits since this month's big wildfire on the outskirts of Camarillo and Thousand Oaks will reopen in time for the Memorial Day weekend.
MOORE, Okla. (AP) - The principal's voice came on over the intercom at Plaza Towers Elementary School: A severe storm was approaching and students were to go to the cafeteria and wait for their parents to pick them up.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate voted Tuesday to keep a $400 million annual cut - or roughly a half of 1 percent - to the food stamp program as part of a major five-year farm bill.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Here's a rule that only applies to dog beaches: they are all clothing optional.
PHOENIX (AP) - Jodi Arias begged jurors Tuesday to give her life in prison, saying she "lacked perspective" when she told a local reporter in an interview that she preferred execution to spending the rest of her days in jail.
These are just a few of the images from the Oklahoma City area which was devastated Monday by a huge tornado.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Wind, humidity and rainfall combined precisely to create the massive killer tornado in Moore, Okla. And when they did, the awesome amount of energy released over that city dwarfed the power of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima.
Editor's Note: Oklahoma City-based AP photographer Sue Ogrocki was at the elementary school destroyed by a tornado and saw rescuers pulling children out of the rubble. This is her account of what she witnessed.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Los Angeles have made some unusual seizures, including elephant meat, a dead primate and hundreds of handbags made from the skin of snakes, lizards and crocodiles.