Maine girl bouncing back after 6-organ transplant

HOLLIS, Maine - A 9-year-old Maine girl is home from a Boston hospital healthy, active and with high hopes - and a new stomach, liver, spleen, small intestine, pancreas, and part of an esophagus to replace the ones that were being choked by a huge tumor.

February 03, 2012 | By CLARKE CANFIELD Associated Press | World

Groundhog 'predicts' 6 more weeks of winter

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. - Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his lair to "see" his shadow on Thursday, in the process predicting six more weeks of winter.

February 02, 2012 | Associated Press | World

Will Facebook deliver an IPO surprise?

NEW YORK - Facebook, the social network that changed "friend" from a noun to a verb, is expected to file as early as Wednesday to sell stock on the open market. Its debut is likely to be the most talked-about initial public offering since Google in 2004.

February 01, 2012 | By PALLAVI GOGOI AP Business Writer | World

Marine gets jail time, reduced rank in hazing case

KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii - A Hawaii-based Marine lance corporal will spend 30 days in jail and have his rank reduced to private first class for punching and kicking a fellow Marine who killed himself shortly afterward, a judge ruled late Monday, saying she found no evidence the abuse led to the suicide.

January 31, 2012 | By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press | World

Costa offers uninjured passengers $14,460 apiece for ruined Italy cruises

ROME - Costa Crociere SpA offered uninjured passengers €11,000 ($14,460) apiece Friday to compensate them for lost baggage and the psychological trauma they suffered after their cruise ship ran aground and capsized off Tuscany. But some passengers are already refusing to accept the deal, saying they can't yet put a figure on the costs of the trauma they endured. Costa announced the offer after negotiations with consumer groups who say they are representing 3,206 ...

January 27, 2012 | By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press | World

Conn. mayor blasted for 'taco' quip about Latinos

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The mayor of a working-class city roiled by allegations of police discrimination against Hispanics faced scathing criticism Wednesday from officials including the governor for saying he "might have tacos" as a way to do something for the community.

January 26, 2012 | By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN | World

Global warming reflected in new planting zone map

WASHINGTON - Global warming is hitting not just home, but garden. The color-coded map of planting zones often seen on the back of seed packets is being updated by the government, illustrating a hotter 21st century.

January 25, 2012 | By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer | World

U.S. military raid in Somalia frees American, Dane

MOGADISHU, Somalia - The same U.S. Navy SEAL unit that killed Osama bin Laden parachuted into Somalia under cover of darkness early Wednesday and crept up to an outdoor camp where an American woman and Danish man were being held hostage. Soon, nine kidnappers were dead and both hostages were freed.

January 25, 2012 | By ABDI GULED, KATHARINE HOURELD and KIMBERLY DOZIER Associated Press | World

JFK library to release the last of the president's secret tapes

BOSTON - President John F. Kennedy's library is releasing 45 hours of privately recorded meetings and phone calls, providing a window into the final months of his life. The tapes include discussions of conflict in Vietnam, Soviet relations and the race to space, plans for the 1964 Democratic Convention and re-election strategy. There also are moments with his children. On one recording, made days before Kennedy's assassination, he asks staffers to schedule a meeting ...

January 24, 2012 | By BRIDGET MURPHY Associated Press | World

Meth fills hospitals with burn patients, posing a risk to all Americans

ST. LOUIS - A crude new method of making methamphetamine poses a risk even to Americans who never get anywhere near the drug: It is filling hospitals with thousands of uninsured burn patients who require millions of dollars in advanced treatment - a burden so costly that it's contributing to the closure of some burn units.

January 23, 2012 | By JIM SALTER Associated Press | World

Remorseful man admits to causing Reno blaze

RENO, Nev. - An elderly man discarding fireplace ashes accidentally touched off the brush fire that raged south of Reno, destroying 29 homes and forcing thousands of people to flee the flames, authorities said. The man admitted his role by improperly disposing of the ashes at his home. Investigators already had tracked the origin of the fire to a location in East Lake on the north end of the Washoe Valley, where the man ...

January 21, 2012 | By MARTIN GRIFFITH and SCOTT SONNER Associated Press | World

250K without power in Washington as flood worries rise

SEATTLE - A powerful Pacific Northwest storm knocked out power to about 250,000 electric customers around Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia after it coated much of Washington in ice and swelled Oregon rivers, killing a child and two adults. Besides the outages, the big concern now is more flooding in both states with warmer temperatures and rain. Most of those affected are customers of Puget Sound Energy, which said it had restored service to 87,000 ...

January 20, 2012 | By JONATHAN J. COOPER and MANUEL VALDES Associated Press | World

Seafarers outraged that captain could jump ship

STOCKHOLM - Seafaring tradition holds that the captain should be last to leave a sinking ship. But is it realistic to expect skippers - only human, after all - to suppress their survival instinct amid the horror of a maritime disaster? To ask them to stare down death from the bridge, as the lights go out and the water rises, until everyone else has made it to safety?

January 19, 2012 | By KARL RITTER Associated Press | World

GOP campaign rhetoric raising racial concerns

WASHINGTON - Hoping to win the hearts of Southern conservatives, Newt Gingrich leaned into his argument that President Barack Obama is a "food stamp president" and that poor people should want paychecks, not handouts - a pitch that earned him a standing ovation in South Carolina during a presidential debate on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

January 18, 2012 | By JESSE J. HOLLAND Associated Press | World

US obesity epidemic shows no hint of shrinking

CHICAGO - America's obesity epidemic is proving to be as stubborn as those maddening love handles, and it shows no sign of reversing course.

January 18, 2012 | By LINDSEY TANNER AP Medical Writer | World

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