By NBC's Jamie Novogrod ST. CHARLES, Mo. - One day after Rep. Todd Akin vowed to stay in the race for US Senate, dismissing calls from across the Republican party to step aside, Sen. Claire McCaskill welcomed Akin back to the campaign by bashing him … Standoff between Congress, Obama over budget, tax cuts could lead to recession ... - Detroit Free Press
Todd Akin calls for help to save his Senate candidacy - Kansas City Star
Book Will Describe Raid That Killed Bin Laden - New York Times (blog)
By JULIE BOSMAN Aamir Qureshi/Agence France-Presse -- Getty ImagesThe day after, local residents and the news media gathered at the hideout in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was killed by United States forces. A detailed first-person account of the raid … Tropical Storm Isaac churns into eastern Caribbean - San Jose Mercury News
ROSEAU, Dominica--The churning center of Tropical Storm Isaac spun over tiny islands at the eastern entrance to the Caribbean, where many seafront bars and restaurants stubbornly remained open Wednesday night as lightning and thunder crackled and choppy … New York MTA's Payroll Tax Rejected in Blow to Agency - Bloomberg
A payroll tax projected to pump $1.26 billion into the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority's budget this year may not provide another penny after a state judge struck it down as unconstitutional. Judge R. Bruce Cozzens Jr. held the levy … Test scores edge up in state ACT college-prep exam - The Seattle Times
Washington's 2012 high-school graduates who took the ACT college-entrance exam performed slightly better than in previous years. By The Associated Press No comments have been posted to this article. Average scores on the ACT exam were up slightly for … Investigators look into braking, bridge access in deadly train derailment - CNN
(CNN) — The crew aboard a train that derailed near Baltimore, killing two young women, did not apply the emergency brakes just before the accident, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The air brakes were automatically triggered, … Once again with feeling: Australian science tugs heart-strings
Do humans really wear their hearts on their sleeve? An ambitious Australian neuroscience project aiming to translate emotional impulses directly into music is hoping to find out. Australia's Qantas dives into red, scraps jet orders
Australian carrier Qantas on Thursday posted its first annual loss since privatisation in 1995 and cancelled orders for 35 Boeing jets as high fuel costs and industrial action hammered its bottom line. Tropical Storm Isaac takes aim at Hispaniola
Tropical Storm Isaac took aim at the Dominican Republic and Haiti early Thursday, expected to gain strength after drenching tiny islands in its whirl over the eastern entrance to the Caribbean. 'Public enemy' Cooper returns to face All Blacks
AUCKLAND (Reuters) – Australia flyhalf Quade Cooper, dubbed ‘Public Enemy Number One’ in his native country of New Zealand, makes his long-awaited return to the Wallabies for their must-win Rugby Championship clash against the All Blacks in Auckland on Saturday. Cooper will run out onto the same Eden Park pitch where he sustained a serious knee injury in the World Cup’s bronze medal decider against Wales, capping a miserable tournament for the mercurial playmaker in his last appearance for the Wallabies. …
Liverpool seek to bounce back in trip to Scotland
Liverpool can put the disappointment of their opening Premier League game under new coach Brendan Rodgers behind them when they head north of the border to face Hearts in their Europa League play-off first leg on Thursday. 
India were gearing for life without retired batting stars Rahul Dravid and Venkatsai Laxman as they begin a two-Test series against New Zealand in Hyderabad on Thursday. 
Locked up for breaking Thailand's most enduring taboo, the kingdom's "royal insult" prisoners say they face mistreatment from jail guards and are shunned even by common criminals. 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Army and Marine Corps on Wednesday awarded Humvee maker AM General as well as Lockheed Martin Corp and Oshkosh Corp contracts valued at $56 million to $66 million to work on prototypes for a new truck to replace the workhorse Humvee. The multibillion-dollar Humvee-replacement program is one of few new development programs available to U.S. companies as the Pentagon prepares for up to $1 trillion in cuts to planned spending over the next decade. … 
By Nataly Tavidian, Grand Island Reporter – email By Nataly Tavidian ntavidian@nebraska.tv / Facebook / Twitter @NTVsNatalyT Despite a slight drop in the ACT scores of high school students statewide, students are still outscoring their peers nationwide … 
MIAMI (AP) -- Forecasters say a tropical depression that has formed far out in the Atlantic Ocean is expected to strengthen into a tropical storm on Thursday. While most eyes were on Tropical Storm Isaac in the Caribbean Sea late Wednesday, the National … 
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Gunfire and shelling rocked Damascus, Syria, and its suburbs on Wednesday as opponents of President Bashar al-Assad reported a widening campaign by the military to sow fear and death in neighborhoods where the rebels are strong and … 
WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney's campaign advisers have concluded that they do not need any major adjustments in strategy to respond to the new focus on abortion and reproductive rights caused by Representative Todd Akin, betting that their candidate's … 
Rising home prices are often welcomed as a sign of a country's economic health and vigor. But in New Zealand, there is growing concern that prices have risen so high they are acting instead as an economic anchor, sucking resources from those who can afford a home and prompting those who can't to consider moving overseas. 
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Brent crude rose more than a dollar on Thursday, approaching $116 per barrel on renewed hopes for another round of monetary stimulus by the U.S. Federal Reserve, helping investors look past weak manufacturing data from China. The prospect of further economic stimulus from the Fed should boost the outlook for demand from the world's top oil consumer, although more evidence of a slowdown in China, the second biggest user, could limit price gains. Brent October futures rose $1.03 to $115.94 a barrel at 0332 GMT, rising for a third straight session. U.S. … 
The royal family warned the country's newspapers not to publish nude photographs of Prince Harry cavorting with friends on holiday in Las Vegas. 
TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares rose on Thursday after the Federal Reserve's minutes raised market hopes of more monetary stimulus, but a weak reading from a survey of Chinese manufacturing activity trimmed gains. The private HSBC Flash China manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) fell to 47.8 in August, its lowest level since November, from a final reading in July of 49.3, as new export orders slumped and inventories rose. … 
North Korea has agreed to meet South Korean private groups for talks about aid following deadly floods, officials said Thursday, despite icy relations between the two governments. 
A week after a young Christian girl was arrested on blasphemy charges in a poor suburb of Islamabad, her fellow believers fear they may have celebrated their last service in the area. 
(CBS/AP) — President Obama weighed in on Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin's controversial comments about "legitimate rape" Wednesday, mocking Akin by saying he "somehow missed science class." "The interesting thing here is that this is an … 
TOKYO (Reuters) – Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has suggested to his main rival he will call an election for early November, media reported on Thursday, but with the opposition scenting victory it was unclear if he could wait that long. Noda, who took office last September as Japan's sixth premier in five years, scored a rare policy win this month when parliament enacted a law to double the sales tax to curb public debt. But he had to pledge to call an election "soon" to gain opposition backing to pass the bill in a divided parliament. … 
Struggling Australian media giant Fairfax on Thursday said its full-year losses ballooned to Aus$2.73 billion (US$2.87 billion), driven by huge write-downs as part of its restructuring plans. 
Scientists have pinpointed a likely source for many cases of autism and schizophrenia: Men who become fathers later in life pass on more brand-new genetic mutations to their offspring. The finding buttresses observations from population studies that … 
* MSCI Asia ex-Japan up 0.3 pct, Nikkei opens down 0.6 pct * Euro hits fresh 7-week high vs dollar * Fed minutes fuel expectations of US stimulus * China HSBC PMI due at 0230 GMT By Chikako Mogi TOKYO, Aug 23 (Reuters) – Asian shares rose and the euro … 
World Newsday > News Print Aa Damascus areas shelled by regime; 35 dead Published: August 22, 2012 8:20 PM By HAMZA HENDAWI. The Associated Press BEIRUT — Syrian regime forces shelled two central Damascus districts yesterday before troops backed by … 
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said that regional troops would definitely intervene in Islamist-occupied northern Mali if negotiations with the extremists failed to yield a solution. 
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. -- Heated exchanges over the "war on women" have suddenly come to dominate the closely watched Senate race here, thanks to an obscure Republican congressman from Missouri. Soon after the congressman, Representative Todd Akin, … 
* Wealth, standard of living drop for middle income group * Middle class see more help from Obama than Romney * Americans blame Congress, banks for their woes By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (Reuters) – The US middle class has shrunk drastically … 
By Tom Brown | MIAMI (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Isaac swirled over the Caribbean on Wednesday and was forecast to become a hurricane as it moved on a track that would put it off the coast of Florida on Monday, the opening day of the Republican National … 
WASHINGTON -- The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that the economic recovery would continue "at a modest pace" for the rest of the year, but that if Congress took no action to stave off tax increases and automatic budget cuts scheduled for … 
RALEIGH, NC -- Rep. Paul D. Ryan shrugged off differences with Mitt Romney on abortion policy Wednesday, saying Romney's views, while more moderate than his, were "a good step in the right direction." Ryan, the presumptive Republican vice presidential … 
(CBS News) The cause of autism is one of the great mysteries of medicine, but we found out something new and important Wednesday. A report in the medical journal "Nature" says it is the age of the father at the time of conception, not the age of the … 
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan shifted their focus to the economy Wednesday, but Akin's "legitimate rape" gaffe continued to dominate the conversation. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports. By Michael O'Brien, … 
By Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball | WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US government was surprised by the news that a Navy SEAL who participated in the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan has written a book about the operation in which the al … 
AMMAN/ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) – The Syrian army shelled southern Damascus on Wednesday and helicopters fired rockets and machineguns during an assault meant to shore up President Bashar al-Assad's grip on the capital 17 months into an uprising, opposition activists said. The army has this week used tanks and helicopter gunships in an offensive around Damascus that coincided with the departure of U.N. military observers, their mission to stop the bloodshed and nudge Syria towards a peaceful transition a failure. … 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Despite claims by Julian Assange that Washington is plotting to extradite and execute him, U.S. and European government sources say the United States has issued no criminal charges against the WikiLeaks founder and has launched no attempt to extradite him. Moreover, Obama administration officials remain divided over the wisdom of prosecuting Assange, the sources said, and the likelihood of U.S. criminal charges against him is probably receding rather than growing. The Obama administration has said Assange's immediate fate is in the hands of Britain, Sweden and Ecuador. …