• Fire burns 750 acres northeast of Los Angeles 10/12/2008, 7:35 p.m. EDT
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Firefighters backed by water-dumping helicopters and planes gained ground Sunday on a wildfire that destroyed two homes and forced the evacuation of about 1,200 people in a rugged area 20 miles north of downtown.

• McCain vows to whip Obama's 'you know what' 10/12/2008, 7:35 p.m. EDT
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Republican John McCain vowed Sunday to "whip" Democratic rival Barack Obama's "you-know-what" when the two presidential candidates meet Wednesday in their final televised debate.

• Biden decries 'ugly inferences' against Obama 10/12/2008, 7:31 p.m. EDT
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden on Sunday accused the McCain campaign of trying to distract Americans from their economic woes by launching "unbecoming personal attacks" at Barack Obama.

• Palin talks economic worries in Appalachian Ohio 10/12/2008, 7:06 p.m. EDT
ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Sarah Palin told voters in southeastern Ohio on Sunday that she and running mate John McCain would bring jobs back to this economically depressed piece of Appalachia.

• Norbert weakens to tropical depression over Mexico 10/12/2008, 6:13 p.m. EDT
PUERTO SAN CARLOS, Mexico (AP) — Norbert dissipated into a tropical depression over the northern mountains of mainland Mexico on Sunday, after ripping off roofs, flooding streets, and forcing thousands to seek shelter in Baja California.

• Obama asked about help for struggling families 10/12/2008, 6:08 p.m. EDT
HOLLAND, Ohio (AP) — During an hourlong visit to a neighborhood of ranch-style and split-level homes near Toledo, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was repeatedly asked what he could do to help struggling families.

• Bombers strike in Mosul and Baghdad, killing 13 10/12/2008, 5:39 p.m. EDT
BAGHDAD (AP) — Suicide car bombers struck twice Sunday in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least six people and wounding dozens of others, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. A car bomb killed seven other people in Baghdad.

• World Bank to protect vulnerable countries 10/12/2008, 5:39 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The World Bank agreed Sunday to help developing countries strengthen their economies, bolster their financial systems and protect the poor against the financial turmoil in international markets.

• NYC Council speaker supports term-limit law change 10/12/2008, 5:37 p.m. EDT
NEW YORK (AP) — The speaker of the New York City Council says she supports Mayor Michael Bloomberg in his bid to stay in office for a third term.

• Forecasters: Tropical Storm Nana forms in Atlantic 10/12/2008, 5:16 p.m. EDT
MIAMI (AP) — Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami say Tropical Storm Nana has formed in the eastern Atlantic, but predict it will weaken to a tropical depression by Monday.

• Fact Check: Camps highlight foes' old associates 10/12/2008, 5:16 p.m. EDT
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Scraping for any advantage in the presidential campaign's waning days, John McCain and Barack Obama are introducing voters to a new cast of characters.

• Bank stock purchase pushed; `no' to protectionism 10/12/2008, 5:13 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told international leaders on Sunday that isolationism and protectionism could worsen the spreading financial crisis. With a new trading week dawning, U.S. lawmakers urged quick action by the Bush administration on measures to make direct purchases of bank stock to help unlock lending.

• APNewsAlert 10/12/2008, 5:04 p.m. EDT
MIAMI (AP) — National Hurricane Center: Tropical Storm Nana forms in eastern Atlantic, but likely to weaken.

• GOP frets about McCain's strategy, prospects 10/12/2008, 4:53 p.m. EDT
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Three weeks before the election, Republicans are growing increasingly concerned about John McCain's ability to mount a comeback, questioning his tactics and even his campaign's main thrust in a White House race increasingly focused on economic turmoil.

• No Internet access for 9/11 defendants at Gitmo 10/12/2008, 4:32 p.m. EDT
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A U.S. military judge has denied a request from professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for Internet access inside his Guantanamo cell, ruling he does not need it to prepare for his death penalty trial.

• Exit poll: conservatives ahead in Lithuania vote 10/12/2008, 4:30 p.m. EDT
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — A conservative opposition party and a populist group led by an impeached ex-president made strong gains in Lithuania's election Sunday, while the centrist government faltered, an exit poll indicated.

• Gunmen kill 6 at party in northern Mexico 10/12/2008, 4:27 p.m. EDT
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — Gunmen have killed six young men at a family party in the gang-plagued Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

• Atlanta Jews remember 'bomb that healed' 10/12/2008, 3:51 p.m. EDT
ATLANTA (AP) — The bombing of a prominent Atlanta synagogue in 1958 claimed no lives, but the community outrage that it prompted helped galvanize the city's nervous Jewish community to embrace the civil rights movement.

• Debt clock draws confused looks, anger or nothing 10/12/2008, 3:45 p.m. EDT
NEW YORK (AP) — A watched clock never moves — unless it's the National Debt Clock.

• Palin has mixed record as fiscal conservative 10/12/2008, 3:24 p.m. EDT
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, bills herself as a fiscal conservative. But her record looks little like the classic conservative who favors less government and lower taxes.

• Insulated from global woes, Iraqi stocks soar 10/12/2008, 3:13 p.m. EDT
BAGHDAD (AP) — While the rest of the world is facing a financial meltdown, the Iraq Stock Exchange is booming.

• Holocaust survivors tell love story 10/12/2008, 3:11 p.m. EDT
NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — In the beginning, there was a boy, a girl and an apple.

• Yale celebrates Noah Webster's 250th birthday 10/12/2008, 3:10 p.m. EDT
(AP) — NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The announcement came in 1800 in the back of a Connecticut newspaper just above a farmer's reward for a stray cow. A man named Noah Webster was proposing the first comprehensive "dictionary of the American language."

• Recovery, ruin visible in Texas a month after Ike 10/12/2008, 3:10 p.m. EDT
GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A month later, piles of Sheetrock, appliances, furniture and family mementos dot most streets in this island town. Electronic road signs in southeast Texas flash, "Watch for cows next 20 miles," a reminder that few fences remain to hem in livestock. Blue tarps cover 11,000 roofs for 100 miles from Houston to the Louisiana line.

• Top general: NATO not losing Afghan war 10/12/2008, 3:04 p.m. EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The top NATO general in Afghanistan on Sunday rejected the idea that NATO is losing the Afghanistan war to an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency.