Police: Deadly toxin found at Las Vegas hotel

Police in Las Vegas, Nevada, are investigating the discovery of what they said is the deadly poison ricin in a hotel room.
Preliminary tests show the substance is ricin, authorities said, but other tests to confirm it are under way.
Meanwhile, the reason the substance was in the room remains a mystery.
"We don't know who [the ricin] belongs to or why it would be here at this time," said Capt. Joe Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
The FBI, which is assisting in the case, said it saw no link to terrorism, according to spokesman Richard Kolko.
Authorities were called to an Extended Stay America hotel around 3 p.m. PT Thursday after a man brought a bag with a small container to the manager's office. The man said he found it while retrieving items from a hotel room.
The substance is "100 percent ricin," Lombardo said.
Three hotel employees and a fourth person who came to the room to retrieve some items went to the hospital as a precaution, Officer Ramon Dendy said. Three police officers who entered the room also are under watch at the hospital. All have been decontaminated, and none of the seven have shown symptoms of ricin poisoning, which can include anything from difficulty breathing, fever, cough, nausea and sweating to severe vomiting and dehydration.

McCain, Obama in heated exchange over Iraq

Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama engaged in a pointed exchange over al Qaeda in Iraq on Wednesday. McCain questioned whether Obama was aware of the al Qaeda base. Obama's response was: "There was no such thing as al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq."
McCain was in Tyler, Texas, and Obama was in Columbus, Ohio.
"I understand that Sen. Obama said that if al Qaeda established a base in Iraq that he would send troops back in militarily. Al Qaeda already has a base in Iraq. It's called al Qaeda in Iraq," McCain said.
"It's a remarkable statement to say that you would send troops back to a place where al Qaeda has established a base -- where they have already established a base."
McCain's comments come in response to remarks Obama made Tuesday night in a debate with Sen. Hillary Clinton. He was asked if the president would have the right to go back into Iraq in order to suppress an insurrection after downsizing the U.S. troop presence.

Florida probes how small mishaps caused massive outages

Florida authorities are investigating how a small fire and a switch failure at an electrical substation outside Miami triggered a power failure that affected millions of people.
When a nuclear power plant sensed the disruption, it shut down. In turn, the state's power grid triggered rolling blackouts Tuesday across the state.
More than 2 million people lost power at the peak of the outages, but electricity quickly was restored to most parts of the state.
Authorities said no injuries were reported.
Florida Power & Light President Armando Olivera said a disconnect switch failed at 1:08 p.m. ET Tuesday at an automated substation west of Miami, and a piece of equipment that controls voltage caught fire about the same time. Neither failure by itself would have caused a widespread outage.

Dodd endorses Obama

Former Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president on Tuesday.
The formal endorsement will be announced during an event in Cleveland, Ohio.
A former adviser for Dodd said the timing of the Connecticut senator's endorsement "works pretty well" given that foreign policy has become a key issue of the campaign.

Wheelchair bomber kills 3 in Iraq police station

A man in a wheelchair blew himself up Monday in a northern Iraqi police station, killing three National Police officers, including a commander, police said.
The attack also wounded nine officers on the police force, which the Iraqi Interior Ministry operates.
The bombing in Samarra raises concern about the recent tactics employed by insurgents in Iraq. Bombs have been placed inside dead animals and hidden in carts. And in recent days, vagrants have been involved in bombings.
"As a sign of desperation, some of those terrorists resorted to some new methods and techniques," said Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, spokesman for Baghdad's security plan.
One of the tactics is the use of remote-controlled "sticky" bombs, small enough to tape under vehicles.
A high-ranking Samarra police official said the disabled man came to meet with Brig. Gen. Abdul Jabbar Rabei Muttar, deputy commander of security, at the security operations building in Samarra. The pair met last week as well.
The man was searched when he entered the building, but police didn't look under his wheelchair seat, where the explosives had been placed. The man, who police say was cogent, detonated the explosives when Muttar approached him.

Obama, Clinton agree to disagree

Sen. Hillary Clinton, needing a win in Texas to derail Sen. Barack Obama in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, sought Thursday to contrast her opponent's rhetorical skills with what she called her superior ability to govern.
"I do think that words are important and words matter," Clinton said at a debate at the University of Texas. "But actions speak louder than words."
Obama responded by laying out issues he's worked on in the Senate and others he'd support as president -- then called it ridiculous to suggest his supporters are "being duped."
"The implication is that the people who have been voting for me or involved in my campaign are somehow delusional," he said.
Obama said his supporters perceive the reality of what's going on in Washington very clearly, and they want to see it change.
"What they see is that if we don't bring the country together, stop the endless bickering, actually focus on solutions and reduce the special interests that have dominated Washington, then we will not get anything done."

McCain denies inappropriate relationship with lobbyist

Sen. John McCain denied assertions published in The New York Times that he once had a close relationship with a female lobbyist whose clients had business before his Senate committee.
"I'm disappointed in The New York Times piece. It's not true," he told reporters in Ohio on Thursday, his wife, Cindy, standing by his side.
He added that he has never "done anything that would betray the public trust or make a decision" that would favor a particular group.
His wife said her husband always puts family and country first.
"He's a man of great character," she said.
The New York Times issued a statement Thursday saying it stands by its reporting and that "the story speaks for itself."
The newspaper reported in its online edition Wednesday that aides to McCain's 2000 presidential campaign were so worried about the relationship that they confronted McCain and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman.
Also, some McCain advisers were concerned in 2000 that his relationship with Iseman had become romantic, The New York Times reported.
"A former campaign adviser described being instructed to keep Ms. Iseman away from the senator at public events, while a Senate aide recalled plans to limit Ms. Iseman's access to his offices," the paper reported.
McCain said in a news conference Thursday that he never had discussions with any staffers about an inappropriate relationship with Iseman. He also denied having a romantic relationship with her. If staffers had such concerns, McCain told reporters, they never conveyed them to him.
McCain further described his relationship with Iseman as a friendship and said he had "seen her on occasion, particularly at receptions and fundraisers and appearances before the committee." Asked if he was closer to Iseman than he was other lobbyists, McCain flatly said no.
McCain's former top political adviser, John Weaver, told the newspaper that he met with Iseman at Washington's Union Station during McCain's first presidential bid. He asked her to stay away from the senator, the paper reported, because McCain was running on a platform of political reform and shunning special interests.
Iseman represented telecommunications companies with business before the Senate Commerce Committee that McCain led, according to the newspaper.

Horrific school bus crash leaves 4 students dead

A school bus and several other vehicles crashed in southwestern Minnesota on Tuesday, killing four students and injuring more than a dozen others, authorities said.

The bus was hit by a van around 3:25 p.m. on a highway south of Cottonwood. The bus then hit a pickup and tipped on its side, State Patrol Lt. Mark Peterson said.
At least 14 people were hurt. Thirteen students were treated at nearby hospitals.
News of the crash swept through Cottonwood, a small town of about 1,000 people about 121 miles southwest of Minneapolis.

About 40 people attended an evening press briefing at Swan Lake Evangelical Free Church.
When Fire Chief Dale Louwagie was asked what the community could do, he said simply, "Pray."
Classes were canceled Wednesday at Lakeview School, which serves about 585 students in Cottonwood and Wood Lake, and plans were made to have grief counselors and clergy available to students, a school official said.
The bus was on its regular route, carrying children from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Initial reports said the bus was carrying 40 people, but it actually carried 28 students and a driver, Minnesota Public Safety spokeswoman Christine Krueger said.
Rescue squads and ambulances from many nearby cities arrived at the crash site. The Marshall Independent reported that the first motorists on the scene were asked to take some children to the hospital.

Castro's resignation won't change U.S. policy, official says

The U.S. embargo on Cuba will remain in place despite Fidel Castro's announcement that he's resigning as Cuba's leader, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said Tuesday.
Asked whether Castro's resignation would change U.S. policy, Negroponte said, "I can't imagine that happening any time soon."
President Bush said the move should spark "a democratic transition" for the communist island nation.
"The international community should work with the Cuban people to begin to build institutions that are necessary for democracy and eventually this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections," Bush said at a news conference in Rwanda during his five-nation tour of Africa.
"I believe that the change from Fidel Castro ought to begin ... a democratic transition," he said. "The United States will help the people of Cuba realize the blessings of liberty."

Former President Bush endorses McCain

Former President George H.W. Bush endorsed John McCain on Monday, another sign that the Republican Party is coalescing around the Arizona senator's presumptive nomination.
"At this critical time in history... the United States cannot be allowed to falter," the 41st president said in Houston, Texas. "No one is better to lead our nation in these trying times than Senator John McCain.
"His character was forged in the crucible of war," Bush said, referring to McCain's experience as a Navy pilot and prisoner of war in Vietnam.
"Few men walking among us has sacrificed so much for the cause of human freedom," Bush said.
After Bush spoke, McCain said Bush's endorsement would help in "uniting our party and moving forward."
In addition to boosting McCain's fundraising apparatus, the formal announcement in Houston, Texas, by Ronald Reagan's vice president, scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Central Time, probably will provide McCain with new political ammunition against critics who question his conservative credentials.
On Sunday, McCain brought memories of Bush's infamous broken promise not to raise taxes after the 2008 candidate was asked whether he would make a similar pledge.
Speaking on ABC's "This Week," McCain said he would not increase taxes under any circumstances and mentioned several alternatives, including lowering interest rates and lowering corporate tax rates "if our economy continues to deteriorate."
"There's a lot of things that I would think we should do to relieve that burden, including, obviously, as we all know, simplification of the tax code," he said.
Despite Bush's strong ties to the party's revered Reagan legacy, those links haven't endeared him to the GOP's conservative wing. The Bush endorsement won't necessarily help McCain with "values voters," who have always suspected that Bush the elder was not wholly committed to the anti-abortion cause.

Suns Shoot Down Mavericks, 109-97

Steve Nash had 24 points and 13 assists and the Phoenix Suns pulled away in the final quarter to beat the weary and short-handed Dallas Mavericks 109-97 on Friday night.
Amare Stoudemire and Leandro Barbosa scored 26 apiece and Boris Diaw 19 Leandro Barbosa for the Suns, who shot 57 percent and improved to 3-2 since Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks were sent to Miami for Shaquille O'Neal.
O'Neal, sidelined with a hip injury, is scheduled to make his Phoenix debut next Wednesday against his old team, the Los Angeles Lakers.
Dirk Nowitzki scored 36 points and Jason Terry 29 for the Mavericks, who were without Josh Howard, Jerry Stackhouse and Devin Harris because of injuries.
The Mavericks were playing their fourth game in five nights -- a day after they were close to acquiring All-Star guard Jason Kidd from New Jersey -- but stayed close until the Suns put it away with an 11-2 run late in the final quarter.
Dallas shot 29 percent (7-for-24) in the third quarter while Phoenix took a 77-73 lead, with Barbosa scoring on his own rebound with a second left.
Stoudemire and Barbosa scored to start the fourth quarter to put the Suns ahead 81-73 with 11:21 to go. A four-point play put Phoenix ahead 91-84 7:03 from the finish. Nowitzki was called for goaltending on Boris Diaw's inside shot, and Eddie Jones was whistled for a foul. Jones drew a technical for complaining. Nash made one free throw and Diaw another.
Stoudemire converted a three-point play on a thunderous dunk, then Barbosa scored on a fastbreak and it was 100-91 with 3:22 to play.
After Nowitzki's inside basket, Diaw made a 17-footer and Barbosa got another layup after a Dallas turnover, putting Phoenix ahead 104-93 with 1:51 left.
After going 0-for-11 on Tuesday night while being heckled in Dallas, Devean George was 0-for-2 before making a 3-pointer to end the skid. George exercised his no-trade clause to block a seven-player deal that would have brought Kidd to the Mavs. George declined to talk to reporters before the game and finished with seven points.

Clinton sharpens attacks on Obama

Sen. Hillary Clinton on Thursday sharpened her attacks on Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama as she faces what even her supporters admit are must-win situations in Texas and Ohio in the weeks ahead.
At a campaign stop at a General Motors Corp. plant in Lordstown, Ohio, the senator from New York accused Obama of caving in to special interests.
"My opponent says that he'll take on the special interests," she said. "Well, he told people he stood up to the nuclear industry and passed a bill against them. But he actually let the nuclear industry water down his bill -- the bill never actually passed."
Clinton was referring to a 2006 bill that Obama drafted after an Illinois nuclear power plant was found to have released radiation into surrounding groundwater.
Obama's original bill would have required power plants to notify the public and government officials when any radiation was released, but subsequent versions had less stringent reporting requirements, The New York Times reported. The bill was never voted on by the full Senate.
Clinton also accused Obama of supporting "billions of dollars of breaks for the oil industry" by voting for an energy bill she opposed and said he did not support the workers of a Maytag Corp. plant that closed in his home state of Illinois.
In recent days, Clinton has challenged Obama's ability to deliver on his rhetoric.
"There's a big difference between us speeches versus solutions, talk versus action," she said.
"Speeches don't put food on the table. Speeches don't fill up your tank or fill your prescription or do anything about that stack of bills that keeps you up at night."

Huckabee vows to stay in the race

Mike Huckabee vowed to stay in the race despite losing three more primaries Tuesday night, pledging to give voters in the coming primaries "a solid, conservative, absolute pro-life candidate" as an alternative to frontrunner John McCain.
"The nomination is not secured until somebody has 1,191 delegates," Huckabee said. "That has not yet happened. We're still continuing to work and to give voters in these states a choice."
McCain easily won primaries in Maryland and the District of Columbia, but Huckabee gave him a run for his money in Virginia. The former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister said the results showed that "there's still a real sense in the Republican party of a desire to have a choice."

Strong earthquake shakes Mexico

A magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook southern Mexico on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, but there were no immediate reports of damage.
The quake gently swayed buildings in Mexico City, and it was felt hundreds of miles to the east along the Gulf coast, according to local radio stations.
The temblor struck at 6:50 a.m. and was centered in the region of Oaxaca, the USGS said.
In the southern city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, many people fled into the streets and then lingered outside their homes, fearing aftershocks.
"It was horrible," said Cecilia Gomez, standing with her family outside her home. "It really scared me."
Daniel Roque, of southern Chiapas state's civil protection agency, said some residents reported panic attacks, but no damage was registered.

Obama rolls into Potomac primaries after weekend sweep

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama carries momentum from a sweep of weekend contests into this week's primaries in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia.
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, is coming off a campaign shake-up, while her advisers are seeking to lower expectations for this month's Democratic contests.
Obama came out ahead in Sunday's Democratic caucuses in Maine after wins in Saturday's Louisiana primary and Democratic caucuses in Nebraska, Washington and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting in Maine, Obama was leading Clinton 59 percent to 40 percent. At stake are 24 delegates to August's Democratic national convention in Denver.
Those contests gave him a lead over Clinton in pledged delegates to the convention, but Clinton still held a narrow edge over Obama when "superdelegates" elected officials and party leaders are included in the tally.

'Miracle' baby tossed 300 feet by twister found alive

Armed with nothing but a flashlight and finding no signs of life, firefighter David Harmon made one final search of tornado wreckage and made the discovery of a lifetime.
"I shined the flashlight across it and said 'I've got a baby doll.' And before I got 'I've got a baby doll' out of my mouth, it moved," Harmon said.
In pitch darkness, in the middle of a field, Harmon found a baby boy covered with mud and debris.
"As soon as we rolled the baby over, it took a gasp of air and started crying," he said.
Eleven-month-old Kyson Stowell was thrown a hundred yards when a tornado shattered his home. He was found shivering but with only minor injuries. His mother, Kerri, was killed.

Families die together on terrifying night of twisters

The Stephens relatives tend to stick together. Several of them live on the same road in the south-central Kentucky farming community of Holland, according to Vonda McPeak, who said her husband is a distant Stephens cousin.
That's why the Stephens name showed up so many times on the list of dead and injured from the ferocious storms that struck the region late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
Linda Stephens, 53, and her 2-year-old grandson, Hunter, were killed, and seven other people with that surname -- including an infant and a 1-year-old -- were hurt, according to McPeak and state police.
At another mobile home just a mile or so away, Phyllis "Joy" Dow, 58, and her husband Michael Dow, 50, also were killed, making four deaths in Allen County, state police said.
The county neighbors Macon County and Sumner County, Tennessee, which together saw at least 20 storm deaths that night.
In Muhlenberg County in western Kentucky, Bobby Joe Crick, 71, and his 62-year-old wife, Diane Crick, 62, died with their 40-year-old daughter, Gilda Ann Crick, when the storms hit their mobile home park near Greenville, said Ted Tucker, co-owner of Tucker Funeral Home in Central City.

McCain emerges as GOP leader; Romney reassesses campaign

Sen. John McCain awoke Wednesday with a commanding lead in the race for Republican delegates while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney plans to meet with aides after a disappointing Super Tuesday showing.
"Although I've never minded the role of the underdog and have relished as much as anyone come-from-behind wins, tonight I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party front-runner," McCain said Tuesday night in his home state of Arizona. "And I don't really mind it one bit."
Despite finishing second to McCain in terms of GOP delegates won in Super Tuesday contests, Romney assured supporters late Tuesday he would "keep on battling ... all the way to the convention."
Although he outspent his rivals, Romney received just 157 delegates on Super Tuesday, compared with at least 497 for McCain and 137 for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Huckabee scores first Super Tuesday win

Republican Mike Huckabee scored the first Super Tuesday victory, winning all 18 delegates at stake in West Virginia partially with the help of Sen. John McCain's backers.
The former Arkansas governor won with the support of 52 percent of the state's GOP convention delegates on the second round of balloting. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney came in second with 47 percent of the vote, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona was backed by 1 percent of the delegates.
Romney was ahead in the first round of voting in Charleston but failed to get the majority needed to win.
It appeared supporters of McCain, who placed a distant third on the first ballot, moved over to Huckabee, helping him carry the day.
Romney's campaign was furious over the "Washington backroom deal."
"Unfortunately, this is what Sen. McCain's inside Washington ways look like: He cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Gov. Romney's campaign of conservative change," read a statement from Romney campaign manager Beth Myers.

Obama makes Super Bowl appearance

Pigskin and politics. It's an audience Barack Obama couldn't ignore.
Obama, neck and neck with Hillary Rodham Clinton heading into Tuesday's nominating contests, aired ads during the Super Bowl in television markets serving 24 states that are in play on Super Tuesday and beyond.
The 30-second ad is a summary of Obama's political message, played against images of crowds of supporters, despair in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina's destruction.
"We want an end to this war and we want diplomacy and peace,' Obama says in a voice over from a speech in Austin, Texas. "Not only can we save the environment, we can create jobs and opportunity. We're tired of fear; we're tired of division. We want something new. We want to turn the page. The world as it is is not the world as it has to be."
With the Super Bowl being played two days before Super Tuesday, speculation had been growing about which campaign, if any, would take the plunge and make a pitch to such a huge television audience. More than 90 million viewers were expected to watch the New England Patriots take on the New York Giants.
No campaign bought a national ad with Fox Sports, which is televising the game. Doing so would have put a political ad in direct competition with slick Madison Avenue productions. Obama aides said the regionalized purchase of ads was far less expensive than the nearly $3 million a national ad on Fox Sports would have cost.

Clinton, Obama debate with less finger-pointing

Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spent their last debate before next week's Super Tuesday contests pointing out differences on Iraq, health care and the economy -- but without all of the finger-pointing that's marked their campaigns.
The exchange was in sharp contrast to previous debates because of the absence of political sniping, yet was one of the most substantive policy discussions yet in the race for the nomination.
On Iraq, Obama said he'd be more able to end the war because he opposed it from the beginning. He said Clinton's vote to authorize the use of force there would undermine her efforts to bring it to an end.
"I think it is much easier for us to have the argument when we have a nominee who says, 'I always thought this was a bad idea -- this was a bad strategy,' " he said.
Clinton defended her vote, saying she was told by the White House that it would be used initially to return weapons inspectors to see whether Saddam Hussein had an active weapons program.