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Desperation and a rapidly growing death toll serve as a backdrop for a new effort dozens of countries are launching in hopes of finally stemming the brutal crackdown under way in Syria.

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum mixed it up over their records on the debt, taxes and earmarks Wednesday night in the first Republican presidential debate in almost a month, and the first before three contests in the next 10 days followed by the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses on March 6.

A jury on Wednesday evening found a former University of Virginia lacrosse player guilty of second-degree murder in the May 2010 death of his ex-girlfriend.

A self-proclaimed animal rights activist in Ohio has been charged with soliciting a hit man to kill a random person wearing fur, either by shooting the individual or slitting his or her throat.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the agreement passed by Congress last week to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits while preventing a cut in payments to Medicare doctors.

The grandmother and stepmother of a 9-year-old Alabama girl who died Monday after allegedly being ordered to run around her family's house -- for hours -- as punishment for lying about taking a candy bar have been charged with murder, police said Wednesday.

Substance abuse is one of the most pervasive and costly problems in our country. Over 68 million American adults have some form of substance use disorder and about 25 million are addicted to one or more substances. Every year, millions of lives are lost because of it.

Speculation and messages of support surged in Venezuela Wednesday, a day after President Hugo Chavez announced he would travel to Cuba for surgery.

"My friends think just because we live in Hawaii, we live in paradise. We're all just out here sipping mai tais, shaking our hips and catching waves. Are they insane?" While an Oscar-nominated picture requires the kind of conflict that George Clooney's character implies with this line from "The Descendants," your vacation getaway doesn't.

Singing sensation Adele continued rolling in the prizes at the Brit Awards in London, but she made headlines Wednesday for something else: she gave the middle finger when she was cut off during the live broadcast.