AP - Israel gave preliminary approval on Wednesday to a plan to build 600 new homes in a settlement deep inside the West Bank, a move that drew rebukes from the United Nations and Palestinians and threatened to raise tensions with the U.S. as the prime minister prepares to head to the White House.

Reuters - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces rained rockets and bombs down on opposition-held neighborhoods of the city of Homs on Wednesday, reducing buildings to rubble and killing more than 80 people, including two Western journalists.

AP - U.S. stocks fell Wednesday as investors worried over the details of a new bailout plan for Greece.

AP - The U.S. and the Afghan governments are considering pushing through a long-delayed partnership agreement by moving the contentious issues of night raids and control over detainees to separate negotiations, officials from both countries said.

Reuters - The U.N. nuclear watchdog ended its latest mission to Iran after talks on Tehran's suspected secret atomic weapons research failed, a setback likely to increase the risk of confrontation with the West.

AP - President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed a lower corporate tax rate and an end to dozens of loopholes he said helps companies move jobs and profits overseas. "It's not right and it needs to change," he said.

AP - President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed a lower corporate tax rate and an end to dozens of loopholes he said helps companies move jobs and profits overseas. "It's not right and it needs to change," he said.

AP - President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed a lower corporate tax rate and an end to dozens of loopholes he said helps companies move jobs and profits overseas. "It's not right and it needs to change," he said.

AP - The Supreme Court appeared sharply divided Wednesday over a law that makes it a crime to lie about having been awarded top military honors.

AP - The housing market is flashing signs of health ahead of the spring-buying season.

AP - The housing market is flashing signs of health ahead of the spring-buying season.

Reuters - U.S. home resales rose to a 1-1/2 year high in January, pushing the supply of properties on the market to the lowest level in almost seven years in a hopeful sign for the housing sector.

AP - President Hugo Chavez has raised serious doubts about whether he'll have the stamina for a successful re-election bid, revealing that he needs to return to Cuba to have a lesion removed that is probably malignant.

Reuters - U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday with the S&P 500 stalled near a 10-month-old high after weak data on Europe's business activity raised concerns about a recession.

Reuters - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's imminent departure for more cancer surgery in Cuba has thrown his re-election campaign into uncertainty and once again shaken the socialist leader's passionate supporters.

AP - First birth control, now prenatal testing? Once again a fact of life for many American women has become a jarring issue in the presidential race.

AP - The former chief of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has been released from a French police station after two days of questioning over a suspected hotel prostitution ring.

AP - Jurors in the murder trial of a former University of Virginia lacrosse player began deliberating Wednesday whether he battered his ex-girlfriend to death in a drunken, jealous rage or if his intent to talk with her spiraled out of control, leaving her bleeding and dying in her bedroom.

AP - Just two dozen ultra-wealthy donors are behind a surge of million-dollar contributions to the new breed of political committees during the presidential campaign.

Reuters - Afghan President Hamid Karzai appealed for calm Wednesday after officials said six people were shot dead and dozens wounded in protests over the burning of copies of the Koran, Islam's holy book, at NATO's main base in the country.