Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday:

Residents sift through the remnants of their homes and parents hug children outside a demolished elementary school. Emergency workers tend to the wounded.

Jodi Arias begged jurors Tuesday to give her life in prison, saying she "lacked perspective" when she told a local reporter in an interview that she preferred execution to spending the rest of her days in jail.

The principal's voice came on over the intercom at Plaza Towers Elementary School: A severe storm was approaching and students were to go to the cafeteria and wait for their parents to pick them up.

Helmeted rescue workers raced Tuesday to complete the search for survivors and the dead in the Oklahoma City suburb where a mammoth tornado destroyed countless homes, cleared lots down to bare red earth and claimed 24 lives, including those of nine children.

When Ben Bernanke testifies about the U.S. economy Wednesday, the Federal Reserve chairman's words will be examined for any clues that the Fed might soon taper _ or increase _ its support for the economy.

Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of slain civil rights activist Malcolm X, has been buried at a cemetery in suburban New York.

Federal agents and the state fire marshal have effectively barred a federal safety panel from the site of a Texas fertilizer plant blast that killed 15 people and injured about 200 others, hampering its investigation, the panel's chairman said.

When 15-year-old Nichole Cable left home May 12, she told her family she was heading out to see someone she'd met on Facebook.

A Coast Guard rescue swimmer whose disappearance led to a massive search in Hawaii pleaded guilty to desertion Tuesday, saying he left work one day, decided never to return and spent the next three months camping in the mountains. A military judge sentenced him to more than six months confinement and a bad conduct discharge.

The lawyer for the family of missing Utah woman Susan Powell said Tuesday that even as local police close the active part of their investigation into her disappearance, federal authorities continue to review the case _ a claim that was denied by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Salt Lake City.

The president of a New York police union defended an officer who accidentally killed a Hofstra University student during a standoff with an armed intruder, saying Tuesday the only person responsible for the woman's death was the gunman who held her hostage.

An 18-year-old Florida cheerleader is facing felony charges that she had sexual contact with her underage, 14-year-old girlfriend, leading gay rights advocates to say the teen is being unfairly targeted for a common high school romance because she's gay.

After a nearly four-hour commute Tuesday morning, Orlando Cordero was thrilled to hear train service was returning to normal as workers were finishing repair to tracks damaged by last week's train collision in Bridgeport.

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday:

A mysterious respiratory illness has left five people hospitalized and two dead in southeast Alabama, state health officials said Tuesday.

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday praised two agents who died while training off the Virginia Beach coast last weekend for their "true and unerring valor."

I left the office in Oklahoma City as soon as I saw the tornado warnings on TV. I had photographed about a dozen twisters in the past decade, and knew that if I didn't get in my car before the funnel cloud hit, it would be too late.

Helmeted rescue workers raced Tuesday to complete the search for survivors and the dead in the Oklahoma City suburb where a mammoth tornado destroyed countless homes, cleared lots down to bare red earth and claimed 24 lives, including those of nine children.

Residents sift through the remnants of their homes and parents hug children outside a demolished elementary school. Emergency workers tend to the wounded.