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Crews dig through night after deadly Okla. twister

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MOORE, Okla. (AP) - Spotlights bore down on massive piles of shredded cinder block, insulation and metal as crews worked through the night lifting bricks and parts of collapsed walls where a monstrous tornado barreled through the Oklahoma City suburbs, demolishing an elementary school and reducing homes to piles of splintered wood. At least 51 people were killed, including at least 20 children, and those numbers were expected to climb, officials said Tuesday. The storm left scores of blocks in Moore barren and dark. Rescuers walked through neighborhoods where Monday's powerful twister flattened home after home and stripped leaves off of trees to see if they could hear any voices calling out from the rubble. A helicopter buzzed above, shining lights on crews below.

In tornado's wake, worried parents seek out kids

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MOORE, Okla. (AP) - The parents and guardians stood in the muddy grass outside a suburban Oklahoma City church, listening as someone with a bullhorn called out the names of children who were being dropped off - survivors of a deadly tornado that barreled through their community. For many families, the ordeal ended in bear hugs and tears of joy as loved ones reunited. Others were left to wait in the darkness, hoping for good news while fearing the worst.

10 Things to Know for Today
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today: 1. OKLAHOMA TORNADO FLATTENS NEIGHBORHOODS, KILLS DOZENS


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AP photographer describes destroyed Okla. school

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MOORE, Okla. (AP) - I left the office as soon as I saw the tornado warnings on TV. I had photographed about a dozen twisters before 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. By the time I got to Moore, all I could see was destruction. I walked toward a group of people standing by a heaping mound of rubble too big to be a home. A woman told me it was a school.

Former IRS commissioner heads to Hill amid scandal

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers are getting their first chance to question the former head of the Internal Revenue Service, the man who ran the agency when agents were improperly targeting tea party groups. Some of the questions on Tuesday will be direct: What did you know, and when did you know it?

Syria, Israel exchange fire over border
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syria said Tuesday it destroyed an Israeli vehicle that crossed the ceasefire line in the Golan Heights overnight, while the Israeli military said gunfire from Syria had hit an Israeli patrol, damaging a vehicle and prompting its troops to fire back. The two sides appeared to be referring to the same incident.


Policy, discretion guide media sources probes

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WASHINGTON (AP) - It was a rare moment in relations between the media and the government: In 2008, FBI Director Robert Mueller called the top editors at The New York Times and The Washington Post to apologize because the bureau had improperly obtained reporters' telephone records four years earlier. The extraordinary call was an admission that the FBI's actions violated Justice Department policy about seeking journalists' phone records. But nothing about what the FBI did in 2004 appeared to run afoul of any law.

Should we let wunderkinds drop out of high school?

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NEW YORK (AP) - Thomas Sohmers, 17, of Hudson, Mass., has been working at a research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since he was 13, developing projects ranging from augmented reality eyewear to laser communications systems. This spring, his mom, Penny Mills, let him drop out of 11th grade. She says she "could see how much of the work he was doing at school wasn't relevant to what he wanted to learn." On Monday, Thomas and his mom learned that he is in esteemed company as a high-school dropout with a knack for computers: David Karp, 26, sold Tumblr, the online blogging forum he created, to Yahoo for $1.1 billion.

Owner: Chinese boat's captain beaten by NKoreans
BEIJING (AP) - Gunmen wearing North Korean military uniforms beat up the captain of a seized Chinese fishing boat and stole its fuel during two weeks of captivity, but eventually released the boat and crew Tuesday without the ransom they had demanded, the boat owner said. The incident was the latest irritant in relations between North Korea and a Chinese government increasingly frustrated with its neighboring ally over tests of its nuclear and rocket technologies in defiance of U.N. bans.


Manzarek, founding member of The Doors, dies at 74

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Ray Manzarek, a founding member of the 1960s rock group The Doors whose versatile and often haunting keyboards complemented Jim Morrison's gloomy baritone and helped set the mood for some of rock's most enduring songs, has died. He was 74. Manzarek died Monday in Rosenheim, Germany, surrounded by his family, said publicist Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald. She said the musician's manager, Tom Vitorino, confirmed Manzarek died after being stricken with bile duct cancer.