• Staff to be removed during probe at LA school (AP)

    Yolanda Sanchez talks about what she describes as documented child abuse of her son, outside the Miramonte Elementary school in Los Angeles, Monday, Feb. 6, 2012. About three dozen parents and supporters staged a protest at the Los Angeles-area school rocked by allegations of lewd conduct crimes by two teachers against children. They demanded greater communication with education officials and the placement of cameras in classrooms and hallways at Miramonte Elementary School. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)AP - The entire staff at an elementary school where two teachers were arrested on suspicion of lewd conduct will be removed while the school district investigates, the Los Angeles school superintendent said Monday night.


  • Autopsies: Powell boys suffered 'chop injuries' (AP)

    In this Aug. 19, 2011 photo, Josh Powell plays with his son Braden in a park near his home, in Puyallup, Wash. Powell had long been a person of interest in his wife’s disappearance from their home in West Valley City, Utah, two years ago. When Powell's two sons arrived Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012, for a court-ordered, supervised child custody visit with their father, Powell barred a social worker from entering and then torched the house. All three died. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Rick Egan) DESERET NEWS OUT; LOCAL TV OUT; MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDITAP - Josh Powell's boys were coming for a visit, and he had preparations to make.


  • US closes Syrian embassy as diplomacy collapses (AP)

    A member of the Free Syrian Army stands guard as anti-Syrian regime protesters hold a demonstration in Idlib, Syria, Monday, Feb. 6, 2012. The U.S. closed its Syrian embassy Monday and Britain recalled its ambassador to Damascus in a dramatic escalation of Western pressure on President Bashar Assad to give up power, just days after diplomatic efforts at the United Nations to end the crisis collapsed. (AP Photo)AP - The U.S. closed its embassy in Syria and Britain recalled its ambassador to Damascus on Monday in a new Western push to get President Bashar Assad to leave power and halt the murderous grind in Syria — now among the deadliest conflicts of the Arab Spring.


  • New US sanctions on Iran aim to head off Israel (AP)

    FILE- In this April 8, 2008, file photo released by the Iranian President's Office, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, listens to a technician during his visit of the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility some 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran, Iran. For the first time in nearly two decades of escalating tensions over the Iranian nuclear program, it appears that world leaders are genuinely concerned that an Israeli military attack on the Islamic Republic could be imminent, an action that many fear might trigger war, terrorism and global economic havoc. (AP Photo/Iranian Presidents office, File)AP - Additional U.S. sanctions on Iran are more significant for their timing than their immediate effect on Iran's economy, coming as the United States and its allies are arguing that Israel should hold off on any military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities to allow more time for sanctions to work.