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LAUDERHILL, Fla. - Look, over there. Under that blue tarp in a suburban driveway. That thing that's the size of a Smart car?

WASHINGTON - Cheered by President Barack Obama, House Democrats rolled out landmark legislation Thursday to extend health care to tens of millions who lack coverage, impose sweeping new restrictions on the insurance industry and create a government-run option to compete with private insurers.

DENVER - A large, powerful autumn snowstorm slowly moved out of Colorado Thursday and trudged toward Nebraska and Kansas, causing blizzard-like conditions on the eastern plains and leaving in its wake treacherous roads and hundreds of canceled flights.

A new treatment for swine flu may already be on pharmacy shelves — cholesterol-lowering statin drugs like Lipitor and Zocor.

ATLANTA - Sleepless in Seattle? Hardly. West Virginia is where people are really staying awake, according to the first government study to monitor state-by-state differences in sleeplessness.

WASHINGTON - After a record four straight losing quarters, the economy finally grew again. It was hardly a boom, and it was almost all because of government spending. But it was enough to change the question from when the recession will end to whether the recovery will hold.

PARIS (AFP) - It took 13 billion years to reach Earth, but astronomers have seen the light of an exploding mega-star that is the most distant object ever detected, two studies published Thursday reported.

WASHINGTON - The White House is promising that new figures being released Friday will be a more accurate showing of progress in President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan. It aggressively defended an earlier, faulty count that overstated by thousands the jobs created or saved so far.

NEW YORK - Sting isn't a religious man, but he says President Barack Obama might be a divine answer to the world's problems.

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Paul and Rachel Chandler, a retired British couple who sailed to exotic locales aboard their 38-foot yacht, said in one of their last cheery messages they would likely be "out of touch for some time."

Washington, DC — We have the best medical professionals in the world, but fewer and fewer Americans can afford to pay for the care they can provide. The trends indicate that problem will get much worse.

WASHINGTON - Many states declare students to have grade-level mastery of reading and math when they do not, the Education Department reported Thursday.

Earlier in the month, shortly after he burst onto the political scene by presenting his "Die Quickly" interpretation of the Republican health care plan on the floor of the House, we asked, "Is Alan Grayson the Democrats' Joe Wilson?"

LOS ANGELES - A gunman shot and wounded two men in the parking garage of a North Hollywood synagogue Thursday, frightening worshippers who heard gunshots and screams before the bleeding victims stumbled in during morning services.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Technology and media stars, pundits, and entrepreneurs joined the Internet's father on Thursday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his culture-changing child.

MPHANDULA, Malawi - Madonna has promised electricity to a village in Malawi, the impoverished southern African country where she runs a charity organization and from which she has adopted two children.

WANTAGE, N.J. - Police in New Jersey are trying to determine who fired a bullet that struck CNN commentator Lou Dobbs' home as his wife stood nearby. State police Sgt. Stephen Jones says Dobbs' wife and driver were outside the home Oct. 5 when they heard the gunshot. Jones says the bullet didn't penetrate the siding and fell to the ground outside.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A former cashier for The Home Depot who has been wearing a "One nation under God" button on his work apron for more than a year has been fired, he says because of the religious reference. The company claims that expressing such personal beliefs is simply not allowed.

MUMBAI, India - The slum kid stars of "Slumdog Millionaire" want a lot of things in life — new houses, a car, trips to London and Paris — but they aren't too interested in school.

LONDON (Reuters) - A molecule found in a curry ingredient can kill esophageal cancer cells in the laboratory, suggesting it might be developed as an anti-cancer treatment, scientists said on Wednesday.

Facebook is quietly offering a fix to one of the social-networking service's most awkward loose ends -- what happens to user profiles after those people die

NEW YORK - Stocks logged their best day in three months as investors rushed into the market on word the economy grew faster than expected during the summer.

SHERWANGAI, Pakistan - Pakistani soldiers battling their way into a Taliban stronghold along the Afghan border have seized passports that may be linked to 9/11 suspects, as they confront an enemy skilled in operating in a mountainous terrain with endless ways to wage a guerrilla war.

ISLAMABAD - A strong earthquake hit Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains Thursday, shaking large areas of the country and neighboring Pakistan, officials said.

CARROLL, Iowa - Police had no trouble identifying two men accused of trying to break into a Carroll apartment. Police were responding to a call about an attempted burglary when they pulled over a car matching the alleged suspects' vehicle. Inside the car, officers found two men with their faces blackened with permanent marker. Police said the caller described two men with painted faces attempting to break into an apartment Friday night before driving off.

In June of 2002, then-14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her family's home in Salt Lake City, Utah. In March of 2003 she was found alive, 18 miles away, with presumed kidnappers Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Ileen Barzee. She was returned to her family. In the years that followed, Smart refused to discuss the specifics of her abduction with the press, even though her ordeal captivated the nation. However, in recent weeks she has begun to open up publicly, notably at a women's conference, "Overcoming the Unimaginable," sponsored by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Phish and crew bustle about Shoreline Amphitheater's backstage area, a sprawling patio where memories linger of raging parties from bygone tours.

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's said on Thursday it was "hard to believe" that no one in Pakistan's government knew where al Qaeda leaders were hiding, striking a new tone on a trip where Washington's credibility has come under attack.

WASHINGTON - Vaccinating more children might help slow the evolution of the constantly changing flu virus, government scientists reported Thursday.

WASHINGTON - Hours after a personal encounter with the grim cost of war, President Barack Obama said Thursday the sight of 18 flag-covered cases holding the remains of Americans killed this week in Afghanistan can't help but influence his thinking about sending more troops overseas.