Headlines

Cabinet member takes leave
The White House says Commerce Secretary John Bryson will take a medical leave as he undergoes tests and evaluations after suffering a seizure in connection with two traffic accidents in the Los Angeles area.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement Monday that President Barack Obama's thoughts were with Bryson and his family. Deputy Secretary Rebecca Blank is now acting commerce secretary.
Medical records could determine whether Bryson will be charged in two weekend fender-benders that led to his hospitalization after police found him slumped behind the wheel of his vehicle in the Los Angeles suburbs.
It wasn't clear whether the medical episode preceded or followed a hit-and-run collision. Bryson had not had a seizure before, said a department official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Bryson has a "limited recall of the events," the official said.
Bryson, 68, was driving alone in a Lexus in San Gabriel, a community of about 40,000 northeast of Los Angeles, when he struck the rear of a vehicle that had stopped for a passing train, authorities said.
He spoke briefly with the three occupants and then hit their car again as he departed, investigators said. They followed him while calling police.
He was cited for felony hit-and-run, although he has not been charged.
Bryson then struck a second car in the nearby city of Rosemead, where he was found unconscious in his car.
AUBURN SHOOTING SUSPECT
House stormed after tips come in

Authorities searching for a man charged with fatally shooting three people near Auburn University in Alabama swarmed a house where they believe he's hiding, firing tear gas Monday evening and sending a tactical team on cautious forays inside.
The tactical team had searched the lower portions of the house and was making deliberate moves into the attic where the suspect was believed to be hiding, said Montgomery Public Safety Director Chris Murphy. He declined to give a timetable for bringing someone out.
"We are having to slowly put our people up there and do an inch-by-inch search," he said during a briefing several hours after police surrounded the house.
Authorities earlier received two 911 calls that someone who looked like suspect Desmonte Leonard was in or near the house, Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange told reporters.
Afghan supply routes
Talks with Pakistan broken off

U.S. officials have broken off talks with their Pakistani counterparts on reopening supply routes into Afghanistan, Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
Part of the U.S. negotiating team that was in Pakistan to discuss the supply route dispute left the country over the weekend, and the rest will leave shortly.
U.S.-Pakistan relations have worsened since November when American helicopters killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in what a Pentagon investigation said was an accidental attack on border posts. Pakistan has refused to let NATO military supplies travel through the country to Afghanistan.
Cancer deaths
Dental plaque possible risk factor

Persistent dental plaque may increase the risk of dying early from cancer, according to authors of a study published in the journal BMJ Open.
Dental-plaque levels were higher in the 35 people who died from cancer than in the rest of the 1,400 study participants tracked over 24 years in Sweden. Demographic data showed the women should have lived 13 more years and the men an extra 8.5 years, so the deaths would be considered premature.
Dental plaque is made up of bacteria covering the surfaces of the teeth and may lead to tooth decay and gum inflammation. The researchers, who said the study only found an observed association between dental plaque and cancer, said toxins from plaque may enter the blood to spread to different parts of the body "with potential systemic consequences."
AUSTRALIAN MURDER MYSTERY
Verdict is in: The dingo did it

A coroner ruled today that a dingo did take baby Azaria Chamberlain from her tent in the desert of central Australia in 1980, ending a saga that saw the baby's mother jailed for murder and later exonerated.
Northern Territory coroner Elizabeth Morris told a courtroom in Darwin there was sufficient evidence to rule that a dingo took the baby and pulled it from its clothes, which were later found.
The child's body was never found.