NEW YORK - Young politically minded Americans, in a new twist on the oldest tool in politics -- word of mouth -- have become both consumers and conduits for news.Interviews and surveys indicate younger voters are replacing newspaper accounts with Internet accounts, adopting a social filter for keeping up with current events, sending out Internet links and videos to friends and social networks, The New York Times said Thursday. In return, they expect to hear ... [full story]

REDMOND, Ore. -- A 24-year old man was arrested and charged with several crimes after he led police on a car chase Wednesday morning, speeding through parking lots and a new bypass highway under construction before his vehicle ended up in a grove of trees.   Bradley Hemm - DCJ photo  According to a Redmond Police news release prepared by Captain Dave Tarbet, an officer spotted Bradley Hemm behind the wheel of a vehicle shortly before 10 a.m. ... [full story]

BAGHDAD - Violence raged around Baghdad and in southern Iraq, where clashes between Iraqi security forces and rebel militia members killed at least 100 people.Fighting between Iraqi forces and Shiite militia in the southeastern Iraqi city of Kut Thursday killed 42 people and wounded 17, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official told CNN. U.S. military officials said militants killed two members of the U.S.-backed Sons of Iraq in Salaheddin province.Fighting in oil-rich Basra and other Shiite regions ... [full story]

SITKA, Alaska - An Alaska youth was being held in a wild knife attack at his grandparents' home that left four people dead and a fifth injured, authorities said.Jason Abbott, 18, of Sitka was arraigned Wednesday on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, the Daily Sitka Sentinel reported. Police officers called to the scene Tuesday reportedly found Abbott standing in front of the house with a 5-inch knife and used a ... [full story]

SAN FRANCISCO - A 10-vehicle pileup on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Wednesday left at least seven people injured, authorities said.The crashes tied up afternoon traffic for hours, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. It apparently began when a station wagon heading north crossed at least one lane at mid-span and crossed into the southbound lane where it collided with three other cars head-on, the California Highway Patrol said. There is no median barrier ... [full story]

SEOUL - North Korea, reacting to tougher policies of the new South Korean regime, Thursday expelled South Korean officials from a joint industrial park.The action at the joint office in the Kaesong industrial complex, which opened in 2005 just north of the heavily guarded border, comes as South Korea's conservative President Lee Myung-bak plans to take a tougher stand than his liberal predecessors on inter-Korean cooperation. That would include the North making progress in the ... [full story]

LOS ANGELES - One LA firefighter was killed and a second was injured Wednesday when an explosion ripped a credit union office they were checking for fire, officials said."A firefighter died in the line of duty today," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. "It's a sad day in Los Angeles -- clearly a sad and tragic day in Los Angeles." The death of the firefighter, a 10-year veteran whose name was withheld until relatives could be ... [full story]

BOGOTA - Colombian authorities assert that left-wing rebel groups are attacking Colombian farmers from Ecuador. Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo said that Colombia would not stand idly by while the rebels hiding in Ecuador attacks Colombians, El Tiempo reported Wednesday. Araujo's allegations against members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, follow the killing of a Colombian rebel leader in Ecuador. Tensions between the South American neighbors remain high despite a meeting of Ecuadorian ... [full story]

DETROIT -- Jurors in suburban Detroit told a judge they were deadlocked in the case of a former kindergarten teacher accused of rape.The jury said in a note Wednesday that a single juror was holding out and preventing a unanimous verdict in the case of James Perry, who allegedly raped two special education students in a classroom in 2005, the Detroit Free Press reported."We are absolutely not going to reach a unanimous verdict," the note ... [full story]

NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme was grazed by a bullet while cooking in a tent set up on the practice range at the Zurich Classic golf tournament. After feeling a sting in his right arm above his elbow, Prudhomme shook his clothing and a 22-caliber bullet fell to the ground, The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Wednesday.A spokesman for the sheriff's office said deputies believe Prudhomme was struck by a falling bullet that ... [full story]