WASHINGTON -- High-tech companies such as Amazon and Microsoft want U.S. government agencies to store data on their servers as a way to cut costs, industry analysts say. If they did so, they would join consumers who are using "cloud computing" to store documents and other data on off-site servers run by such popular Web sites as Google, Flickr and Facebook and accessed over the Internet, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. In a bid to tap government ... [full story]

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A 15-year-old Afghanistan boy was killed Tuesday in a military operation in Khost province, say NATO officials. U.S. troops and coalition soldiers were clearing a building when the boy appeared and soldiers said they thought he was reaching for a weapon, said a NATO statement. The troops detained one targeted militant and three suspected militants during the operation, KUNA, the Kuwait news agency, reported. Copyright © 2009, by United Press International. All Rights Reserved. [full story]

SANAA, Yemen -- Authorities in Yemen say two men convicted of spying for Iran were sentenced to death Tuesday in a court in Sanaa. Abdulkareem Ali Laliji, 33, and Hani Ahmed Din Mohammed, 31, were sentenced by Judge Mohsin Alwan, KUNA, the Kuwaiti news agency reported. A third man, Iskandar Abdullah Abdah, 57, was acquitted of spying charges. The three were arrested last year in Aden on charges they provided Iran with sensitive political, economic and security information, ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- Cost overruns for the U.S. Department of Defense's major weapons projects continued to soar last year, U.S. Government Accountability Office says. In a report released Monday, the congressional watchdog said that in 2008, cost overruns on the projects were 42 percent higher than initial estimates, compared with 27 percent over estimates in 2000, The Washington Post reported. The overruns totaled nearly $300 billion, while the average delay for programs such as new fighter jets lengthened ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- U.S. residents' favorable view of first lady Michelle Obama was at 76 percent, a 28-point upsurge since the summer, poll results released Tuesday indicate. A Washington Post-ABC News survey said the number of people who view Mrs. Obama negatively plummeted, with the biggest turnaround coming from Republicans who viewed her negatively last year, in part because of comments she made about feeling proud of her country for the first time. Just before the inauguration, ... [full story]

LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles police are looking for a badly damaged car involved in a hit-and-run that killed one University of Southern California student and injured another. Adrianna Bachan, 18, died and Marcus Garfinkle, 19, was critically injured when a car ran a red light near the campus, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. Police were looking for a black sedan -- possibly a Lexus, a Honda Accord or a Toyota Corolla -- with a cracked ... [full story]

MOBILE, Ala. -- A one-time Alabama judge checked male inmates out of jail and forced them to engage in sexual activities, spankings and whippings, authorities allege. Former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas was arrested Friday and later released on bond after a grand jury indicted him on 57 counts, including kidnapping, extortion, sex abuse and sodomy, CNN reported Tuesday. The indictment, posted on the Web site of a Mobile television station, alleges Thomas forced prisoners to ... [full story]

NANYANG CITY, China -- Police in China say two children died and nine members of their family were injured when a relative allegedly stabbed them with a knife used to kill pigs. The injured nine were hospitalized in stable condition after the attack on five houses in Nanzhao County, Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, reported Tuesday. The alleged attacker, 36-year-old Du Fusheng, committed suicide by swallowing poison when police arrived, said Cheng Jiangong, chief of the Nanzhao ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- U.S. computer researchers say they hope a computer worm called "Conficker.c" turns out to be an April Fool's Day bust like the "millennium bug" of 2000. Conficker.c has led to predictions that infected computers will shut down Wednesday in a digital "time bomb." But while experts say it is a malicious program thought to have infected between 5 million and 10 million computers, some doubt it will cause mass problems, CNN reported. Don DeBolt, ... [full story]

BEND, Ore. – Due to potential Salmonella contamination, the FDA on Saturday announced the recall of a trail mix snack product sold by a Bend store that was made with peanuts from the Peanut Corporation of America. The Produce Patch distributed Cascade Trail Mix from November 1, 2008 to March 1, 2009, and packaged it in plastic zip-lock bags of various weights and sizes.     The labeling included the Produce Patch logo, product name, and list ... [full story]