The vast majority of US colleges aren't worth the expense of going there, says a former education secretary.

Mark Sanford, as the newly elected congressman from South Carolina’s First District, has become a symbol of political rehabilitation few thought could happen.    

AOL Inc. said Wednesday that its first-quarter net income jumped 23 percent, helped by an increase in global advertising revenue.

But the profit fell short of Wall Street predictions and AOL shares slumped nearly 10 percent in early trading.

The New York-based internet company earned $25.9 million, or 32 cents per share, for the three months ended March 31, up from $21.1 million, or 22 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2012. Excluding one-time items, the company said it posted an adjusted profit of 41 cents per share.

Revenue rose 2 percent to $583.3 million from $529.4 million.

Analysts, on average, expected earnings of 44 cents per share on $542.6 million in revenue, according to FactSet.

AOL split from Time Warner Inc. in 2009 and has been trying to increase revenue ever since by shedding unprofitable businesses and buying popular sites such as the Huffington Post and the technology blog TechCrunch.

The company said its advertising revenue increased 9 percent to $359.2 million, helped by higher display and search revenue, but that was mostly offset by a 9 percent drop in subscription revenue to $165.8 million.

Shares of AOL, based in New York, fell $4 to $37.42.

A House panel has approved legislation that would greatly curtail when veterans deemed mentally incompetent are reported to the FBI's gun-check registry.

The move to winnow what records get placed into the database comes even as both sides of the gun-control debate have called for strengthening the background-check system.

Currently, the Department of Veterans Affairs automatically submits the names to the FBI's database of those veterans who are deemed unable to handle their own financial affairs and have a fiduciary appointed to administer their benefits.

But the House Committee on Veterans Affairs approved legislation requiring a judge's order before a veteran's name is submitted to the database. Lawmakers said veterans who are not a threat to harm themselves or others should not be denied a constitutional right to buy and possess guns.

It wasn't a tapped phone, a hacked computer or a double agent that tipped off North Korea that the U.S. Navy's biggest and baddest aircraft carrier was steaming toward the peninsula -- it was a perfectly innocent bunch of shutterbugs.

When Pyongyang's state-run media agency mentioned the ship's itinerary in a news release, a day before it was first reported in the South Korean media, alarm bells went off, according to the South Korean newspaper The Hankyoreh. U.S. and South Korean military officials initially feared a phone tap, intelligence leak or hacked email account might be to blame, according to South Korean media reports.

But it turned out that on Saturday night, a Seoul-based camera association known as the "O" Club had told its members that an aircraft carrier would berth in Busan on May 11, and that people were needed to drive American sailors around, a South Korea Ministry of National Defense said.

"… looking for two Busanites who can drive and speak basic English," read the message, posted on a photography website. "A U.S. naval aircraft carrier is coming on the 11th and leaving on the 13th, and you would just need to transport the U.S. sailors. Pay is 110,000 won ($101) a day. Two people wanted. Send a message if you're interested."

Another post offered suggestions on where to get good pictures of the massive ship. Someone in North Korea saw the ad and did some low-risk intelligence gathering.

Although neither post named the ship, officials believe North Korea were able to put together the details using other information already made public, including a post on the U.S. Navy's website last week that said the nuclear-powered Nimitz had entered the jurisdiction of the 7th Fleet, a South Korean Ministry of Defense official said Wednesday.

The U.S. and South Korea are staging anti-submarine exercises this week, and the Nimitz will participate in another joint naval exercise next week. Although the exercises come as tensions are rising between North and South Korea, officials publicly sought to downplay the Nimitz's appearance.

"We are not trying to deliver any message to North Korea with this exercise," a spokesman for the South Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to this week's anti-submarine drills. "This exercise is for improving the U.S.-South Korean war-fighting power."

North Korea has vowed immediate countermeasures if even one shell fired during the joint U.S.-South Korea exercises lands in North waters.

The U.S. and South Korea are trying to push "the present state of war to an actual war," according to a statement posted on the North's government-run Korean Central News Agency website.

Charges are pending against a Tampa man who police say blew off two of his fingers with fireworks.

Police said 41-year-old James Lee Minyard called 911 Tuesday and said he had blown off two fingers in an accident. Minyard was taken to the hospital and is undergoing surgery. His injuries are not life-threatening.

While searching the scene for evidence, authorities said they found a handmade improvised explosive device. The area was shut down and the bomb squad was called.

No other details were released.

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She says people's struggles with weight as they age is a good reason to tackle childhood obesity.

Michelle Obama says her heart "swell[ed] up with relief" when she heard missing women were freed.

Three young women, who disappeared about a decade ago and who friends and relatives feared were gone forever, were found on Monday after a frantic 911 call made by one of the abductees.    

An obscure London firm may determine whether Jamie Dimon keeps his dual role as chief executive and chairman of JPMorgan Chase.

Investigators in Arizona have arrested a man suspected of killing a woman in Tucson more than 35 years ago.

Tucson police say 66-year-old Bruce McCullough has been charged with first-degree murder in the March 1976 death of 20-year-old Donna Smith. Authorities say the two had been living together as a couple.

Detectives reviewing cold cases were able to track McCullough to San Diego and arrested him at his home last week. They say he avoided law enforcement for decades by using a fake identity but recently had been using his own name.

Tucson police say McCullough is awaiting extradition to southern Arizona.

Detectives say they've visited Smith's mother to let her know of McCullough's arrest.

In Virginia, the survey finds a two-point gap.

It's no James Bond. But then again, 007 probably couldn't patrol the ocean depths, in disguise, for hours at a time.

Arun Kundnani says the answer isn't to throw radicals out of mosques but to confront them and their ideas

The former defense secretary turns crowd-pleasing comic.

He says the Benghazi attack shows a "light footprint" approach isn't working.

Charles Ramsey was eating some dinner Monday night when he heard screaming. Soon, he was knocking down a neighbor's door, freeing three women and a girl who police say were held hostage for years.

Investigators in Arizona have arrested a man suspected of killing a woman in Tucson more than 35 years ago.

Tucson police say 66-year-old Bruce McCullough has been charged with first-degree murder in the March 1976 death of 20-year-old Donna Smith. Authorities say the two had been living together as a couple.

Detectives reviewing cold cases were able to track McCullough to San Diego and arrested him at his home last week. They say he avoided law enforcement for decades by using a fake identity but recently had been using his own name.

Tucson police say McCullough is awaiting extradition to southern Arizona.

Detectives say they've visited Smith's mother to let her know of McCullough's arrest.

Coke is stepping up its effort to make calorie content more available.

The Obama administration is on the verge of backing an F.B.I. plan for an overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate by Internet rather than phone.