National News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Police removed protesters as they confiscated bedding and most tents on Saturday from an "Occupy" protest site just blocks from the White House, enforcing a no-camping rule for the public McPherson Square they had ignored for months.

(Reuters) - Indianapolis authorities called on Super Bowl celebrants to play it safe on Saturday night at festivities near the city's football stadium, after at least 10 people were injured the previous evening.

LE ROY, New York (Reuters) - State health officials have added three more names to a growing list of students in this working-class town who are experiencing mysterious tics and twitching, while authorities on Saturday sought to assure parents the community's high school is safe.

NOBLESVILLE, Ind (Reuters) - An Indiana jury convicted embattled Republican Secretary of State Charlie White in the early hours of Saturday on six out of seven felony charges including perjury, theft and voter fraud.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A major winter storm that dumped two feet of snow on the Denver area marched eastward on Saturday, buffeting the Central Plains with heavy snowfall and wind gusts of 25 miles per hour.

SAN LUIS, Arizona (Reuters) - An Arizona city council candidate struck from the ballot over her limited English skills concedes she isn't fluent in the language but called the legal challenge an abuse of power that could keep her from serving a poor border community where most residents speak only Spanish.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Among the slick, million-dollar ads for the likes of Pepsi and Honda during the Super Bowl this Sunday, viewers in Washington will see a far more modest spot. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino will be sitting on a couch touting an issue most politicians avoid like the plague: gun control.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Police removed bedding and most tents on Saturday at an "Occupy" protest site just blocks from the White House, enforcing a no-camping rule at a public square that has housed protesters for months.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has dismissed all charges against the last of five soldiers to face a court-martial in the slaying of unarmed Afghan civilians, officials from their home base near Tacoma, Washington, said on Friday.

NOBLESVILLE, Indiana (Reuters) - A jury early on Saturday convicted Indiana's Republican Secretary of State Charlie White on six felony counts including perjury, theft and voter fraud but cleared him on a seventh charge.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has dismissed all charges against the last of five soldiers to face a court-martial in the slaying of unarmed Afghan civilians, officials from their home base near Tacoma, Washington, said on Friday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Days after the arrest of a school teacher accused of taking bondage-style photos of students with cockroaches on their faces, a second instructor from the same school was arrested on Friday on suspicion of molesting two girls, authorities said.

SANTA ANA, California (Reuters) - An Iraq war veteran already charged in the "thrill" killings of four Orange County homeless men has been linked by DNA evidence to the murders of the mother and brother of a high school friend, prosecutors said on Friday.

MOBILE, Alabama (Reuters) - Authorities shot and killed an escaped inmate Friday who stabbed one Mobile police officer to death and wounded a second after fleeing in a stolen police car.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Extremist political conspiracies such as "birthers" and "truthers" may be a dominant theme of post-9/11 America, but in a new book by Arthur Goldwag, he argues that modern conservative groups may be a product of history repeating itself.

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Anti-Wall Street activists said on Friday they will march to protest Indiana's new anti-union "right-to-work" law in downtown Indianapolis this weekend, where the New England Patriots and New York Giants will face off in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters) - The mother of missing infant Lisa Irwin on Friday tearfully denounced "insane theories" she had something to do with the girl's disappearance four months ago.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January and the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to a near three-year low, giving a boost to President Barack Obama.

DENVER (Reuters) - A winter storm walloped eastern Colorado and western Nebraska with the region's first heavy snow of the new year on Friday, closing schools, disrupting flights at Denver International Airport and creating blizzard conditions on the High Plains.

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Organizers of a parade for Iraq war veterans that drew thousands of flag waving spectators in St. Louis last weekend have been asked by people around the country for help in planning similar events, officials said Friday.