Earlier today, the family of former first lady Betty Ford watched as a casket with her body was carried into St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Palm Desert.

The assassination of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's influential brother leaves a power vacuum in the country's south just as stability seemed to be returning in the region that once served as the Taliban capital, Afghanistan observers say.

Ahmed Wali Karzai — a onetime Chicago restaurateur who returned to Afghanistan after the 2001 fall of the Taliban — was killed Tuesday at his home in Kandahar. Some reports suggested the assassin may have been one of Ahmed Wali's own bodyguards. He had narrowly escaped earlier attempts on his life.

The emergence of a strain of gonorrhea that can thwart the last antibiotic effective in treating the common sexually transmitted disease was bound to happen, experts say.

The new, super-resistant strain is called H041, and so far, only a handful of cases are known in Japan. But don't count on it staying that way. Experience has shown that once a resistant strain of gonorrhea appears, it steadily displaces those that can be killed with antibiotics.

Sport is a contract. Of course, sports are replete with contracts, from the billions of dollars that the NBA and NFL are currently at an impasse over, to the tiny print on the back of a ticket to a ballgame.

French lawmakers voted 482-27 to reauthorize the bombing mission in Libya. The vote was required by the constitution and came after a three-hour debate in the lower house of parliament.

But perhaps the more interesting news to come out of France is that Foreign Minister Alain Juppé said France has been talking to "emissaries" of Col. Moammar Gadhafi. The New York Times reports:

A newly formed Early Childhood Advisory Council will help Kentucky create policies, standards, and goals which should improve the education given pre school children.

26 people have been named to a state council charged with seeking ways to improve early childhood education.  They were named today (Tuesday) in an executive order issued by Kentucky's governor.  Former C-E-O of United Way of Kentucky Terry Sims Tolan will direct the brand new Early Childhood Advisory Council.  Tolan says consistency of care is the highest priority.

Focusing solely on his third presidential bid, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tx., announced Tuesday he will not seek re-election for a 13th term in the House of Representatives. Observers contend Paul, who is the father of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is an excellent fundraiser who would have easily retained his seat despite redistricting, but the 75-year-old congressman felt it was time to move on and put his energy into one last bid for the White House.

The sluggish U.S. economy disappointed most forecasters, not to mention job seekers, in the first half of this year.

It grew at an annual rate of just under 2 percent, which is below the average for the last half century when the U.S. economy grew about 3 percent each year.

And although it may not seem like much, that 1 percentage point makes a big difference — influential analysts are saying we're in for a "new normal."

The weekend did not end well for fire and police personnel near Island Park, Idaho, where 14 million bees went berserk after a semi wrecked on a highway Sunday afternoon. The truck was carrying more than 400 hives; crews didn't finished cleaning what was called a river of honey off the road until late Monday.

The bees swarmed in black clouds that kept the truck driver and rescue personnel in their vehicles until they could put on protective gear. In the end, it seems that many of the bees were killed after being sprayed by firefighting foam.

In Libya, rebels are eying the western mountain city of Gharyan as the next step in their advance toward the capital, Tripoli.

The Libyan government insists that the city is firmly on the side of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, but NPR reporters who were recently taken there say the real extent of government support is unclear.

Regime Stages Pro-Gadhafi Display