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GASTONIA, N.C. — A QuikTrip gas station clerk was injured early Sunday morning as a 'flash mob' took over the store and caused extensive damage. Video posted to social media, and reviewed by the Gastonia Police Department, shows numerous individuals ransacking the QuikTrip convenience store at 1843 West Franklin Blvd in Gastonia around 2:43 a.m. Investigators have reviewed the video and are working to identify and locate possible suspects. A store clerk in the video can be seen with a facial injury. " A Flashmob entered the store and began to steal and throw items throughout the store," a QuikTrip...

"THEY CAME WITH A BATTERING RAM.” Cindy Archer, one of the lead architects of Wisconsin’s Act 10 — also called the “Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill,” it limited public-employee benefits and altered collective-bargaining rules for public-employee unions — was jolted awake by yelling, loud pounding at the door, and her dogs’ frantic barking. The entire house — the windows and walls — was shaking. She looked outside to see up to a dozen police officers, yelling to open the door. They were carrying a battering ram. She wasn’t dressed, but she started to run toward the door, her body in full...

The U.S. Geological Survey says a strong but deep earthquake has shaken western Colombia. The agency says the quake struck at 9:16 a.m. (1606 GMT) Saturday and had a magnitude of 7.0. it was located about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Pasto. There are no immediate reports of damage.

WASHINGTON -- GlaxoSmithKline LLC will pay $3 billion and plead guilty to promoting two popular drugs for unapproved uses and to failing to disclose important safety information on a third in the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history, the Justice Department said Monday. Accompanying the criminal case was a civil settlement in which the government said the company's improper marketing included providing doctors with expensive resort vacations, European hunting trips, high-paid speaking tours and even tickets to a Madonna concert. The $3 billion combined criminal-civil fine will be the largest penalty ever paid by a drug company, Deputy...

African-Americans voted 2-1 in favor of the North Carolina amendment banning gay marriage Tuesday, but the White House is betting that black voters there and beyond will stick with the president, despite broad resistance to legalization. While there’s faith that African-Americans will turn out strong at the polls to protect Obama’s legacy, pollsters point out that while opposition to same-sex marriages has fallen in the black community, it’s still just a point shy of 50 percent — enough to affect black turnout, at least theoretically, in an election where every vote will matter.

MACON, Ga. - An annual Easter egg hunt in central Georgia has been canceled after organizers say parents became violent while trying to collect eggs for themselves and their children in past years. This will be the first time in years that the Easter Bunny won't be visiting children during the annual egg hunt at Central City Park in Macon, traditionally one of the largest Easter events in central Georgia.

Durham, N.C. — The Durham woman who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape in 2006 filed motions Thursday asking that a murder charge against her be dismissed and that the judge in the case to recuse himself. Crystal Mangum, 32, is charged in the death of Reginald Daye, 46, who was stabbed with a kitchen knife during an April 3, 2011, argument at his Durham apartment, police said. They had been dating for about a month at the time of his death. Mangum filed the motions herself, with the assistance of a supporter who isn't an attorney....

DURHAM -- District Attorney Tracey Cline was immediately suspended from office late Friday after a judge found probable cause that she has engaged in ongoing attacks on a Durham judge that are "prejudicial to the administration of justice" and bring her office into disrepute. Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood of Franklin County suspended Cline under a rarely used state law. He ordered a hearing for Feb. 13 to determine whether Cline will be permanently removed from the elected office she has held since 2009. Hobgood was not required to suspend Cline before next month's hearing, but he invoked that...

Forty-five students, among them young children, were discovered held in chains in a basement when police raided an Islamic seminary in Pakistan last night. The male students, some said to be as young as 12 but appearing even younger, were found in what amounted to a dungeon at the Madrassa Zakarya in the Sohrab Goth district of Karachi. Led barefoot from their prison, captives told officers they had suffered regular beatings and been hung upside down as a form of punishment.

Following Governor Christie’s announcement on Tuesday top GOP official and bundler Gerogette Mosbacher told reporters, “We do not consider Perry a factor… We know who will be our nominee.” Race for 2012 reported: Those words were spoken today by Georgette Mosbacher, RNC Finance Co-Chair and huge GOP fundraiser, after Chris Christie’s announcement. The “we” is all the big bundlers, fundraisers, and money folks who have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the field to be set — and that quote represents the coalescing around Mitt Romney that is expected to happen rather quickly now. Mosbacher went on to say:...

Many Christians believe Jesus can be found anywhere. In southern Lenoir County, he may be found on a utility pole. The pole, about a mile south of Kinston, has attracted attention of some area residents. Some say the kudzu-covered post bears a striking resemblance to Jesus’ crucifixion. The pole, which is the only one nearby covered in “the vine that ate the South,” is at the northwest corner of Tyree Road and U.S. 258 S., in the Jackson Heights neighborhood. Kent Hardison, who runs Ma’s Hotdog House less than a half mile from the pareidolia, rides by the Christ-resembling post...

Legendary wrestler Randy Savage, known to fans as "Macho Man," died in a car accident in Tampa, Fla., on Friday, according to TMZ. He was 58. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Savage was driving his Jeep Wrangler when he veered across a concrete median, through oncoming traffic, and "collided head-on with a tree." He was transported to Largo Medical Center, where he died. Savage's wife of one year, Lynn, was a passenger but sustained only minor injuries, according to TMZ.

New Delhi: Sixty years after it first went to court, there shall be a verdict in the Ayodhya title suit on Thursday. This, after the Supreme Court today rejected a petition seeking that the verdict be deferred and said the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court could go ahead and deliver judgment on the property dispute. The High Court is expected to deliver its verdict on Thursday, September 30, after 3 pm. On Friday, October 1 one of the judges hearing the case, Dharamvir Sharma, retires. The verdict in the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute will decide whether the 2.7...

The ill-famed "Duke Lacrosse House" is on its way to the dump. A demolition crew began tearing down the Duke University-owned house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. about 7:30 this morning. By 11:15, it had been reduced to rubble and an excavator was loading the debris into a removal truck. "Tearing it down was no problem," said Richard Davis, superintendent with the O.C. Mitchell construction company handling the job. "Carrying it off is the problem." Quantcast Quantcast The rubble was destined for a private landfill, but Davis did not know where. Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/07/12/577917/duke-lacrosse-house-demolished.html#ixzz0tUWey600

An American who recently lived in Raleigh for a year was the lone American killed when explosions tore through crowds watching the World Cup final Sunday at a rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant in Kampala, Uganda, killing at least 64 people. Nathan Henn, 25, who worked with Invisible Children, a San Diego-based aid group that helps child soldiers in Africa, was killed on the rugby field. Henn was a native of Wilmington, Del., but his family moved to Raleigh in 2007, and he lived here for about a year, his sister, Brynne Henn, said this morning in a telephone...

Nothing else except a top-of-page banner; I'm not close to a TV so I'm not sure what's going on.

I'll take "History's greatest rip-offs for $200," Alex. The correct question is "What did Mike Pressler just do to Duke University and how much should he be paid?" Pressler, the former Dukelacrosse coach who was forced out after three of his players were falsely accused of sexually assaulting a woman, reached a settlement with the university last week after dropping a lawsuit that he was unlikely to win anyway. Neither side is discussing the terms, but if Duke paid that guy more than $200 to go away, they got taken.

An explosion has torn through a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm, killing at least 90 people. Another 60 people were injured in the blast, the city's emergency services told the BBC. About 200 people are said to have been in the club, named as the Lame Horse, when the blast occurred at 2315 local time (2015 GMT). Police say they are investigating whether the accident was caused by fireworks. A spokesman for the prosecutor-general's main investigative unit told Itar-Tass news agency this was not a terrorist attack. "We are talking about a failure to observe fire regulations," he...

Alex W., the man who stabbed pregnant Egyptian pharmacist Marwa al-Sherbini to death in a courtroom in Dresden in July, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday. The judge imposed the harshest possible sentence under the German system by ruling that W. will not be eligible for parole after 15 years. A court in Dresden sentenced Alex W., a German man of Russian origin, to life in prison on Wednesday for murdering Marwa al-Sherbini, a pregnant Egyptian woman, by stabbing her 16 times in a courtroom in a case that caused outrage across the Arab world. The judge, Birgit...

Gov. Beverly Perdue asked for -- and received -- the resignation of N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Commission Chairman Doug Fox on Tuesday, just hours after newspapers provided Perdue's office with a copy of a racist photo illustration sent from Fox's e-mail address after last November's election. The e-mail included an altered photo of the White House that turned the South Lawn into an enormous watermelon patch. The phrase, "There goes the neighborhood ..." was printed above the photo. The e-mail was sent from Fox's law firm address Nov. 14 -- 10 days after Barack Obama was elected president. The message, which...