A US judge this week told claims czar Kenneth Feinberg, who oversees BP's escrow fund, to make clear to claimants that he is affiliated with BP. The system for recouping losses stemming from the Gulf oil spill is stacked against applicants, critics charge.

Verizon iPhone pre-orders started at 3 a.m. Thursday morning (and even earlier by some accounts).

Officials at the Los Angeles County sheriff's department are testing a directed-energy weapon that causes pain, but apparently no tissue damage. Should we start using it against prisoners?

AP - Protesters and government supporters fought in a second day of rock-throwing battles at a central Cairo square while more lawlessness spread around the city. New looting and arson erupted, and gangs of thugs supporting President Hosni Mubarak attacked reporters, foreigners and rights workers while the army rounded up foreign journalists.

AP - As chaos roils Egypt, Republican lawmakers and the GOP's potential presidential candidates are divided over President Barack Obama's response though united in concern that an Islamic regime could rise to power in a nation that is an important U.S. ally in the precarious Middle East.

AP - Republicans now controlling the House promised Thursday to slash domestic agencies' budgets by almost 20 percent for the coming year, the first salvo in what's sure to be a bruising battle over their drive to cut federal spending to where it was before President Barack Obama took office.