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Caroline Kennedy has ended her bid to win appointment to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton and once held by her late uncle, Bobby Kennedy. In a statement released early Thursday, Kennedy says she told New York Gov. David Patterson she is withdrawing for personal reasons. She was considered a favorite for the New York Senate seat, though she has never held elective office.

A large credit union in Seattle has started an ad campaign that stresses its nonprofit bona fides. Sprint advertises calling plans that are right "for these times." Does austerity sell? Or is that a ridiculous contradiction?

The conflict in Gaza presents a challenge for the incoming Obama administration, which already was facing a packed Middle East agenda. Leslie Gelb tells Steve Inskeep that the question now is whether the situation in Gaza will make it harder for President-elect Barack Obama to keep his campaign promises of active peacemaking between the Israelis and Palestinians. Gelb is a former state and defense department official and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Attorney General-designate Eric Holder says "waterboarding is torture." He spoke about it at his confirmation hearing Thursday. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to hear from other witnesses Friday.

In the wake of the financial scandal that destroyed Enron, Congress created an independent board to watch over the accounting of all publicly traded firms. In order that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board have total independence from political influence, Congress deemed that its members be appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The court heard arguments Monday that challenge whether Congress went too far and overstepped the Separation of Powers clause of the Constitution.

The joke used to be that some women went to college to get their M.R.S. — that is, a husband. But a study by the Pew Research Center finds that women today are more likely to marry men who have lower education levels and lower income levels than they do.

With the bursting of the economic bubble in Iceland at the end of 2008, many people have been thrown out of work. Lines now form every week at a soup kitchen that hands out free food, and there is a growing acknowledgment that Icelanders need to get back to their core industries such as fishing and agriculture.

U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn won an Olympic gold in Vancouver on Wednesday despite a painful shin injury. But Thursday, she wiped out in the super combined. Vonn, who had the day off Friday, criticized the course on Whistler Mountain.

The U.S. Supreme Court took on a long-running legal fight Wednesday over an 8-foot cross in the Mojave Desert. The court heard arguments on whether the cross, which was erected on federal parkland as a war memorial, violates the rights of those who are offended by its religious symbolism.

Drummer Martin Atkins spent the 1980s and 90s touring the world with bands that have both packed stadiums and struggled to fill the tiniest of clubs. His new book and DVD, Tour: Smart, is a guide to modern-day touring for the rock musician.