Reuters - Applications for home mortgages jumped last week, fueled by increased demand for refinancing as interest rates fell, an industry group said on Wednesday.

Reuters - An appeals court on Tuesday found California's gay marriage ban unconstitutional in a case that may lead to a showdown in the Supreme Court.

AP - The United States appears to be out of answers on what to do with Syria.

AP - A Missouri teenager who confessed to murdering a 9-year-old girl faces the possibility of life in prison when she's sentenced Wednesday morning.

AP - China's government promised Wednesday to raise minimum wages by 13 percent a year through 2015 and to launch measures to generate 45 million new jobs.

AP - Conservative critics like to point out that the federal appeals court that just declared California's same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional has its decisions overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court more often than other judicial circuits, a record that could prove predictive if the high court agrees to review the gay marriage case on appeal.

AP - Shot through the upper back on a rooftop in Afghanistan and gasping for breath after a bullet ripped through his chest, Marine Sgt. Ben Tomlinson had a fear worse than death.

AP - It was just last summer that the Dow Jones industrial average shed 2,000 points in three terrifying weeks. Investors had a host of things to worry about, including the possibility of another recession.

AP - Move over, coffee and Red Bull. A Harvard professor thinks the next big thing will be people inhaling their caffeine from a lipstick-sized tube. Critics say the novel product is not without its risks.

AP - The police commissioner's TV host son has been cleared of the prospect of criminal charges of raping a woman he met for a drink, but it's not clear how quickly he might return to his spot as a jocular morning-show host.

AP - House Republicans have introduced their version of a bill to ban insider trading by thousands of federal officials, and have added provisions to bar lawmakers convicted of a felony from collecting their government pensions.

AP - The move by school district administrators to replace the entire staff at an elementary school rocked by teacher sex abuse claims was a bold step to restore parents' badly shaken confidence at the school, but it has been met with mixed feelings.

AP - German exports climbed 11.4 percent last year to top the euro1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) mark for the first time, official figures showed Wednesday, though a decline in December underlined the likelihood of slower growth ahead.

AP - Police released 911 calls that revealed a social worker's frantic attempts to alert authorities that Josh Powell had locked himself in his home with his two young sons, moments before he set off a huge fire that killed all inside.

AP - First in and last out — that's the current plan for elite U.S. forces in Afghanistan, according to Adm. Bill McRaven.

AP - When it started, American teenagers were doing "The Twist." The United States had yet to put a man into orbit around the Earth. And a first-class U.S. postage stamp cost 4 cents.

AP - Ben Bernanke says the job market isn't as strong as the steadily declining unemployment rate might suggest.

AP - A vice president at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure resigned Tuesday, saying the breast cancer charity should have stood by its politically explosive decision to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood.