Dem wins W.Va. governor’s race

Dem wins W.Va. governor’s race

CHARLESTON, W.Va.

Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin overcame weeks of Republican attack ads to win the West Virginia governor’s race Tuesday, successfully distancing himself from the Obama administration and the president’s health-tcare plan. Tomblin, who has been acting governor for the past year, will finish the final year of a term left vacant by Joe Manchin, a well-liked governor who stepped down after he won a U.S. Senate seat.

Airline-bomb trial marked by outburst

DETROIT

A Nigerian man accused of trying to bring down a jetliner with a bomb in his underwear made a defiant political outburst Tuesday, demonstrating again why his courtroom behavior will be closely watched throughout the trial where he’s representing himself. “The mujahadeen will wipe out the U.S. — the cancer U.S.,” said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, scowling as he referred to Muslim guerrilla fighters.

Gadhafi supporters flee his hometown

SIRTE, Libya

Families flowed out of Moammar Gadhafi’s besieged hometown Tuesday, exhausted and battered by weeks of hiding from shelling and gunbattles with no meat or vegetables or electricity — but unbowed in their deep distrust of the revolutionaries trying to crush this bastion of the old regime.

The fleeing residents were a sign of how resistance to Libya’s new rulers remains entrenched among those who benefited from Gadhafi’s nearly 42-year rule. Many of those fleeing Sirte said that the stiff defense against revolutionary fighters who have been trying to battle their way into Sirte for three weeks is coming not from Gadhafi’s military units but from residents themselves, volunteering to take up arms.

Woman wins $25M after store’s mistake

ATLANTA

Georgia Lottery officials say a store clerk’s mistake led a woman who has been searching for a job to win $25 million.

The lottery says 44-year-old Kathy Scruggs matched all of the winning numbers in the Sept. 14 multistate Powerball drawing. She said she had requested a Mega Millions ticket but wound up with that and the Powerball ticket and accepted both of them.

Scruggs claimed her prize Monday at Georgia Lottery headquarters in Atlanta.

Scruggs said she selected the cash option and will receive $15,124,017 before taxes.

Syria charges genocide; US walks

UNITED NATIONS

U.S. diplomats walked out of the U.N. Security Council after Syria’s ambassador accused the United States of being a party to “genocide” by protecting Israel and using its veto to deny the Palestinians their rights.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice led the walkout Tuesday while Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari was speaking. That happened after Russia and China vetoed a resolution threatening sanctions against President Bashar Assad’s regime if it didn’t immediately halt violence against civilians.

Ariz. dust storms cause 3 pileups

PHOENIX

A blinding dust storm rolled across the Arizona desert Tuesday, causing three pileups involving dozens of vehicles on a major interstate. A 70-year-old man was killed, and at least 15 other people were injured, authorities said.

The first two crashes occurred just after noon as a dust storm suddenly covered Interstate 10 near Picacho, about midway between Phoenix and Tucson. Those collisions involved 16 vehicles and led to the fatality.

Associated Press