No GOP candidate stands out, poll finds

No GOP candidate stands out, poll finds

WASHINGTON

Americans have yet to find a Republican they’d clearly prefer over President Barack Obama, although half say the president does not deserve re-election. Among Republicans, the desire to oust Obama is clear, according to a new AP-GfK poll. But it has not resolved divisions over the choice of a nominee. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is reasonably popular, but he has not pulled away from the field.

Medicare costs to cut Social Security rise

WASHINGTON

That didn’t last long. About 55 million Social Security recipients will get their first increase in benefits next year since 2009 — a 3.6 percent raise. But higher Medicare premiums could erase part of it. For some, higher Medicare Part B premiums could wipe out as much as a fourth of their raise from Social Security, according to projections by the trustees who oversee the programs.

Youths in Greece riot

ATHENS, Greece

Hundreds of youths smashed and looted stores in central Athens and clashed with riot police during a massive anti-government rally against painful new austerity measures that won initial parliamentary approval in a vote Wednesay night. The rioting came on the first day of a 48-hour nationwide general strike that brought services in much of Greece to a standstill, grounding flights for hours, leaving ferries tied up in port and shutting down customs offices, stores and banks.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry seeks flat tax

LAS VEGAS

Working to distinguish himself from rival Mitt Romney, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday that he wants to scrap America’s current tax laws and impose a flat tax. Perry told the Western Republican Leadership Conference he plans to explain the tax proposal when he unveils his broad economic plan in a speech next week.

Search intensifies KANSAS CITY, MO.

One of the most aggressive police searches yet of the home where a Kansas City infant went missing more than two weeks ago drew officers Wednesday armed with shovels, rakes and other tools who hauled off bags that appeared to be full of potential evidence. Police refused to say what they found inside or outside the home belonging to Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley, who say an intruder snatched their baby daughter, Lisa, from her crib in the middle of the night as the mother and two other boys slept.

Archaeologists find Viking burial site

LONDON

Archaeologists said Tuesday they have discovered the remains of a Viking chief buried with his boat, ax, sword and spear on a remote Scottish peninsula — one of the most significant Norse finds ever uncovered in Britain. The 16-foot-long grave is the first intact site of its kind to have been discovered on mainland Britain and is believed to be more than 1,000 years old. Much of the wooden boat and the Viking bones have rotted away, but scraps of wood and hundreds of metal rivets that held the vessel together remain.

French first lady gives birth to baby girl

PARIS

French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy gave birth to a baby girl on Wednesday night — the first infant born to a sitting president of modern-day France, the French media reported.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, finishing up a meeting in Frankfurt on the euro debt crisis, was absent when the couple’s first child was born shortly before 8 p.m., according to BFM TV. He reportedly arrived at the small, private Muette Clinic about 11 p.m. Wednesday night.

Pakistan spurns US aid

LAHORE, Pakistan

U.S. aid could have transformed Pakistan’s largest maternity hospital, where rats run through the halls, patients sleep three to a bed, women who require C-sections aren’t getting them because only one operating room is functioning, and premature babies risk death because of a shortage of incubators.

But the government of Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab, turned down an American offer of $127 million for health care, education and municipal services after the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

VINDICATOR WIRE REPORTS