AP - In a long-awaited surge of hiring companies added 243000 jobs in January — across the economy up and down the pay scale and far more than just about anyone expected. Unemployment fell to 8.3 percent the lowest in three years.

AP - In a barrage of shelling Syrian forces killed 200 people and wounded hundreds early Saturday in Homs in an offensive that appears to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising activists said.