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SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter Inc. has spawned a new way to communicate by limiting messages to 140 keystrokes. So here’s a way to describe the Internet’s latest craze within Twitter’s space restrictions: It’s a potluck of pithy self-expression simmering with whimsy, narcissism, voyeurism, hucksterism, tedium and sometimes useful information. One …

PLAQUEMINE, La. – Life on the run was apparently tougher than prison for an escaped convict from Louisiana. A cold front and hunger were too much for Troy Hargrave, 32, who surrendered two days after he escaped a privately run state prison with two other men, authorities said Wednesday. Hargrave …

An eccentric loner in Britain hoarded so much trash he had to burrow through it to get around his home — then got lost in the maze of tunnels Friday and died of thirst. Human mole Gordon Stewart, 74, had filled his rooms up to the ceiling with 10 years’ …

FINDLAY, Ohio – Think seven children sounds like a lot? Try adding eight more. That’s what a southern Ohio couple did this week after adopting eight siblings who had been separated after they were placed into foster care. A Hancock County judge in Findlay finalized the adoption Monday. The names …

CAIRO, Egypt – Hamas officials in Cairo proposed Sunday a year-long truce with Israel and an opening of the crossings into the Gaza Strip, in the latest round of diplomatic meetings to build on a fragile cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Hamas official Ayman Taha told reporters in Cairo that …

SYDNEY – One Greek woman promised to do all of Australia’s laundry and pick up after the kangaroos. An Australian apparently had a tattoo advertising her love of the Great Barrier Reef etched onto her arm. And a few people just took off their clothes. Desperate to snag what’s being …

BARODA TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Three boys in southwest Michigan have turned up what has been identified as a bone from a mammoth. The Herald-Palladium of St. Joseph reports brothers Ethan and Evan Hoge and their cousin Sebastian O’Connor found the bone March 21 on top of soil that had been …

OLYMPIA, Wash. – The Washington state Supreme Court has postponed what would have been the first execution in the state since 2001. The court ruled 5-4 on Thursday to grant a last-minute reprieve to 50-year-old Cal Coburn Brown for the May 1991 rape and murder of a 22-year-old Burien woman, …

NEW YORK – A single brief intervention that gives problem drinkers personalized feedback can help reduce their alcohol use, new research from the Netherlands shows. Dr. Heleen Riper of the Trimbos Institute in Utrecht and her colleagues looked at 14 studies of such interventions, including a total of 3,682 people. …

Wal-Mart will open two supermarkets targeting Hispanic consumers in Arizona and Texas, the Financial Times reported. Supermercado de Wal-Mart will open in remodeled retail spaces previously occupied by Wal-Mart’s Neighborhood Market stores in Phoenix and Houston. Wal-Mart said the stories will feature a “new layout, signing and product assortment designed …