WASHINGTON (AP) — In Congress' first gun votes since the Newtown, Conn., nightmare, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to toughen federal penalties against illegal firearms purchases, even as senators signaled that a deep partisan divide remained over gun curbs.

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Facebook has redesigned the main attraction of its social network to address complaints that its website has turned into a jumble of monotonous musings and random photos.

CHICAGO (AP) — After years of clashing over the drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the oil industry and environmentalists have achieved something extraordinary in Illinois: They sat down together to draft regulations both sides could live with.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Prosecutors who charged a mother with murdering her infant because she ate rat poison while pregnant are asking an Indiana judge to take steps during the trial that critics say are meant to stifle any sympathy jurors might have for a woman who's become an international cause.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose on Wall Street, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average to new highs, after the government said unemployment claims fell last week.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation Thursday toughening laws against people who illegally buy guns for others as lawmakers cast the first votes in Congress to curb firearms since December's horrific shootings at a Connecticut elementary school.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Osama bin Laden's spokesman and son-in-law has been captured by the United States, officials said Thursday, in what a senior congressman called a "very significant victory" in the ongoing fight against al-Qaida.