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LOS ANGELES - Gale Harold was in critical condition Wednesday after the "Desperate Housewives" actor crashed his motorcycle the day before, a hospital spokeswoman said.

LEESBURG, Va. - A one-time top lieutenant to Martin Luther King Jr. was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for having sex more than a decade ago with his then-teenage daughter.

WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee is halting presidential ads in Wisconsin and Maine, turning much of its attention to usually Republican states where GOP nominee John McCain shows signs of faltering.

NEW YORK - Investors agonizing over a faltering economy sent the stock market plunging all over again Wednesday after a stream of disheartening data convinced Wall Street that a recession, if not already here, is inevitable. The market's despair propelled the Dow Jones industrials down 733 points to their second-largest point loss ever, and the major indexes all lost at least 7 percent.

WASHINGTON - Democratic Rep. John Murtha said Wednesday his home base of western Pennsylvania is racist and that could reduce Barack Obama's victory margin in the state by 4 percentage points.

Tests on leading brands of bottled water turned up a variety of contaminants often found in tap water, according to a study released Wednesday by an environmental advocacy group.

On Sept. 24, Hillary Rodham Clinton received a surprise phone call from the man she’s often denounced as an economic know-nothing: John McCain.

CORNING, Calif. - The family of a dead elderly woman cremated her remains on a makeshift barbecue and continued collecting her retirement checks amounting to more than $25,000, authorities in Northern California said. Ramona Allmond's daughter and grandson were arrested Sunday on suspicion of embezzlement, elder abuse and disposing of a body without a permit.

LOS ANGELES - The teenager who committed suicide after an Internet hoax was not the only girl exchanging messages with a fake MySpace address allegedly operated by a woman now charged in the girl's death, the woman's lawyer said.

WASHINGTON — A growing al Qaida-backed insurgency, combined with the Pakistani army's reluctance to launch an all-out crackdown, political infighting and energy and food shortages are plunging America's key ally in the war on terror deeper into turmoil and violence, says a soon-to-be completed U.S. intelligence assessment.

The headlines leading up to tonight's presidential debate hint at the worst for John McCain:

CINCINNATI - Close to one in every three newly registered Ohio voters will end up on court-ordered lists being sent to county election boards because they have some discrepancy in their records, an elections spokesman said Wednesday.

LINCOLN, Neb. - A judge has thrown out a Nebraska legislator's lawsuit against God, saying the Almighty wasn't properly served due to his unlisted home address.

NEW YORK — John McCain faces the same challenge in the final presidential debate tonight as in the first two encounters: Barack Obama’s discipline.

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Everyone knows smoking isn't good for you, but now Finnish researchers report that men who smoke not only die younger but they have a poorer quality of life than those who never smoked.

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Add Bon Jovi to the ever-growing list of liberal-leaning artistes taking umbrage at being used as pied pipers for Sarah Palin.

ATLANTA - Flying in the U.S. has been transformed since Sept. 11, with passengers forced to remove their shoes, take out their laptop computers and put liquids and gels in clear plastic bags. Yet it's perfectly legal to take a loaded gun right up to the security checkpoint at some of the nation's biggest airports.

BAGHDAD - American soldiers killed the alleged No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, a Moroccan who trained in Afghanistan, recruited foreign fighters and ran operations in northern Iraq where Sunni insurgents remain a potent threat, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

NEW YORK - The U.S. has not endured a deep and prolonged recession in more than a quarter century — enough time for many Americans to forget what one feels like.

EL PASO, Texas - Mexican officials are trying to persuade Americans to visit Ciudad Juarez, touting the city in a new billboard campaign as a "land of encounters." But on this side of the border, that sounds like a cruel joke.

The ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee parted ways with his party's presidential nominee Wednesday by endorsing Democrat Barack Obama's approach to diplomacy.

The economy lurched deeper into the doldrums Wednesday and took the stock market down with it, sending the Dow Jones industrials to a staggering 733-point loss and erasing any hopes that the convulsions that have shaken Wall Street for a month were over.

NEW YORK - Oil prices closed below $75 a barrel for the first time in nearly 14 months Wednesday after OPEC, fearing that a severe global economic slowdown is unavoidable, slashed its 2009 petroleum demand forecast.

LONDON - British newspapers say Madonna and Guy Ritchie are splitting up.

MALIBU, Calif. - Ryan O'Neal and his son, Redmond, have been charged with possession of methamphetamine in Malibu, California.

LONDON (Reuters) - A man discovered making kebabs near a corpse has been banned from managing food businesses and fined 3,800 pounds, Wolverhampton City Council said Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES - Nancy Reagan suffered a broken pelvis in a fall at her home and will be hospitalized for several days, her spokeswoman said Wednesday. The 87-year-old former first lady fell last week, spokeswoman Joanne Drake said. She did not seek immediate medical care but decided Monday to get checked out because of persistent pain, Drake said.

NEW YORK - Forgive Kerry and Desmond Lyons if they sometimes mix up their sons' names. After all, they're brand new and look alike.

NEW YORK - The latest entrant into the TV comedy business is ... CNN?

It's Halloween season, and you know what that means: ghosts! A recent surveillance video depicting what many believe to be a ghost made international news.