Mitt Romney landed a victory Tuesday night in his home state of Michigan, fending off Rick Santorum in the Republican presidential primary contest and preventing what could have been a major upset for his campaign going into Super Tuesday.
The former Massachusetts governor also won easily in Arizona, a winner-take-all election that will help Romney build his growing delegate lead. The candidate's back-to-back victories hardly lock down the race but they help get his campaign on track going into Super Tuesday voting on March 6, when 10 states hold primaries and caucuses worth hundreds of delegates.

The year's hottest jobs are hiring in droves, paying well, and providing room to grow
Telecommuting and flex-time privileges might have made the world of work more comfortable, but they've also made the lines between our work life and the rest of our life less visible. This isn't an open letter of complaint, however. The truth is that we're a society that lives, and loves, to work.
So it's important to be a society that loves the work it does.

Consumer confidence took a sharp jump in February, the Conference Board reported Tuesday—but the widely-followed index of consumer attitudes is still below where it was a year ago.
[See why this year's jobs gains are more solid than last year's.]
The February index of 70.8 is nearly 10 points higher than January's 61.5. But it trails the 72.0 level of last February.
Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, explains that the latest month-to-month jump is a function of near-term optimism. Franco says that, "despite further increases in gas prices, [consumers] are more optimistic about the short-term outlook for the economy, job prospects, and their financial situation." Yet while the latest reading is a far cry from the low of 25.3 registered in February 2009, as the Associated Press notes, it suggests that the recent year of improvements hasn't changed consumers' feelings much.

Another Senate moderate has decided it's time to retire, and it could mean good things for Democrats come November.
Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe will retire from the Senate, according to the Washington Post. The three-term senator—one of the few remaining centrist New England Republicans—was facing a tough, but by no means insurmountable, path to re-election in 2012.
The Tea Party was primed to target Snowe, who has a habit of splitting with her party to side with the Democrats. Even if Snowe survived the primary, she would have faced steep Democratic opposition.

Heads up: Drones are going mainstream.
Civilian cousins of the unmanned military aircraft that have tracked and killed terrorists in the Middle East and Asia are in demand by police departments, border patrols, power companies, news organizations and others wanting a bird's-eye view that's too impractical or dangerous for conventional planes or helicopters to get.
Along with the enthusiasm, there are qualms.
Drones overhead could invade people's privacy. The government worries they could collide with passenger planes or come crashing down to the ground, concerns that have slowed more widespread adoption of the technology.

The Prudential, the UK's biggest insurer, is considering moving its headquarters out of the UK to escape tougher new capital rules for insurers.
The company said in a statement that there was uncertainty over the planned new rules, called Solvency II.
It acknowledged there had been long-running speculation that it could move its base and said it regularly reviewed its position.
Prudential makes 45% of its sales in Asia.

The threat from terrorism and piracy in Somalia are among the issues that will be discussed at a conference in London on the future of the country.
Representatives from 40 countries will attend the event, aimed at devising a common approach to a country blighted by years of civil war and famine.
The leaders are expected to agree money for schools, hospitals and the police.
The UK has described Somalia as the "world's worst failed state" but said it needs a "second chance".

MANILA (Reuters) - Former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo pleaded not guilty on Thursday to electoral fraud on the first day of a trial seen as a landmark test of the government's ability to tackle entrenched corruption in the Southeast Asian nation.
Arroyo, a 64-year-old who ruled the Philippines from 2001 to 2010, sat quietly beside her husband and son during the court proceedings, only speaking out loud to confirm her widely expected plea.

A former nightclub bouncer has been jailed for a minimum of 35 years for murdering a pregnant teenager two weeks before she was due to give birth.
Carl Whant, 27, of Bettws, Newport, raped and stabbed 19-year-old Nikitta Grender at her home, killing her unborn daughter at the same time.
He set fire to her flat before returning to a party where he had been all night with her boyfriend.

Two Western journalists have been killed in the Syrian city of Homs when shells hit the building they were staying in, opposition activists say.
They have been named as Marie Colvin, the highly respected American Sunday Times reporter, and Remi Ochlik, an award-winning French photographer.
On Tuesday, Marie Colvin said the bombardment of Baba Amr had been "unrelenting"
Several other people were reportedly killed when the shell hit the makeshift media centre in the Baba Amr district.

BRUSSELS –  After more than 12 hours of talks, the countries that use the euro reached an agreement early Tuesday to hand Greece euro130 billion ($170 billion) in additional bailout loans to save it from a potentially disastrous default next month.
The deal is expected to bring Greece's debt down to 120.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2020 -- that's around the maximum that the International Monetary Fund and the eurozone consider sustainable.

CRANSTON, R.I. – The Rhode Island teen who was recently thrust into the national spotlight for fighting to have a prayer banner at her high school removed, is now receiving a scholarship from an atheist group, MyFoxBoston.com reports.
The American Humanist Association, a national atheist organization, says that Jessica Ahlquist, 16, of Cranston High School West, stood up for her beliefs despite critics and, “responded well to online threats when she challenged the constitutionality of the display,” MyFoxBoston reports.

All the elements are in place for agreement on a new bailout loan for Greece, the French finance minister has said, ahead of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels.
Athens needs the 130bn euros (£110bn; $170bn) in order to avoid bankruptcy in mid-March, when a huge repayment on its governmental debt must be made.
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said Greece could not wait any longer.

South Korea has held live fire military drills from islands near disputed sea borders with the North, despite threats of retaliation from Pyongyang.
The drills, which North Korea has called "premeditated military provocation", lasted two hours.
There was no reported action from the North, which warned on Sunday that it would retaliate for any attacks.
The drills took place in an area where four South Koreans were killed in 2010 in a North Korean artillery attack.

WASHINGTON –  A top lawmaker says the House of Representatives and Senate have sealed a final agreement on legislation to renew a 2 percentage-point cut in the payroll tax and jobless benefits for millions of unemployed workers, a top priority of President Barack Obama.
Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, the Senate Finance Committee Chairman, confirmed the agreement to Fox News late Wednesday, capping a long day of wrangling over the final details of the measure.