Reuters - Dan Pugh wishes he had a bigger tractor and his wife Laura worries about their chickens in the winter weather. But as new farmers putting down roots in rural Missouri, the Pughs are counting on more rewards than regrets in trading their city lives for the country.

Time.com - Deep in the badlands of California is a squatters' camp that many are increasingly calling home -- and a paradise of sorts

Reuters - Stung by election-year criticism of a program used by one in seven Americans, administrators of U.S. food stamp benefits are intensifying efforts to combat fraud and protect the $75.3 billion plan from the budget axe.

AP - Clint Eastwood's patriotic pep talk about "halftime in America" might just as well have applied to NBC.

AP - Dan Conne says he and his wife and son thought they were going to die after getting lost while picking mushrooms and spending nearly a week in the rugged forest of southwest Oregon.

AP - U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice says China and Russia are running of risk of suffering the same sort of international isolation as Syria's Bashar Assad because of their decision to block a U.N. Security Council vote embracing an Arab League solution for the Syrian crisis.

AP - The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is keeping up the Obama administration's pressure on Egypt to release 19 Americans facing trial on allegations of encouraging unrest in the country.

AP - President Barack Obama said the U.S. has a "very good estimate" of when Iran could complete work on a nuclear weapon, but cautioned that there are still many unanswered questions about Tehran's inner workings.

AP - For decades, tourists visiting this popular Adirondack village could gape at the skeletons of soldiers from nearby French and Indian War sites. Then in 1993, a somber reburial ceremony was held to finally put the remains to rest.

AP - A developing Senate plan that would bolster the government's ability to regulate the computer security of companies that run critical industries is drawing strong opposition from businesses that say it goes too far and security experts who believe it should have even more teeth.