Northwestern U. to investigate class' sex toy demo

CHICAGO (AP) -- Northwestern University found itself at the center of a furor Thursday after a sexuality professor known for racy lessons allowed students to stay after a lecture to witness a couple using a mechanized sex toy.

The school's president promised an investigation after news of the demonstration appeared in local media reports and set off a blizzard of comments on social networking sites.

"I am troubled and disappointed by what occurred," President Morton Schapiro said. "I feel it represented extremely poor judgment on the part of our faculty member."

Police: Rioters threw flares at Seattle officers

SEATTLE (AP) -- Demonstrators clad in black threw flares and a large firework at police during a melee that began where an officer shot to death a homeless woodcarver last summer, authorities said Sunday.

An officer transporting a prisoner first noticed the gathering Saturday night and reported that the group discharged a fire extinguisher at his patrol car as he drove by. Other officers responded and found that the group had painted anti-police obscenities on the street and a nearby building.

The group also placed makeshift tire-flattening spikes in an intersection, the police department said in a news release. Many wore black, covered their faces with bandanas and carried signs advocating violence against police.

Turmoil rocks Libya's oil sector, slashing output

BREGA, Libya (AP) -- The massive oil terminal at Brega feels strangely deserted for Libya's second-largest hydrocarbon complex. After more than a week of turmoil in the country, production has been scaled back by almost 90 percent with many employees fleeing and ships not coming to collect its products.

The most activity on the site Saturday appeared to be a squad of boys from the nearby town finishing the job of tearing apart the local headquarters of Moammar Gadhafi's Revolutionary Committee.

New unsafe products database under fire on Hill

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's something Nikki Johns wishes had been around before her infant son died in a drop-side crib: a centralized federal database of people's safety complaints about thousands of products, from baby gear to household appliances and more.

"If I had known there had been children killed in drop-sides, it would have swayed me against them," says Johns, who lost her 9-month-old son, Liam, in a faulty crib that came apart at the side rail and trapped the little boy one night after his mom went to bed at their home in Citrus Heights, Calif., nearly six years ago.

Former Libyan Diplomat: Killing Gadhafi Only Way to End Violence

A former diplomat and interpreter for Libya's embattled President Moammar Gadhafi says killing Gaddafi is the only solution to ending the ongoing clashes between anti-government protesters, who demand he step down, and pro-Gaddafi supporters.

Abubaker Saad, professor of history and non-Western cultures at Western Connecticut State University in the United States, says Gadhafi's pronouncements, in his words, depict his unwillingness to negotiate with the anti-government protesters to end the crisis.