Rick Santorum was met with huge cheers from his supporters in Lafayette as he exclaimed at the opening of his victory speech in Alabama, "We did it again," foreshadowing his subsequent win in Mississippi. The former Pennsylvania senator went on to thank his wife and his family, giving a special shout-out to his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, who's campaigning for him in Hawaii. He also knocked Mitt Romney's super PAC and Mitt's alleged claim that he had an advantage in Tuesday's primaries: "Romney spent a whole lot of money against me for being inevitable." As he was concluding his speech, emphasizing his commitment to family and "the centrality of faith in our lives," the numbers came in to reveal that he had won Mississippi's primary as well. Newt Gingrich, pledging to stay in the race, praised Santorum's victory and also mocked Romney's "inevitable" win, knocking his "frontrunner" status after his Deep South losses and citing his spending on super PACs as a lack of "substance" in his campaign.

It’s the scandal that just won’t end. Rebekah Brooks, the former News International chief, posted bail Tuesday along with her husband, Chris Brooks, after the two were arrested for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. This isn’t the first time she has faced charges in conjunction with the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. She was arrested last summer—just two days after resigning from her post as the CEO—for allegedly conspiring to intercept communications and corrupting police officers. Four others were arrested with the Brookses, including Mark Hanna, the head of security at News International.

Oh, boy, this complicates things. Just when you thought Mitt Romney was ready to wrap up the election, Rick Santorum and the voters of Mississippi and Alabama are here to tell you it’s not over yet. Santorum won Alabama Tuesday, winning a projected 35 percent of votes. In second place was Gingrich over Romney, 30 percent to 28 percent. In Mississippi, Santorum fought a tight race with Romney and Gingrich, but is being projected to win. Though Mitt started strong, he faded quickly once the votes came in. It's important to note that though Santorum has the momentum, he still lags delegate-wise.

The Federal Reserve announced on Tuesday that most of the major banks  in the U.S. could withstand a severe recession, according to results of its latest round of “stress tests.” 15 of the 19 largest U.S. bank holding companies passed the stress tests that are imposed to determine how major financial institutions would fare in the event of an economic downturn. Even under depression-like circumstances, the banks could maintain key capital ratios while continuing to make loans to individuals and businesses, raise dividends and initiate stock buyback programs. However, the four banks that failed to pass the tests—Citigroup, Sun Trust, MetLife and Ally Financial—are now under pressure to show signs of improvement. Under The Fed's presumed worst of circumstances, the 19 bank holding companies would suffer losses of $534 billion over nine quarters, though The Fed has repeatedly emphasized such a major downturn is unlikely.

A new development in concerns over Iran's nuclear program: a U.S. nuke expert said Tuesday that he's discovered a test chamber for explosives at Iran's Parchin military site. David Albright, founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, said he found the site through satellite images of a relatively small and isolated compound at Parchin, which is southeast of Tehran, that matched a description in a November 2011 International Atomic Energy Agency report. Iran has so far refused access to the site, which a U.N. nuclear watchdog wants to visit, leading to speculation among Western diplomats that it was trying to clean up the facility before letting anyone inspect it. Iran, meanwhile, has written off talks of an alleged cleanup as "propaganda."

Boston was plunged into darkness Tuesday after a three-alarm fire that started burning in a 115,000-volt transformer sent black clouds into the sky. To stop the blaze, officials had to cut power for thousands of residents. The fire department, and Twitter users, immediately posted pictures of the blaze. Even Mitt Romney’s son Tagg got in on the action, tweeting, “I'm in Boston. No power. Police announcing to evacuate due to hazardous smoke. But no transit, no taxis, no lights. Crazy.”

The Taliban opened fire on a group of Afghan officials—including President Hamid Karzai’s brother—on Tuesday at the site where a U.S. solider killed 16 civilians over the weekend. At least one Afghan soldier was reportedly killed in Tuesday’s attack and another two were injured in the gun battle, which occurred just after a memorial at a mosque for the victims of the massacre by a U.S. soldier. In eastern Afghanistan, students staged the first significant protest in response to the killings, where they burned an effigy of President Obama and chanted “Death to America” in Jalalabad. Meanwhile, Obama said he will be directing an inquiry into the killings allegedly by a U.S. soldier, and said they will “follow the facts” and that anyone found responsible will be prosecuted. Obama called the situation tragic, but said it would not change the timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Does President Obama see political opportunity in the NCAA tournament brackets?  For a fourth straight year, Obama is publicizing his NCAA tournament predictions. The basketball fan and player has put his bets on Kentucky, Ohio State, Missouri and North Carolina to reach the semifinal round in New Orleans. ESPN will reveal his full brackets on Wednesday, but so far three out of his four selections will likely be swing-states in the November elections. Kentucky and North Carolina are both top seeds in teh South and Midwest brackets, while Missouri and Ohio are No. 2 seeds in the West and East brackets. Romney, meanwhile, has said he'll pass on filling out an NCAA bracket. "I'm not plugged in well enough this year to do that," he told reporters on Tuesday while en route to Missouri.

Fans of the printed word will no doubt breathe a sentimental sigh over this news: after 244 years, Encyclopaedia Britannica is ceasing production of its multivolume reference books, shifting its focus to online encyclopedias and educational tools, company executives announced on Tuesday. Britannica usually prints a new set of tomes every two years, but 2010's 32-volume set will be the last one ever produced. "Everyone will want to call this the end of an era, and I understand that," said Britannica president Jorge Cauz. "But there's no sad moment for us." Print encyclopedias account for less than 1 percent of Encyclopaedia Britannica’s revenues, with curriculum products and other educational tools bringing in 85 percent and the remaining revenues coming from online subscriptions to its website.

Thanks to TLC’s hit show Toddlers and Tiaras, child beauty pageants are suddenly in the spotlight. But John Ramsey, whose 6-year-old daughter and pageant winner JonBenet was murdered in 1996, recently said he regrets her involvement in the child pageant world. “I think about these things now and it makes me cringe. We were so naive,” he told ABC News. “I now believe with all my heart that it’s not a good idea to put your child on public display.” Benet was found strangled in her home days after she appeared in a Christmas parade. John and his wife, Patsy Ramsey, were long believed to be suspects in their daughter’s murder and were only recently cleared of suspicion. Ramsey is promoting his new book, The Other Side of Suffering, which details his emotional journey “from grief to grace” following JonBenet’s murder. Fifteen years after her death, police have not yet found the killer.

Clint Eastwood isn’t one to routinely grace the covers of tabloids, but his life is about to get a little more public now. He and his wife, Dina, will be starring in an E! reality show called Mrs. Eastwood & Company. The show, which will debut in May, will follow Dina as she manages The Overtones, an all-male South African musical group, and the couple’s teenage daughters, Francesca and Morgan. “Nothing is more important to me than family–no matter how you define that,” Dina said in a statement. “People might be surprised by how we live our lives and our unconventional approach.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its highest closing level on Tuesday since 2007, finishing the day up by more than 200 points and above 13000. The surge was led by JP Morgan, which was up seven percent by close after unveiling a $15 billion buyback. Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs all added at least five percent, while Apple rose 2.7 percent—the fifth straight day the company finished up. Benchmark gauges were up after data showed retail sales increased 1.1 percent in February.

Good thing Prince Harry had a fun vacation, because it sounds like his Army commanders are going to give him a stern welcome home. According to The Telegraph, Harry has been told that he can have no more time away from his helicopter training, including royal duties, if he hopes to fly his Apache in Afghanistan. “He's been told that he can’t spend every spare moment down the pub and can’t risk spending more time on another royal tour,” says a source. The prince just completed a Commonwealth tour, during which he hung out with Usain Bolt, played polo, and went to parties.

Jon Hamm may play a ladies’ man on television, but Kim Kardashian isn’t buying his act. In an interview with Elle UK, the Mad Men star commented on the state of popular culture, saying, “Whether it’s Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian or whoever, stupidity is certainly celebrated.” Hamm went on to say that being an “idiot is a valuable commodity in this culture because you’re rewarded significantly.” In an extended Twitter post, Kardashian struck back. “We’re all working hard and we all have to respect one another,” the reality star reminded Hamm. “Calling someone who runs their own businesses, is a part of a successful TV show, produces, writes, designs, and creates, ‘stupid,’ is in my opinion careless.”

Should Newt’s campaign be worried? Sheldon Adelson—the Las Vegas billionaire known for bankrolling Gingrich’s presidential aspirations—is now facing down a $375 million lawsuit. Adelson and his family own Las Vegas Sands, a casino operator, which is being sued by former partner Asian American Entertainment for breach of contract regarding the company’s successful bid for a gambling license in Macau. This is just one of many legal actions taken against Las Vegas Sands since they were permitted to build casinos in Macau 10 years ago.  

This Santorum gaffe was brought to you by the letter L—or lack thereof, that is. The presidential hopeful’s campaign sent an email to reporters with the title MEDIA ADVISORY: SANTORUM’S PUBIC SCHEDULE. Oops. While Twitter was set on fire by the racy mistake—especially given Santorum’s Google problem—the campaign sent another email about 15 minutes later with the correct subject line. It did not, however, acknowledge the misplaced “pube.”

If pink slime weren’t enough to make you think twice about that burger, a newly released long-range study finds that eating any amount of red meat is bad for your health. The survey of 110,000 adults over 20 years found that adding just one three-ounce serving of unprocessed red meat to their daily diet increased participants’ risk of dying during the study by 13 percent. Adding a hot dog or two slices of bacon increased their risk by 20 percent. On the other hand, replacing beef or pork with nuts lowers your risk by 19 percent, and replacing them with poultry or grain lowers your risk by 14 percent. “Any red meat you eat contributes to the risk,” said An Pan, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of the study.

A Congolese general claimed Tuesday that warlord Joseph Kony and his army had been driven out of the Democratic Republic of Congo and into the Central African Republic. He made the comment after Uganda recently claimed that Congo has been obstructing the search for Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. But Gen. Jean Claude Kifwa says that Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have been driven from the country and countered that Uganda may be deliberately delaying the search in Uganda. “Firstly, he’s no longer in Uganda. Also the Americans are supporting the Ugandans (against the LRA) and the Ugandans want to benefit from that support.” The hunt for Kony has received widespread attention since the Stop Kony 2012 video went viral last week.

A female Ohio legislator introduced a bill Monday that would require men to have medical tests and visit a sex therapist before getting a prescription for Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs. Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner said that if lawmakers want to put limits on women’s reproductive health, men’s reproductive health should also be examined. Turner is especially critical of a bill recently introduced in the Ohio statehouse that is popularly referred to as the “Heartbeat bill,” which prohibits abortion until a Heartbeat is detected. Supporters of the heartbeat bill insist the two cannot be compared, since it is an anti-abortion bill and they claim it is not about women’s reproductive health. Turner’s bill is part of a national trend to bring legislation forward about men’s reproductive health.

From a life in the Mafia to the memoir circuit? It appears that notorious mobster James “Whitey” Bulger may have written two memoirs—and they could be used against him in court. Investigators said they found two separate autobiographies written by Bulger while conducting searches at his former homes in Santa Monica, Calif., and South Boston, Mass., according to a report filed on Tuesday in federal court. A document titled “My Life in the Irish Mafia Wars” was seized in a Jan. 5, 1995, raid on Bulger’s South Boston home, and the FBI found a second document that “appears to be autobiographical” when they arrested Bulger and his girlfriend in June. While it’s unclear if Bulger himself actually wrote the documents, prosecutors still plan on using them in court.

Will tonight be the night that Newt final exits the stage? Political junkies everywhere are preparing for a late night in Alabama and Mississippi, with Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum jockeying for the top position. Early exit polls show that 81 percent in Mississippi are evangelical, while 73 percent in Alabama identify themselves that way. Meanwhile, two thirds of voters in both states have identified themselves as Tea Party supporters, a number that will surely bump the allegedly “really” conservative Rick Santorum. Of the Alabama Tea Partiers, Gingrich and Santorum are tied with a reported 34 percent of the vote, with Romney trailing in third with 27 percent. CNN reports that in Mississippi, 42 percent of voters say that beating Obama is top priority, while 19 percent are on a search for the “true conservative” and someone with a “strong moral character.” CNN reports that college students in Alabama are giving Santorum a strong boost, as he leads in exit polls 38 percent are in favor of Santorum, compared to 32 percent for Romney.

The settlement with the five largest mortgage lenders is finally official. Under the deal, banks will have to pay roughly $20 billion to help borrowers avoid foreclosure, plus another $5 billion in cash to federal and state governments. They won't, however, have to admit wrongdoing, despite some highly suspect practices detailed in the government’s investigation. According to the report, managers at major banks told employees to adopt make-believe titles and rush applications through the system despite objections. One vice president at Bank of America said her department checked only for “formatting and spelling errors,” not the facts of the mortgage.

Defense lawyers representing the Rutgers University student charged in relation to his roommate’s suicide said that the college freshman was just a “typical 18-year-old kid.” Attorney Steve Altman told the jury that Dharun Ravi, who faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of invasion of privacy, isn’t a homophobe and that he shouldn’t be punished for a hate crime. The defense presented dozens of witnesses who testified that they never heard Ravi make antigay remarks. Ravi and his friend Molly Wei used his webcam to spy on Tyler Clementi’s dorm-room date with another man. Clementi killed himself shortly after the incident.

You might not think it with all the high-profile bankrollers like Sheldon Adelson and Foster Freiss, but the 2012 GOP race has actually been unusually cheap. Even including spending by super PACs, the Republican hopefuls have spent less cash so far than in 2008, or any campaign since the 1990s. Mitt Romney, despite being the presumed frontrunner this time around, has actually raised money at a slower pace than he did four years ago. The weak economy and drawn-out primary process could be partly to blame, but the most likely culprit seems to be voter enthusiasm—or lack thereof.

Record rainfall has caused part of southern Louisiana to flood early Tuesday—and some areas could get up to 20 inches of rain. A flood warning has been put into effect until Tuesday, as the National Weather Service estimated 12 to 18 inches of rain is likely, with some areas getting up to 20 inches. Floodwaters crested overnight in Bayou Vermilion at Carencro at five and a half feet over flood stage—12 inches above the record, set in 2004. Emergency workers said there had been an estimated 150 rescues so far, including 16 middle-school students whose bus got stuck in more than four feet of water. A state of emergency has been issued in St. Landry Parish, where officials estimated that at least 2,000 people have been affected.

With math on his side, Rick Santorum is in the Republican presidential-nomination race for the long haul. Though Santorum’s campaign has prodded Mitt Romney for claiming that the delegate numbers game is on his side, a memo from a Santorum strategist outlines how the former senator can grab the nomination—using a model of the delegates he needs to win.  With Mississippi and Alabama’s primaries on Tuesday—which Romney is favored to walk away with—Santorum’s camp thinks he can win even if he loses both states. Santorum’s positives: momentum, the potential of a drawn-out campaign, the possibility of gaining Newt Gingrich’s delegates and unbound delegates, and a brokered convention. Unfortunately for Rick, if Mitt has a strong April, the race is probably over.

Hey, China, could the rest of us have some of those rare-earth minerals? That’s the crux of a trade case filed by the U.S., EU, and Japan today, President Obama has announced. China has gradually been increasing export restrictions on the minerals, which are used in high-tech and “green” businesses, and the U.S. has cried foul. An American trade representative said in a statement, "Because China is a top global producer for these key inputs, its harmful policies artificially increase prices for the inputs outside of China while lowering prices in China.” But a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs fought back, saying, "China has worked out its own policy on managing rare earths, which is in line with WTO regulations.” China must respond to the case within 10 days and hold talks with the parties within two months.

After four days of cross-border violence claimed 25 Palestinian lives, Egyptian officials say they have helped broker a truce between Israel and Gaza militants. The two sides “agreed to end the current operations” and “begin a comprehensive and mutual calm,” Egyptians said of the deal. The militants in Gaza reportedly fired close to 150 rockets into Israel since Friday, injuring eight Israelis, military officials said. Hamas’s leadership in Gaza said their forces stayed out of the fighting. Schools were closed, and Israelis stayed in their houses. Meanwhile, in Gaza about 80 Palestinians were wounded.

A ferry carrying between 200 and 300 people collided with a cargo boat on a river in southern Bangladesh, killing at least 30 people. The boat sank with many passengers still on board. Only 35 were rescued. “The death toll is likely to rise, as more bodies are feared trapped inside,” said a police official. “We will get a better picture of the casualties once the sunken ferry is pulled out of the water.” Overcrowding, faulty boats, and lax rules often result in ferry accidents in Bangladesh.

Apparently, Sarah Palin is still a big deal: 2.1 million viewers tuned in for the premiere of HBO’s Game Change on Saturday. The movie follows Palin’s role in the 2008 campaign. The huge premiere made the film the highest-rated HBO movie in eight years. The success continued throughout the weekend, as the four airings racked up a total of 3.6 million viewers.

There may be no “rush for the exits,” as President Obama said yesterday, but the administration is weighing changes to its Afghanistan withdrawal strategy, according to The New York Times. The plan was to end combat operations by the end of 2014, but with the recent Quran-burning scandal and last weekend’s massacre of Afghan civilians, the administration is debating whether to accelerate the process. Meanwhile thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Afghanistan to protest Sunday’s massacre, some burning Obama in effigy, and militants attacked an Afghan government delegation visiting the massacre site. Details about the suspect are trickling out: he is believed to be a sergeant, from the Lewis-McChord base near Seattle, which has a high rate of suicide and assault, and had suffered a traumatic brain injury during one of his three tours in Iraq.

The forces of Bashar al-Assad have reached a new low, if a report from Human Rights Watch is true. The group says it has multiple accounts of land mines on Syria’s border with Lebanon and Turkey, along routes used by refugees to escape the violence. In the report, a former Syrian Army deminer says he removed 300 mines along a route to Turkey in March, and a 15-year-old boy says he lost a leg to a mine in Baba Amr. The United Nations is set to meet for a second day in Turkey, after the first day failed to reach any conclusions. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked the security council to condemn Syria's “horrific campaign of violence,” but Russia and China continue to oppose any resolution.

During a radio interview on The Rick & Bubba Show in Alabama, Newt Gingrich reiterated that he will stick with his presidential campaign until the end of the primary process. He also predicted that Mitt Romney won’t earn enough delegates to win, creating a brokered convention, at which point he thinks it would be beneficial for his campaign and Rick Santorum’s to join forces. “There's a certain advantage, I think right now, in having both of us tag-team Romney because neither one of us by ourselves can raise the money to match Romney,” he said. “With Rick and me together, we’re really slowing him down, with some help frankly from Ron Paul.” Though Gingrich does not expect a win in Tuesday’s primaries, he seeks to win a lot of delegates, reminding the show’s listeners that he’s a Southerner like them. “They don’t want to have a Massachusetts moderate when they can have a Georgia conservative,” he said.

Tide, a criminal currency? Apparently it’s true: the popular laundry detergent has become a recent target by thieves—who are allegedly using it as a type of street currency because the retail price is steadily high. Throughout the country, Tide has been the subject of a recent crime wave, and it’s become enough of a problem that CVS is considering special security measures to keep Tide on the shelf. In one incident in Maryland, a suspect loaded a supermarket cart with 15 to 20 bottles of Tide and took off outside the store to a getaway car—and the accomplice allegedly tried to resell the bottles 40 minutes later.

Rupert Murdoch’s flame-haired former deputy Rebekah Brooks is back in jail, part of a police sweep that took in five others in an investigation into phone hacking at News Corp. Brooks’s husband, horse trainer Charlie Brooks, was also taken in. The arrests constitute the biggest haul since the beginning of the investigation; police say that several addresses related to the arrests were also searched. Brooks was editor of News of the World and then CEO of News International, Murdoch’s newspaper arm, until she resigned in July. She was arrested and bailed out last summer.

Matt Romney has finally been convinced that President Barack Obama was born in the U.S.; in fact he thinks Obama is “great.” Mitt’s son greeted supporters in Honolulu—the president’s birthplace—Monday, brushing aside questions about his past crusade to get the president to release his birth certificate. When asked whether he thinks Obama is a Christian, Matt said he did, but “I’m not here to talk about President Obama. I think he’s great. I’m here to talk about my dad and what he would bring to the country.” As for arguments that Mitt Romney is part of the “1 percent,” his son argued: “I think that everybody wants to be part of that 1 percent, if you call it that. Everybody wants a chance to dream, to grow, and prosper.”

Last Friday, Bill Maher called Rick Santorum's home, where he schools his children, a "Christian madrassa." Santorum didn't, apparently, find this comment funny and shot back at the HBO host Tuesday. He argued on Fox News that "folks on the left" are "trashing anybody who stands up for Christian conservative values, anybody who dares to actually teach their children faith in their home." Maher had made the argument that by home schooling his children Santorum was sheltering them for fear that they "could be infected by the virus of reason." To this, Santorum quipped, "Our children will outreason him. My 12-year-old will outreason Bill Maher when it comes to understanding how logic works, 'cause [Maher] is completely illogical." Maher has given $1 million to President Obama's reelection campaign, a donation that Sarah Palin and other conservatives have urged the president to return.

Fox News is "shilling" for Mitt Romney, charged Rick Santorum during an interview on the Kilmeade and Friends radio show Tuesday. "He's had a 10-to-1 money advantage. He's had all the organizational advantages. He has Fox News shilling for him every day, no offense Brian, but I see it. And yet he can't seal the deal because he just doesn't have the goods to be able to motivate the Republican base to win this election." The radio show's host, Brian Kilmeade, also a co-host of Fox News Channel's Fox and Friends, challenged Santorum's accusation. "No, you can feel the way you want, I'm just telling you, there's no way I agree with that, and you've been on as much as anyone ..." The two went back and forth, with Santorum knocking Fox for focusing on "mathematics" and the host responding, "You don't want us to add up delegates?" Santorum would not give in, so Kilmeade shot back. "I will say this, Mitt Romney's people respond when we request, and we've been requesting you on this show for for three months minimum, and we've gotten nothing but 'Yeah, we'll see,' which blows me away."