The Food and Drug Administration officially announced Thursday that the meningitis outbreak is linked to tainted steroid injections produced by the New England Compounding Center. Health officials found a fungus known as Exserohilum rostratum in unopened packages of the steroid, according the FDA’s statement. As many as 14,000 people may have been exposed to the contaminated drugs, which were recalled Sept. 26. More than 250 cases of fungal meningitis and 20 deaths have been reported. The compounding center shut down in early October.

One of the alleged masterminds behind the attack on the Libyan compound that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens says Libya’s army is “chicken” and continues to go about his day-to-day business. Though Libya has called Ahmed Abu Khattala commander of the attack, he tells The New York Times that he hasn’t even been questioned about it. Abu Khattala asserts that the compound guards provoked a peaceful demonstration by shooting at protesters and insists he wasn’t part of the attack. He also accused U.S. leaders of “playing with the emotions of the American people” and “using the consulate attack just to gather votes for their elections.”

A U.S. appeals court in New York has shot down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act. The highly controversial section defines marriage as heterosexual, and does not provide insurance benefits for government workers, Social Security benefits, and joint filing of tax returns for gay couples. The opinion was written by the conservative judge Dennis Jacobs. The New York court joins Boston as the second to find the act unconstitutional. The issue will be decided by the Supreme Court.

The Boy Scouts released 14,500 pages of documents on Thursday detailing how the organization—along with the help of local community leaders—allegedly sheltered scoutmasters and other scout officials accused of sexually abusing children. Dubbed the “perversion files,” the materials were collected mostly between 1959 and 1985, and contain stories of numerous boys being raped and molested. Often, the perpetrators appear to have been able to avoid prosecution in order to keep the Boy Scouts from embarrassment. The Oregon Supreme Court ruled several months ago that the Boy Scouts had to release the documents.

Mitt Romney extended his lead in Gallup’s Daily Tracking poll on Thursday. The former Massachusetts governor is up by 7 points, leading the president 52 percent to 45 percent among likely voters. Four days ago, Romney had just a 2-point lead. A separate Gallup poll showed President Obama’s job approval rating remaining at 50 percent. A new Pew poll also released Thursday shows Americans continue to give Obama a slight edge when it comes to national security issues. The survey showed 47 percent trust Obama to handle foreign policy, while 43 percent believe Romney would do a better job.

Time to throw away those Hillary for President bumper stickers once and for all. The Secretary of State says despite endless speculation to the contrary, she’ll be moving out of the political sphere after Obama’s first term ends. In the interview with Marie Claire released Thursday, Clinton also addressed a recent Atlantic magazine article by a former State Department staffer Anne-Marie Slaughter on women “having it all.” Clinton offered her opposing view: “I can't stand whining. I can't stand the kind of paralysis that some people fall into because they're not happy with the choices they made." Later in the day, Marie Claire released a statement claiming Clinton's specific comments about 'whining' were not in direct reference to Slaughter.

It was no debate. At a traditional campaign stop charity dinner in New York Thursday night, Mitt Romney and the president exchanged humorous jabs. “It’s nice to finally relax and wear what Ann and I wear around the house,” a tuxedo-clad Romney joked to the crowd at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner. Obama, speaking after Romney, took a similar approach: “Earlier today I went shopping at some stores in Midtown,” he said. “I understand Gov. Romney went shopping for some stores in Midtown.” Obama joked he was also well-rested after the “nice long nap” he took during the first debate.

One video shows a man holding up two child-sized legs, severed from a body. Another man carries an unattached arm. The devastating scenes in northern Syria come after government airstrikes on rebel areas that killed at least 43 people and left the area in piles of rubble. The strikes from President Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian military came late Wednesday and early Thursday. The U.N. and several neighboring nations are calling for a four-day Eid al-Adha truce to begin on Oct. 25. Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iraqi government endorsed the truce, saying it could “save the region from more miseries and pains.”

That may not be the optimal choice of words either. In an interview with The Daily Show taped Thursday, President Obama said the attacks in Benghazi were “not optimal.” Responding to Stewart’s suggestion that the administration did not have “the optimal response” to the attacks, Obama responded “If four Americans get killed it is not optimal … and we are going to fix it, all of it.” Stewart also asked Obama whether he still believes “we don’t have to trade our values for our security,” with Obama responding “We don’t, there’s some things that we haven’t gotten done, I still want to close Guantanamo, we haven’t been able to get that done.”

Maybe her new single will be called “Me Against the Manager”? The attorney for Britney Spears’s former manager, Sam Lutfi, opened the trial against the pop star Thursday by claiming Lutfi had been trying to keep Spears off drugs. Lufti claims he had drug-sniffing dogs search Spears’s house and that they turned up a substance that was probably crystal meth. “My client was made a scapegoat for drug abuse and the erratic behavior of Britney Spears,” his attorney told the jury. Lufti even claims Britney’s famous head-shaving incident was meant to hide drug evidence. The former manager is suing Spears’s parents for millions of dollars, saying her mom wrote lies about him drugging and isolating the star.

It’s safe to say that Donald Trump is a member of Team Edward. The real-estate mogul tweeted on Thursday that Robert Pattinson could “do much better” than Kristen Stewart. The couple broke up earlier this year after Stewart was caught cheating, but they were spotted together outside a Los Angeles club on Sunday. And the Donald’s not happy about it. Trump tweeted: “Robert Pattinson should not take back Kristen Stewart. She cheated on him like a dog & will do it again—just watch. He can do much better!” At least he’s not asking for see their birth certificates.

Bruce Springsteen’s political allegiances have hardly been kept guarded. His most recent album, Wrecking Ball, has a song on it called “We Take Care of Our Own,” and headlined Obama’s inauguration concert. Nonetheless, the Boss had promised to stay out of the current election…until now. The rocker posted an endorsement letter of Barack Obama on his website Wednesday, praising his work repairing the economy, saving the auto industry, protecting women’s rights, and killing Osama bin Laden. "We’re still living through very hard times but justice, equality and real freedom are not always a tide rushing in,” he writes. “They are more often a slow march, inch by inch, day after long day.”

Well, it wasn’t an easy year. People reports that Demi Moore is “jealous and frustrated” by former husband Ashton Kutcher’s relationship with Mila Kunis. Moore, who’s turning 50 soon, split with Kutcher last November after six years of marriage ended with his cheating. Moore’s friends are also concerned about her diminishing weight, saying she still hasn’t recovered. Meanwhile, Kutcher topped Forbes’s list of highest-paid actors, while Kunis was named the Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire.

The man arrested for reportedly trying to blow up a car of fake explosives outside the Federal Reserve building in Manhattan Wednesday said he wanted to “destroy America.” Quazi Mohammad Reswanul Ahsan Nafis, who claims to have al-Qaeda links, was arrested after attempting to detonate the bomb. “I just want something big. Something very big. Very, very, very, very big, that will shake the whole country,” he had told his supposed accomplices, who were actually undercover FBI agents. Nafis is facing charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaeda. He is being held without bail.

Syrian rebels have acquired advanced portable antiaircraft weapons that were smuggled into the war-torn country from Turkey and occasionally Lebanon. The missiles have been used to shoot down government helicopters and fighter jets, according to rebels and regional officials. “Northern Syria is awash with advanced antitank and antiaircraft weapons. The situation has changed very quickly,” a Syrian weapons coordinator said. The U.S. government is opposed to the weapons filtering into Syria because of fears they could end up in the hands of dangerous militia for use against Western countries. For rebel fighters, the new weapons could be the boost they need to fight against the more sophisticated state forces.

A Texas used-car salesman entered a plea of guilty to conspiring with Iranians to plan the assassination of a Saudi diplomat. Manssor Arbabsiar was arrested one year ago and now faces up to 25 years in prison. U.S. officials have labeled the plot as an attempt by Iran to carry out act of terrorism on U.S. soil. Arbabsiar has both Iranian and  U.S. citizenship.

George McGovern, the former senator who lost one of the most lopsided presidential races in modern history, is “no longer responsive” and “is nearing the end,” according to his family Wednesday night. Admitted to hospice two days ago, the 90-year-old McGovern has been dealing with several ailments “that have worsened over recent months,” the family  said in a statement. McGovern represented South Dakota in the Senate from 1963 to 1981, but is probably best known for losing the 1972 presidential election to Richard Nixon, carrying only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

Racial hatred has no problem fitting into 140-characters. Twitter users in Germany will no longer be able to see tweets from the neo-Nazi group Besseres Hannover, at the request of the German government. For the first time, the micro-blogging site has implemented a policy of localized censorship. The group has been charged with threatening immigrants and distribution racial pamphlets. They won’t be retweeted anymore in Germany—though the rest of the world can still access them.

How is a tattooed cyclist indirectly responsible for the fall of Lance Armstrong? The New York Times reports that the case of Kayle Leogrande, who was busted by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in 2004, led to the investigation into Lance Armstrong. Ironically, Leogrande, who now owns an L.A. tattoo parlor, spoke to Armstrong only once (and was actually inspired to come back to cycling after watching the former Livestrong man on television in 2004). Armstrong resigned as chairman from Livestrong, while Nike severed its ties to the cyclist on Wednesday.

Don’t stop Mitt now, he’s having such a good time. The Romney camp has no plans to reel back in Mitt for the third debate after an aggressive performance at Tuesday’s town hall. Despite challenging President Obama repeatedly (and not so successfully on Libya), and a testy rapport with moderator Candy Crowley, Romney’s clan says he won the debate for his sound economic talking points. And since Obama desperately needs favorability ratings to boost his own numbers, Romney doesn’t mind taking on an antagonistic role, at least in the debates. Which is exactly what you want to hear from a prospective president.

No wonder Xi Jinping disappeared. China reported a slowdown in growth for the seventh consecutive quarter, as the economy only expanded by 7.4 percent—the slowest pace since 2009. The troubling numbers come just three weeks before the Communist Party installs a new government for the first time in ten years.  While the Chinese government is on high alert for signs of unrest—angry unemployed or a rise in migrant workers—so far there hasn’t been anything. On the positive side, September has posted good data, meaning the slide may be temporarily stopped.

A note to Americans from Tagg Romney: you can’t punch the president because the Secret Service will get you. Mitt’s eldest son said on a radio interview in North Carolina on Wednesday that he didn’t like the way President Obama called his dad a “liar” at the town-hall debate. Tagg’s reaction: “Jump out of your seat and you want to rush down to the stage and take a swing at him. But you know you can't do that because, well, first because there's a lot of Secret Service between you and him, but also because that's the nature of the process." Tagg’s right, it’s all about democracy or something.

At least Mitt didn’t say he had Trapper Keepers full of women. Just when you though the “binder full of women” meme was dead, this happens: Amazon.com reviews of binders. Hundreds of users have posted reviews of the once-tame school supply. “Maybe it’s just my women, but they don’t seem to want to fit into the space I’ve designated for them in this binder,” one user complains. “IT’S HUGE, I’m holding 40-plus women in my binder, as well as some men,” another user writes. Meanwhile, a select group of Americans continue to lament that the president’s use of the word “gangbangers” didn’t go viral.

No one really pictures their son detonating a 1,000-pound car bomb. The family of 21-year-old Quazi Mohammed Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, arrested for allegedly trying to bomb the Federal Reserve building, said that they were stunned by the news. “My son can’t do it,” said his father in Dhaka. “He is very gentle and devoted to his studies.”  The university Nafis attended, however, says that he was a terrible student who was threatened with expulsion.  Nafis reportedly told his accomplices, who were actually FBI agents, that “I just want something big. Something very big. Very, very, very, very big, that will shake the whole country.”

We may be used to Mr. Bean’s goofy pratfalls, but Rowan Atkinson isn’t clowning around. The actor, best known for playing the fumbling British doof Mr. Bean, is launching a campaign for a change in Britain’s Public Order Act, a law that bans “insulting words and behavior.” The law has reportedly led to the arrest of a Christian preacher, a Scientology critic, and student who cracked a joke. Atkinson says the act creates a “culture of censoriousness,” as what constitutes “insulting” is too ambiguous to be fairly enforced.

These presidential campaigns have been fun and all, but if Romney loses in November, he’s done, says his wife. Ann told the hosts of The View Thursday morning that entering this year’s campaign after losing the 2008 GOP primary was “a very hard thing” on the Romney family, and while she believes Mitt can save the U.S. economy, this is “absolutely” the last time they’ll try to persuade the American people to feel the same.

Sidwell Friends, the Washington, D.C.– area private school that Malia and Sasha Obama attend, was evacuated Thursday morning due to a phoned-in threat. It is still unclear whether the threat had any connection to the First Daughters. According to the school’s protocol, the students were taken to a nearby soccer field. A parent told The Washingtonian that threat had been cleared by noon.

It’s not his fault—when a fine-tuned football machine like Paul Ryan’s on the field he’s probably blowing past anything and everything in his way. So it’s no surprise that when the vice presidential candidate visited the Cleveland Browns Wednesday, he didn’t exactly know who the starting and backup quarterbacks were. Pointing at backup Colt McCoy, Ryan raved about the player’s time at Oklahoma State. Whoops. He meant to point at Brandon Weeden. “You always had your helmet on,” he told Weeden. We assume that’s some sort of threatening way to say, “Game on.”

It’s kind of a good news, very bad news situation. The good news: researchers from Bristol University have found a link to higher IQs and better working memory in children. The very bad news: that link is a high risk for eating disorders. According to a new study released Wednesday, children classified as being prone to unhealthy weight control behaviors performed better in tasks that measured the brain’s ability to process necessary information while suppressing irrelevant details. The caveat is, however, that those kids also suffer from poor attention control. And that’s today’s news on studies that connect eating habits to intelligence.

Has Uma Thurman felt slighted by her measly three-letter first name? Perhaps, as she just revealed her newborn daughter’s name, and it’s, take a deep breath, Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence Thurman-Busson. Or Luna for short, naturally, though “Luna” is in exactly none of those six other names. Thurman, 42, gave birth to the aggressively named baby girl on July 15. It’s her first child with beau Arpad Busson, 49. Asked about the unusually long name, Thurman’s rep said, “Each name has a special reason and meaning to her mother and father.

The first abortion clinic in Ireland opened its doors Thursday and was greeted by more than 200 protesters, who gathered outside the building waving signs that called to “keep Ireland abortion free.” The Marie Stopes family planning center is located in Belfast, and will offer the abortion pill to women who are less than nine weeks’ pregnant—but only if they are at risk of death or long-term health damage. The restrictions reflect the laws of the very Catholic Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, where abortion is illegal in all other cases. It’s estimated that 5,000 Irish women travel to Britain for legal abortions each year.

Shares of Google sank 10 percent on Thursday after the company's dismal third-quarter earnings report was prematurely released—and showed the company falling short of expectations. Earnings per share had been pegged at $10.65 and instead came in at $9.03. The report also showed that the company’s revenue was $11.33 billion—$500 million less than predicted. Trading was halted until the official report was released, at which point the stock recovered some of its lost ground. CEO Larry Page was quoted in the second report saying, “We had a strong quarter. Revenue was up 45 percent year-on-year, and, at just fourteen years old, we cleared our first $14 billion revenue quarter."