After three face-offs and “way too many ads,” as President Obama joked, the presidential-debate circuit concluded Monday night, weeks before the general election. The president concluded by laying out voters’ two choices: a president who is winding down two wars and helping a crashing economy rebound, and a Republican rival who wants to duplicate the policies of George W. Bush. “I promise you I will always listen to your voices, I will fight for your families, and I will work every single day to make sure American continues to be the greatest country on earth,” he said. Romney’s final statement emphasized the struggling economy, which he said is “heading towards Greece.” His policies would create new jobs, increase take home pay, and get workers off food stamps. “America’s going to come back,” he said. “This nation is the hope of the earth.”

The third presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney began with a feisty spat over strategy in the Middle East. Romney accused Obama of making no progress in the area, saying, “We can’t kill our way out of this mess.” In response, Obama called out his record knocking down “those who actually killed us on 9/11” and called Romney’s strategy in the area “all over the map.” When Romney said his strategy was straightforward—“Go after the bad guys”—Obama said he’s confused over who the bad guys are. They aren’t in Russia, where Obama said Romney thinks the greatest threat to America is. Then came Obama’s zinger: “The 1980s called, they want their foreign policy back.”

It took an hour for President Obama to bring up the killing of Osama bin Laden in the third presidential debate. Mitt got to it first! But when Obama got to the topic, he chided Mitt Romney for his position on the matter in 2004, recalling that Romney said, “We shouldn’t move heaven and earth to get one man.” He then told a story about a girl whose father died on 9/11, who told him she now has closure over his death because of the killing. Meanwhile, both Obama and Romney said they believed that Afghanistan will be ready to govern itself by the time troops withdraw in 2014, though Romney clarified that our policy in the area needs to include more than “going after bad guys.”

A top BBC editor is stepping aside after giving “inaccurate” information about why he stopped an investigation into Sir Jimmy Savile, a prominent British personality on the network who is posthumously accused of abusing hundreds of teenage girls. The BBC said Monday that Peter Rippon’s explanation that the segment was killed last December for editorial reasons was “incomplete.” Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, Savile allegedly abused the girls in hospitals, children’s homes, and on BBC property. The BBC program Panorama is airing its own look at Rippon’s claims and has sources that claim they had been working on the story for a month before Rippon told them to stop.

Can we move on now? The International Cycling Union decided Monday that it would not appeal the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s decision in the doping case against Lance Armstrong. The cyclist will be stripped of all seven of his Tour de France titles and be slapped with a lifetime ban against competing in Olympic sports. The decision not to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport almost definitely means that the Armstrong case is finally closed. “Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling,” International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid told reporters Monday.

The Pussy Riot saga is taking another troubling turn, as two members of the protestor group have been sent to penal colonies to serve out their two-year jail sentences. The women were arrested in February after performing a song that satirized Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Moscow cathedral. Group member Nadya Tolokonnikova is being sent to Mordovia and Maria Alyokhina to Perm, prison camps that are described as “the harshest camps of all the possible choices.” Both women had petitioned to serve their jail time in Moscow, as they have small children.

Amazon isn’t just an online shopping destination. Apparently, it controls the whole Internet. Amazon, it turns out, is one of the Web’s biggest cloud-based service providers, and a temporary outage Monday affected some of its star clients, including Netflix, Reddit, Flipboard, Pinterest, Fast Company, and, yes, The Daily Beast, which saw its commenting system go down. Amazon blames the crash on “connectivity issues and degraded performance” from some of its servers. The same Twitter user who boasted connections to hacktivist group Anonymous claimed responsibility, but it’s worth noting that the same person also took credit for last week’s GoDaddy crash, which the company said was not true.

Will it be enough? President Barack Obama holds a 5-point lead on Mitt Romney in Ohio according to a new Quinnipiac University/CBS News poll. The Obama campaign is waging a defensive ground war in the battleground state, which may prove an Electoral College bulwark against Romney’s chances at the White House. But the new numbers are a decline for Obama—while he now leads 50 to 45 percent among likely voters, he held a decidedly stronger lead at the end of September, when he was ahead 53 to 43 percent.

At least Todd Akin and his staff are on the same page. The Senate hopeful's comparison of incumbent opponent Claire McCaskill to a dog this weekend elicited gasps from the media and public alike. (Akin said McCaskill goes to Washington to "fetch.") But Akin's camp isn't running from it. Instead, one of the team's top advisers, Rick Tyler, clarified that he doesn't only agree with Akin's comment, he finds it funny. "If Claire McCaskill were a dog, she'd be a Bullshitsu," [sic] Tyler tweeted Monday. 

Google, Google, on the Internet, who is the fairest politician of them all? The New York Times has some startling search engine statistics, specifically when it comes to the fruits of vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s workout regimen. “Paul Ryan shirtless” is Googled nine times more often than the phrase “Paul Ryan budget.” What does that say about the economic or eye-candy dreams of the average voter? We can’t tell you. The report does say, however, that blue states are searching for Ryan’s allegedly washboard abs more frequently than red states. It’s important to note that statistics were probably compiled before this picture of Joe Biden leaked.

Actress and human headline generator Lindsay Lohan wants a restraining order against her dad, according to a report by TMZ. The 26-year-old Lohan allegedly claims papa Michael Lohan is out to use her name and a failed intervention attempt to boost his own public profile. “This sole act by my ex was not an intervention nor was this extreme antic sanctioned by any member of Lindsay’s family or her professional team of handlers,” Lohan’s mom, Dina, told the gossip site.

A domestic dispute was reportedly behind Sunday’s deadly shooting in Wisconsin, a source with knowledge of the investigation confirmed to ABC. The estranged wife of suspect Radcliffe Haughton, who shot himself after killing three and wounding seven others, was among the three shot dead at a spa where she worked. Police had been called to the spa weeks before the shooting after Haughton slashed her car tires. He was arrested and later ordered to turn over all guns in his possession to the sheriff’s department—though clearly that didn’t keep him from getting his hands on another one. Police have also confirmed that Haughton’s wife filed a restraining order against him Oct. 8.

Israeli troops and Palestinian militants clashed during an incursion into the Gaza Strip on Monday. Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the foray. Gunfire between the opposing forces broke out after militants fired mortars at Israeli troops who had crossed the dividing fence into Gaza, officials said. The encounter led to Israeli airstrikes against a Hamas training camp, and Israeli army officials said that Palestinian militants with rockets were struck “after a routine [army] patrol in the area.”

Finland’s prime minister, Jyrki Katainen, was saved from an attempted stabbing while campaigning Monday. A government spokesman said security guards stopped a man holding a knife from reaching Katainen. The incident occurred while the prime minister was campaigning in the southwestern city of Turku in advance of Sunday’s municipal elections. No details about the attacker have been released, but the prime minister was unhurt.

A speed-demon playboy may have caused big trouble for China’s leaders. The state-run media have tried to bury a fatal March car accident involving the 23-year-old son of influential presidential adviser Ling Jihua. Two women, one of whom later died, were in a black Ferrari with the young man when it spun out of control and crashed. Censors have had little luck squashing the story on social-media outlets, and officials seem to fear that the fast-life tale from the upper echelon of China’s gilded ultra elite may do permanent damage to the circle that surrounds President Hu Jintao.

One of the entertainment industry’s most powerful couples lost a trademark battle to a Boston party-planning company last week, according to the local Fox affiliate. Jay-Z and Beyoncé lost their fight to trademark the name of their daughter, Blue Ivy, in a ruling last Tuesday. Veronica Alexander, the owner of Blue Ivy Events, fought to keep the name her company has operated under for the last three years. Her company’s website now bears a picture of the celebrity couple and the banner, “Congrats to our soul mate couple with Baby Blue Ivy!!!”

It was supposed to make them healthy. But now about 14,000 people who received injections from a tainted batch of a steroid drug are haunted by fears that they may succumb next to a meningitis outbreak that has killed 23. A total of 282 people have contracted the disease so far. Seventeen thousand vials of the drug, made by the New England Compounding Center, were shipped from Framingham, Mass., to 23 states. “I think we’re both terrified that the other one is going to come down with it,” said one 57-year-old woman who received an injection along with her 80-year-old mother.

A British woman claims she was raised by monkeys. Really. Marina Chapman, now a housewife with two daughters, claims she was raised in the Colombian jungle between the ages of 5 and 10 by a troupe of doting primates after a kidnapping attempt gone awry. “She obviously learnt to fend for herself and only once got very ill when she ate some poisonous berries,” Chapman’s daughter told The Sunday Times. Chapman says she later escaped the jungle, traveled to the United Kingdom, and married. She only told her husband about her alleged tree-swinging days after the two were married.

Workers of the world, relax. An article was published with Fidel Castro’s byline in Cuba dismissing worries that the 86-year-old Communist hero is dying. “I don’t even remember what a headache is,” the article in a state-run paper reads. Rumors of Castro’s imminent demise have increased in recent months, and he has not made a public appearance since receiving a visit from Pope Benedict XVI in March. On Sunday former Venezuelan vice president Elías Jaua said he met with Castro and that the Cuban revolutionary was “doing very well.”

In the words of the late Native American activist and actor, “May the Great Mystery continue…” Russell Means died at age 72 at his home in Porcupine, S.D., his family announced on his website. Means became internationally renowned as one of the leaders of the 71-day armed occupation of Wounded Knee in his home state in 1973. He's one of the "best-known American Indian since Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse". After launching his acting career in the 1990s, most notably in the film The Last of the Mohicans, he remained outspoken as a former leader of the American Indian Movement. But he excoriated the mainstream media and instead voiced his opinions via YouTube videos and on his personal website.

Police in Kuwait used tear gas and stun guns to beat back crowds protesting a new electoral law Sunday. Opposition members have called the changes, which alter the number of candidates allowed per district, a “constitutional coup” by the government. The change comes as the ruling Sabah family is locked in a protracted power struggle with Parliament, and opposition members quickly called the protests Sunday in which 11 policemen were wounded. Kuwait’s Interior Ministry said the demonstrators had gathered in violation of a law banning marches.

First the cool lunch table, now this. It turns out the popular kids in high school may have an extra leg up on life. In a study released Monday, the National Bureau of Economic Research contends that those in the top 20 percent of popularity translated their social skills into a 10 percent wage boost 40 years after graduation. Researchers based their definition of popularity on a 50-year examination of student connections called the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study and argue that those who learn to navigate interpersonal relationships have the tools to succeed in the workplace.

“Horses and bayonets”: An undeniably awesome band name idea, and Obama’s best zinger in the first half of the presidential debate on foreign policy. Romney blasted Obama for cutting military funding by $1 trillion, saying the Navy needs more ships, the Air Force needs newer and more planes, and the country can no longer afford to two conflicts. Obama called Romney’s military vision outdated. While the Navy may have fewer ships than it did in 1917, Obama said, “We also have fewer horses and bayonets.” The exchange came after the candidates veered so far off topic that moderator Bob Schieffer chastised: “Let’s get back to foreign policy.”