NEW YORK (Reuters) - Columbia University is expected to announce a gift of at least $400 million, possibly as much as $600 million, from media entrepreneur John W. Kluge on Wednesday, two people familiar with the donation said in The Wall Street Journal.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The vacancy rate at local U.S. shopping centers rose to the highest level since 2004, in a sign retailers may expect a slowdown in consumer spending, according to a real estate research report.

AP - Three members of Duke University's lacrosse team could learn as early as Wednesday whether state prosecutors will drop the remaining charges accusing them of sexually assaulting a stripper at a team party more than a year ago.

AP - Pedophiles, rapists and other registered sex offenders who live here can expect the law to come knocking on a fairly regular basis.

AP - As two teens recovered from bullet wounds, authorities tried to determine how one of them got a 9 mm handgun past a school's metal detectors and into a science classroom where the gun accidentally discharged.

AP - On Thursday, shovel- and pickax-wielding officials are to turn over the first ceremonial clods of dirt to mark the start of construction of the city's Second Avenue subway line.

AP - Wildlife officials are investigating what could be the first coyote attack on a human in New Jersey following a backyard attack on a toddler that was foiled by an 11-year-old.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - UAL Corp. said on Wednesday that it would add a $10 surcharge for all passengers originating out of Los Angeles International Airport to offset a $10 million rent increase imposed by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), effective immediately.

AP - Staples Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co. have pulled their advertising from Don Imus' radio show in the wake of the furor caused by his comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team.

AP - Prosecutors charged a recently fired accountant with murder on Wednesday in the shootings of three former co-workers at their office.

AP - For the second consecutive year, the number of clergy sex abuse claims received by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops and religious orders has dropped, according to a new report on the church's child protection reforms. The vast majority of allegations date back decades.

AP - About half of the 2,000 wedding gowns stolen before they could reach a California fundraiser last year have been recovered at the Mexico border, officials said.

AP - An explosion tore apart an apartment complex early Wednesday, killing a baby and a man and injuring seven other people, officials said.

AP - Four men who claim they were beaten by off-duty police officers at a Chicago bar sued the establishment, accusing it of serving alcohol to intoxicated officers who 'assaulted and battered' them 'without provocation.'

AP - Police believe the man who brutally raped and stabbed a woman in her apartment is also responsible for 18 other home invasions across the Dallas area over the last two years.

AP - A man accused of using a chain and pickup truck to yank a 1,500-pound ATM from a market failed to escape police when his prosthetic leg fell off during the getaway.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. said on Wednesday it was recalling 527,000 Escape sport utility vehicles after receiving reports of engine fires linked to the anti-lock brake connectors.

AP - A federal bankruptcy judge is threatening the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego with contempt for allegedly attempting to hide assets to avoid payment to clergy sexual abuse victims.

AP - A 7-year-old boy jumping on a trampoline with friends was killed by a stray bullet, and a man living two houses away was arrested, authorities said.

AP - New York City produces nearly 1 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions — an amount that puts it on par with Ireland or Portugal — according to a city study.

AP - Another spring snowstorm spread across the upper Midwest on Wednesday, closing schools and grounding more than 200 airline flights.

AP - NASA's decision to wait until at least June to launch space shuttle Atlantis also sets back the next three shuttle missions and extends one astronaut's time on the international space station.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo will announce a legal settlement with a 'significant' student lender early on Wednesday afternoon, his office said.

CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) - A District Court judge said on Wednesday he would rule within 30 days on whether to overturn a New Hampshire law banning commercial use of prescription data from physicians.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Package delivery company FedEx Corp. said on Wednesday it agreed to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit against its express unit, FedEx Express, for $53.5 million.

AP - Bruce Gordon, former head of the NAACP and a director of CBS Corp., said Wednesday the broadcasting company needs a 'zero tolerance policy' on racism and hopes talk-show host Don Imus is fired for his demeaning remarks about the mostly black Rutgers women's basketball team.

AP - An explosion tore apart an apartment complex early Wednesday, killing a father and his 8-month-old son and injuring seven other people, officials said.

AP - A group of tourists got a little more adventure than they wanted during an airboat ride in the Everglades.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Alan Mulally is no longer laughing about his suggestion that he saved President Bush's life during a recent White House visit.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Two Canadian executives on trial with fallen media magnate Conrad Black arranged to pay themselves $2.6 million in bonuses in one deal as Black disassembled his newspaper empire, an attorney told jurors on Wednesday.

LIVERMORE, California (Reuters) - In the first purchase of his collection, Sellam Ismail loaded the trunk of his car with old computers he stumbled upon at a flea market for $5 apiece. Soon he had filled his three-car garage with what others would consider obsolete junk.

AP - A fire that engulfed a rural Northern California home, severely burning six family members found dead inside, appears to have been arson and may have been set by one of victims, investigators said Wednesday.

AP - A fired accountant bought a shotgun the day after he lost his job, then returned to the office the following week and opened fire on his bosses, wounding both and killing a receptionist who tried to stop him, police said Wednesday at his arraignment.

AP - The problem was obvious to anyone who looked at the middle-aged woman: After surgery to correct a drooping eyelid, her eyelid was too high. After a second operation, it was too low.

AP - A baby sitter charged with murder clubbed a pregnant woman in the head repeatedly with a table leg, then cut her fetus from the womb in a bathtub where she later drowned the victim's three young children, an investigator testified Wednesday.

AP - Billionaire media entrepreneur John Werner Kluge is giving $400 million to Columbia University for financial aid, one of the largest gifts ever to an American university, the university announced Wednesday.

AP - A bid to hang Coretta Scott King's portrait in the state Capitol died in a legislative committee Wednesday, with the chief supporter comparing the failure to Don Imus' slur against the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

AP - An Ohio college baseball player who barely survived a deadly bus crash over a month ago has been upgraded to fair condition, hospital officials said Wednesday.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Alan Mulally is no longer laughing about his suggestion that he saved President Bush's life during a recent White House visit.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors and drug maker GlaxoSmithKline pulled their advertising from shows hosted by Don Imus on Wednesday, striking a blow to the shock-jock and broadcasters who carry him.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A German immigrant who parlayed a college scholarship into a billion-dollar media empire pledged on Wednesday to give $400 million to Columbia University in one of the largest donations ever to a U.S. university.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc. said on Wednesday it would eliminate 17,000 jobs, or about 5 percent of its workforce, in a broad restructuring designed to cut costs, boost profit, and bolster a lagging stock price.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The largest U.S. student loan company reached a settlement with New York's attorney general on Wednesday, and federal lawmakers called for further investigation of the widening scandal in the $85 billion-a-year industry.

AP - Four-year-old Bernas isn't the computer wizard his mom is, but he's learning. Just the other day he used his lips and feet to play a game on the touch-screen monitor as his mom, Madu, swung from vines and climbed trees.

AP - The Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved a $12 million settlement that could signal the end of a nearly 40-year-long legal battle to stop political hiring at City Hall.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Two Canadian executives on trial with fallen media magnate Conrad Black arranged to pay themselves $2.6 million in bonuses in one deal as Black disassembled his newspaper empire, an attorney told jurors on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government has failed in recent years to adequately investigate passenger complaints against airlines, a disclosure by a watchdog on Wednesday that further angered lawmakers weighing a consumer protection law for air travelers.

AP - MSNBC said Wednesday it will drop its simulcast of the 'Imus in the Morning' radio program, responding to growing outrage about the radio host's racial slur against the Rutgers women's basketball team.

AP - A former New York University whiz kid who posed as a Turkish heir and persuaded sophisticated investors to pour millions into a nonexistent hedge fund was sentenced Wednesday to 3 1/2 years in prison.

AP - A student coach for an Ohio college baseball team who barely survived a deadly bus crash over a month ago has been upgraded to fair condition, hospital officials said Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The next generation of radiation-detection technology should be ready for use at U.S. ports and borders this year, helping distinguish harmless goods from nuclear material, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The multimillionaire founder of the racy 'Girls Gone Wild' video series was indicted on tax evasion charges on Wednesday -- a day after being arrested and jailed in Florida for contempt of court.

DALLAS (Reuters) - Texas executed a man by lethal injection on Wednesday for the 1993 rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl.

AP - A map in the Ada County sheriff's office shows the path of a violent 6,500-mile road trip across the West marked in a jagged erratic line.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer, dancer and one-time Playboy magazine model Willa Ford will star as the late Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith in a biographical film about the billionaire's widow that starts shooting next week.

AP - Police charged a 15-year-old boy as an adult Wednesday after a handgun he allegedly got past school security went off in a classroom, injuring him and another boy playing with it.

AP - A federal bankruptcy judge Wednesday ordered an external audit of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego amid accusations church leaders are trying to hide assessts to avoid payment to sex abuse victims.

AP - A Navy investigator testified Wednesday that a computer disk seized from the brother of a Chinese-born engineer accused of stealing U.S. defense technology secrets contained encrypted files.