WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is expressing concern about a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters in Iran. Security forces clubbed protesters with batons on the sidelines of state-sanctioned rallies marking today's 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is disputing suggestions that the results of Tuesday's off-year elections are a repudiation of President Barack Obama. But Republicans say they can't help smiling after their candidates won gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina is throwing her hat into the political ring. She wants to challenge liberal stalwart Barbara Boxer for her U.S. Senate seat. But Fiorina must first win a primary against state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Police in Cleveland plan to start tearing apart the walls of a house where a convicted rapist was living among 10 corpses. Anthony Sowell has been ordered held without bond. He's charged with five aggravated murder counts. The case now goes before a grand jury.

HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) — Closing arguments are under way in the New Jersey murder trial of a man whose defense is that he was too fat to have committed the crime. Edward Ates (AYTZ') says he weighed 285 pounds when his former son-in-law was killed and he didn't have the energy to have accurately shot him. Ates' daughter was involved in a bitter custody dispute with her former husband at the time.