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Seventeen more U.S. billionaires agreed to give away at least 50 percent of their wealth to charities under the "The Giving Pledge" on Thursday.

The pledge was created by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in August and originally had 40 wealthy members. New member Carl Icahn, a hedge fund manager, wrote in his pledge letter that he was planning to give away the majority of his assets, said Hedgefund.net.

Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz also made pledges to give away at least half their fortune to charity. Zuckerberg said that the pledge was an opportunity to "see the impact of our philanthropic efforts," according to Reuters.

Authorities in Jackson county are "actively searching" for the two children who went missing this summer.

Police arrested their father, John Joseph DeBlase, 27, on Friday and their stepmother, Heather Keaton. Both have blamed each other for the killings, said CNN and WLBT.

The Mobile police statement said that "detectives have determined that both John DeBlase and Heather Keaton are responsible" for the deaths and that "police will continue to search for the children."

Police believe the children are dead, according Mobile Police Chief Micheal T. Williams in CNN.

The midnight screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has accumulated $25 million from Thursday's midnight showing and is expected to reach a global profit of $50 million by this weekend.

The movie is now ranked third in midnight showings, after the last two movies in the Twilight saga with "Eclipse" pulling in $30 million and "New Moon" with $26.3 million, according to Hollywood.com in the Associated Press.

Internationally, the movie earned $24.3 million from 20 territories, including Germany with $5.4 million, Australia with $3.9 million and Mexico with $2 million, reported Screen Daily.

A 13-year-old girl was found bound and gagged in a Mount Vernon, Ohio house basement on Sunday after she had been missing since Nov. 10.

Sarah Maynard, along with her brother, mother, and a family friend, even their dog, disappeared four days ago. She was rescued by a SWAT team and the house's resident, Matthew Hoffman, 30, was taken into custody following the SWAT team raid, said Knox County Sheriff David Barber, reported CNN.

Maynard had been "under the control" of Hoffman since her kidnapping, Barber said. Hoffman was charged with kidnapping and still may face more charges, said ABC.

Republicans have won at least 60 seats from the democrats making them the dominant party in the U.S. House of Representatives, mid-term election results showed Wednesday morning.

The major turnover could be the biggest house gain since 1948 polls. Democrats are still holding onto their majority in the Senate, though in smaller numbers, said CNN.

Polls have shown that Americans are most upset with the status of the suffering economy. John Boehner, the next House Speaker, said, "the American people have sent a message to Obama - change course," reported BBC.

Comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert riled up a crowd of thousands on the National Mall area on Saturday for the "Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear".

The rally poked fun at the heightened political tension that has been brewing in the shadow of Nov. 2 and provided comedic relief as Colbert entered the stage via a capsule similar to those used to rescue the Chilean miners, said the Associated Press. Stewart denied that he and Colbert were running for political positions but said "we do television shows for people that like them and we hope that they continue to like them so that Comedy Central can continue to sell beer to young people," said CNN.

Their rally was a spoof of conservative talk-show host Glenn Beck's rally, "Restoring Honor," which promoted patriotism and ideals that the U.S. was founded upon that took place in August.

The N.A.A.C.P. released a report on Wednesday highlighting racist views by extremists within the Tea Party.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's report, Tea Party Nationalism, accused the Tea Party to "have given platform to anti-Semites, racists and bigots," as well as consisting of "angry middle-class white people who believe their country (and) their nation has been taken from them," said the New York Times.

Spokesmen for the largest tea-party organizations said recently that they have repeatedly renounced racism and cut ties with those who have expressed racist views, said the Wall Street Journal.

U.S. federal prosecutors charged 73 people, most of whom are Armenian, on Wednesday for cheating the Medicare system out of $163 million dollars, said the Associated Press.

Several health care clinics were set up around the country using stolen identities of real doctors and beneficiaries as well as fake treatment claims. The 73 people charged were accused of racketeering and related offenses, said BBC.

"This emerging international crime syndicate would be the envy of any traditional mafia family," said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharar.

The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning to Europe on Sunday for potential terrorist attacks by al-Qaida, reported the Wall Street Journal.

The issue of the alert was not in response to a specific act of terror but was based on continuous threat intelligence over the past several weeks. European targets include France, Germany, and the U.K., officials said.

Twelve people were arrested Tuesday in southern France for suspicion of terrorism. Nine of them have links to an Islamist movement and were suspected of trying to obtain arms and explosives, reported CNN.

A Rutgers University freshman committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 23, said a report from New Jersey On-Line.

Now the level of punishment is in question for the two students charged with the crime who exposed the intimate encounter of Tyler Clementi, 18, with another man on the Internet. Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, both 18, are facing criminal charges including the invasion of privacy and could face up to ten years in prison if charged for manslaughter, reported the New York Times.

Cyberbullying over sexual orientation has been the cause of several student suicides in the past several weeks, said the New York Times.

"Those students who are face-to-face bullied, and/or cyberbullied, face increased risk for depression, PTSD, and suicidal attempts and ideation," Professor Blumenfeld, an author of a Campus Pride advocacy group study, said.