The Pulse | PopLife.Biz

AP - In public, Toyota is running apologetic TV ads and vowing to win back customers' trust. Behind the scenes, the besieged carmaker is trying to learn all it can about congressional investigations, maybe even steer them if it can.

AP - U.S. and Afghan forces pushed Tuesday to the edge of the southern Afghan town of Marjah, poised to seize the major Taliban supply and drug-smuggling stronghold in hopes of building public support by providing aid and services once the insurgents are gone.

AFP - Toyota said Tuesday it was recalling hundreds of thousands of hybrid vehicles globally, including the best-selling Prius, plunging it deeper into crisis as lawsuits in the United States piled up.

AP - Even the White House's top spokesman is getting in on the act of mocking former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin for looking to talking points written on her palm during a speech to "tea party" activists.

Reuters - Google Inc injected social networking features into its popular Web email product as the world's No. 1 search engine seeks to fend off competition from Facebook and Twitter.

AP - The death of the father of Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan was ruled a homicide Tuesday when an autopsy showed he died of a heart rhythm problem after a fight with his son in which he suffered a neck injury so severe it damaged his windpipe.

AP - The British government is getting behind a plan to replace drafty open-backed hospital gowns with versions that preserve patients' modesty.

Reuters - Not again! Residents from Virginia to New York prepared for a major snowstorm that could bring 12 inches of snow just days after a blizzard dumped as much as 3 feet in some areas.

AP - Recent fires that destroyed or damaged several churches in eastern Texas were likely set by one person or group of people, federal authorities said Tuesday.

AFP - Iran announced on Tuesday it has begun further enriching uranium, dismissing warnings of new sanctions from world powers which suspect the Islamic republic's nuclear project is aimed at making a bomb.