US Top Stories from Associated Press (AP)

The third-ranked Florida Gators on Saturday avenge consecutive losses to South Carolina with a 44-11 drubbing of the No. 9 Gamecocks in one of several key college football matchups across the country. Florida's latest whatever-it-takes win keeps coach Will Muschamp's team undefeated and puts it on the cusp of the Southeasten Conference's Eastern Division title.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) , Palestinians have begun voting for new mayors and local councils across the West Bank, in the first election here in six years. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement hope Saturday's vote in 93 communities will revive flagging popular support. Some 515,000 registered voters are eligible and results are expected Sunday.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) , Police say they are investigating whether a Bangladeshi man charged with trying to blow up the Federal Reserve building in New York had connections with radical groups in Bangladesh.

ST. LOUIS (AP) , The big curveball was back, and Barry Zito mixed in some well-placed fastballs, too. It was just like the good old days. Zito was at his best Friday night, pitching San Francisco back into the NL championship series with a 5-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals that narrowed its deficit to 3-2.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) , Orlando Cruz has won his first fight since publicly declaring his homosexuality. The Puerto Rican featherweight beat Jorge Pazos in a unanimous decision on Friday night. Cruz (19-2-1, nine KOs) looked confident and at ease, but Pazos (20-4, 13 KOs) held his own much of the match.

CHICAGO (AP) , When it comes to the birds and the bees, some parents may want to have that talk with their boys a little sooner than they expected. Researchers have found signs of puberty in American boys up to two years earlier than previously reported , age 9 on average for blacks, 10 for whites and Hispanics. Other studies have suggested that girls, too, are entering puberty younger.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) , The Transportation Security Administration on Friday moved to fire 25 employees at Newark Liberty International Airport and suspend 19 others for what it said was improper screening of checked luggage, the latest in a series of problems at one of the country's busiest airports.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) , Lance Armstrong said he has been through a "difficult couple of weeks" and urged supporters of his cancer-fighting charity to stand behind its mission. "The mission is bigger than me. It's bigger than any individual," Armstrong said Friday night in his opening remarks at Livestrong's 15th anniversary celebration.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) , The online release of files showing the Boy Scouts of America's cover-up of decades of sexual abuse has created interest among Americans who want to know who the alleged abusers are and whether people who molested them as Scouts are in the files.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) , The jurisdiction of a Native American tribal court was challenged Friday by the developer of a popular glass bridge over the Grand Canyon who has been locked in a multi-million dollar contract dispute with an Arizona-based tribe.

DALLAS , The man who provides the voice for Big Tex, the giant cowboy at the State Fair of Texas, was greeting people with his usual "Howdy, folks!" in a slow drawl Friday when someone rushed into his trailer to tell him the towering fair icon was on fire.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) , The family of ex-U.S. Sen. George McGovern says the 90-year-old is "no longer responsive" in hospice care. McGovern's family issued a statement Wednesday afternoon through Avera McKennan Hospital.

It's the latest snapshot of the growing burden of student debt and it's another discouraging one: Two-thirds of the national college class of 2011 finished school with loan debt, and those who borrowed walked off the graduation stage owing on average $26,600 , up about 5 percent from the class before.

NEW YORK (AP) , After Tom Hanks found out he was being honored by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity at the New York Public Library, he remembered he owed a couple of books. "I've got to turn them in from 1977," Hanks said on the red carpet before going into the gala event.

NEW YORK (AP) , A Bangladeshi man who came to the United States to wage jihad was arrested in an elaborate FBI sting on Wednesday after attempting to blow up a fake car bomb outside the Federal Reserve building in Manhattan, authorities said.