USA

After a futile three-month effort to buy Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. withdrew its unsolicited $42.3 billion bid Saturday to acquire the Internet icon. Microsoft bowed out when Yahoo demanded at least $53 billion, according to media reports.

Democrat Don Cazayoux, a lawyer and Louisiana state lawmaker, won a closely watched special congressional election Saturday to secure a seat Republicans have held since 1974. Cazayoux's victory bolsters his party's majority status on Capitol Hill.

The Survivors' Fund, devoted to assisting families directly affected by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist plane crash at the Pentagon, is closing, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Considered a model by some experts, the fund is the last major 9/11-related charity to shut down.

Nearly a third of US parents have little knowledge of infant child development, according to a new University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center study of parenting know-how.

USA Swimming, the sport's national governing body, said it will partner with public and private entities to expand learn-to-swim lessons for minority youngsters. A new survey shows nearly 60 percent of African-American children can't swim, a factor in high drowning rates.

California chef Alice Waters participated recently in the one-year anniversary of an "Edible Schoolyard" gardening project she helped start at a New Orleans charter school. The project, like a growing number of similar ones across the US, teaches children how to cook the produce they harvest.