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A United Nations panel says it has evidence that top Syrian officials "bear responsibility for crimes against humanity and other gross human rights violations" during the nearly year-long crackdown on dissent that has left thousands of civilians dead.

Americans have learned to carefully craft their Facebook postings, and edit and spell-check e-mails. But apparently we don't give text messages much thought, and they're providing abundant and effective fodder for divorce attorneys.

It's been a weird winter. It's warm when it should be cold. There's mud where there should be snow. Flowers are blooming way ahead of schedule. Wildlife seems confused.

Well, here's one more weirdness: The flu season seems to be largely M.I.A.

Republican and Democratic SuperPACs, empowered by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, can collect unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations and unions. Potter became a celebrity when he signed on as Stephen Colbert's lawyer and advised the satirical TV host on how to create his own SuperPAC.

James Bopp is the lawyer who first represented Citizens United in the case that ended up in the Supreme Court, which ruled that corporations and unions could give money to political committees active in election campaigns. That decision and subsequent lower court decisions have led to SuperPACs, which allow corporations, unions and individuals to make unlimited contributions, pool them together, and use the money for political campaigns.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Dozens Killed, Hundreds Wounded In Iraq; Attacks Blamed On Al-Qaida.

-- Report: Two U.S. Troops Killed In Afghanistan; Quran Burnings Backlash?

The buzz is building about the news that, as The New York Times has reported, there soon may be "Google glasses" that can "stream information to the wearer's eyeballs in real time."

(This post was updated with breaking news at 9:27 a.m. ET.)

Seven U.S. Marines were killed Wednesday night when two helicopters collided over the Yuma, Ariz., Training Range Complex, according to a statement just emailed to the NPR Newscast Desk by a spokesman for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.

The statement adds that:

"The aircraft, an AH-1W 'Cobra' and an UH-1Y 'Huey,' were conducting routine training operations around 8:00 p.m. Identities of the Marines will be withheld until next of kin have been notified."

There were 351,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, unchanged from the four-year-low level of the week before, the Employment and Training Administration just reported.

It adds that "the 4-week moving average was 359,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised average of 366,000."

Saying that "we must reject the conclusion that privacy is an outmoded value" and that it has been "at the heart of our democracy from its inception," President Obama this morning released his administration's "Framework for Protecting Privacy and Promoting Innovation in the Global Digital Economy" — a "Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights."