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Home prices across 20 of the nation's major metropolitan areas rose 13.4 percent in 2013 from the year before, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index report.

Overall, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices economist David Blitzer, the index "ended its best year since 2005" — well before the burst of the housing bubble in 2007-08.

But, Blitzer warns, "gains are slowing from month-to-month and the strongest part of the recovery in home values may be over."

In Tuesday's report, Blitzer adds that:

"Recent economic reports suggest a bleaker picture for housing. Existing home sales fell 5.1 percent in January from December to the slowest pace in over a year. Permits for new residential construction and housing starts were both down and below expectations. Some of the weakness reflects the cold weather in much of the country. However, higher home prices and mortgage rates are taking a toll on affordability."

The search for ousted President Viktor Yanukovych continues in Ukraine, where months of protests over his turn toward Russia and away from the European Union, along with public anger over corruption, led to his removal from office on Saturday.

As we've reported, the officials who are at least temporarily filling key offices now want to arrest Yanukovych and charge him with mass murder for the deaths of scores of protesters last week.

Today, there's word from Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Turchinov, who is the nation's interim leader, "that a new government should be in place by Thursday, instead of Tuesday, as he had earlier indicated," The Associated Press says.

It's also being reported that Andriy Klyuyev, who had been Yanukovych's head of administration, resigned from that post on Sunday and was later injured after returning to Kiev from Crimea, where Yanukovych may be hiding.

Russia's InterFax news agency quotes Artyom Petrenko, Klyuyev's spokesman, as saying the former top aide's life is not in danger. The AP reports Petrenko said Klyuyev had been wounded by gunfire. According to the AP, "Klyuyev was among the figures most despised by protesters in Ukraine's three-month political turmoil."

Also Tuesday:

— "The European Union's foreign policy chief is promising strong international support for Ukraine as it works to form a new government," Voice of America writes. "Catherine Ashton spoke at a news conference Tuesday while visiting the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. She said Western financial institutions are working on ways to help Ukraine's economy recover from three months of political protests. Ashton also urged Russia to let the nation find its own way forward out of its political crisis."

— Reuters writes about Volodymyr Parasiuk, "the lad from Lviv" who is now the "toast of Kiev" because his impassioned address to protesters Friday night may have been the deciding factor in pushing Yanukovych from office.

For those of you keeping track of the headlines detailing sexual assault and hazing at frat houses, it may come as no surprise that fraternities have a dark side. Caitlin Flanagan, a writer at The Atlantic, spent a year investigating Greek houses and discovered that "the dark power of fraternities" is not just a power over pledges and partygoers, but one held over universities as well.

"Fraternities are now mightier than the colleges and universities that host them," she writes. Alumni do tend to give generously to their alma maters, yes, but it's more than that. The American college system is slave to its need for a continual flow of students, Flanagan says. How else to convince underprepared, soon-to-be-loan-ridden students to attend than by marketing the experience as a major party? Colleges compete for these students with perks, frats and all their glory among them.

Flanagan's piece looks deeper into the tragic and unsavory practices rampant in Greek houses, and the ways in which they protect themselves when serious problems arise.

Scientists have gotten close to pinning down the origin of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a dangerous respiratory disease that emerged in Saudi Arabia 17 months ago.

It turns out the MERS virus has been circulating in Arabian camels for more than two decades, scientists report in a study published Tuesday.

Shots - Health News

Middle East Coronavirus Called 'Threat To The Entire World'