The Starting Point: Mobile phone outages & 2 new Oscars hosts

The Starting Point is a snapshot of the news stories that occurred overnight. Look for updates throughout the day on Yahoo! News and in the news box on Yahoo.com.

Top story overnight: An earthquake injured at least 700 people in southern Iran today, The Associated Press reported. The 4.9-magnitude quake, which struck Bandar Abbas at 2:56 a.m. local time, damaged both power and telephone lines. At the time of this writing, no deaths were reported. In the country's capital, Iranian security forces clashed with anti-government protesters. The counter-demonstrations were the opposition's first major show of force on the streets of Tehran since mid-September.

In other news: The death toll from Tropical Storm Mirinae rose to 91 in Vietnam, The AP reported. Authorities stepped up rescue and relief efforts in the country's central region, which was hardest hit by the storm. At the time of this writing, nearly 15,000 people have been rescued from rooftops where they scrambled to avoid the overflowing Ha Thanh River. Click here to view Reuters footage of the storm's deadly trail.

The GOP won the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey last night. The mayors of New York City and Boston both won their historic races. The ski town of Breckenridge, Colo., voted overwhelmingly to legalize marijuana possession for adults. And Ohio voters approved casinos in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo. Click here for full coverage of yesterday's election results.

Lastly, almost 1.7 million T-Mobile users were hit with a service disruption, which began around 5:30 p.m. yesterday and lasted for eight hours, the IDG News Service reported. Cause of the outage is still under investigation, but T-Mobile USA says it has fully restored voice and text/picture messaging services for affected customers.

Most read stories: Three missing college students were found dead yesterday in a North Dakota pond, The AP reported. Police say Dickinson State University students Kyrstin Gemar, 22, Afton Williamson, 20, and Ashley Neufeld, 21, were believed to have been on a stargazing trip this weekend when their Jeep entered the water. The students reportedly called for help on Sunday night, and authorities used the signals sent between their cell phones and provider towers to narrow the search. "At this time, foul play is not suspected," Police Lt. Rod Banyai said.

Readers were also interested in this AP story about a lawsuit between two telecommunication giants. AT&T filed suit against Verizon, claiming its new "map for that" ads were resulting in the lost of "incalculable market share." The ads show maps of the United States with areas highlighted to reveal each company's "3G" network coverage. AT&T said those maps, which show more coverage for Verizon, were misleading because there was still regular coverage in the areas where "3G" service was not offered.

Looking ahead: The U.N. General Assembly is likely to approve a resolution that urges Israel and the Palestinians to carry out independent investigations of alleged war crimes during the conflict in Gaza last winter. And President Barack Obama will meet with students at a Wisconsin middle school to discuss the importance of strengthening America's educational system.

Today's poll: Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin have been tapped to co-host the Oscars ceremony. What are your thoughts on this decision? Click here to vote.

Yesterday's poll: Will voters in Maine repeal a law that allows same-sex couples to marry? Fifty-five percent of respondents said no and 45 percent said yes. Voters ended up repealing the law last night.

Today in history: In 1922, the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered in Egypt.

Birthdays: Singer George Huff, 29. Actress Heather Tom, 34. Football player Orlando Pace, 34. Actor Matthew McConaughey, 40. Rapper Diddy, 40. Musician Wayne Static (Static-X), 44. TV personality Jeff Probst, 48. Actor Ralph Macchio, 48. Football coach Steve Mariucci, 54. Actress Markie Post, 59. Former First Lady Laura Bush, 63. Singer Delbert McClinton, 69. Actress Loretta Swit, 72. Actress Doris Roberts, 79.

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--Jade Walker is the overnight editor of Yahoo! News. News doesn't stop when the lights go out, and neither does Jade.

**Yahoo! News bloggers compile the best news content from our providers and scour the Web for the most interesting news stories so you don't have to.Th