HARTFORD, Conn. — Recordings of 911 calls from the Newtown school shooting are being released, after a state prosecutor dropped his fight to continue withholding them.

For nearly a year, the Associated Press has been asking for an opportunity to review the tapes, which will be released today.

“We all understand why some people have strong feelings about the release of these tapes. This was a horrible crime,” said Kathleen Carroll, AP executive editor and senior vice president. “It's important to remember, though, that 911 tapes, like other police documents, are public records. Reviewing them is a part of normal newsgathering in a responsible news organization.”

A total of seven landline calls from inside the school to Newtown police are expected to be released.

NEW YORK — Retailers started rolling out “cyber” deals at the beginning of November and kept them going on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. That led some to wonder if earlier sales would put a dent in sales on Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year since 2010.But shoppers bought online at the heaviest rate ever Monday, according to comScore Inc., which tracks online sales.The group said Tuesday that e-commerce spending rose 18 percent from last year’s Cyber Monday to $1.74 billion.The strong online performance was in contrast to overall spending. Over the four days beginning on Thanksgiving, spending fell an estimated 2.9 percent to $57.4 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.