UPDATED: 'Carmageddon' sequel begins for LA freeway

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Construction crews are on schedule and traffic tie-ups are minimal in Los Angeles, making for a smooth start to Carmageddon II, the sequel to last year's shutdown of one of the nation's busiest freeways.

Electoral College math: Not all votes are equal

WASHINGTON (AP) - When it comes to choosing a president, not all votes are created equal. Chances are yours will count less than a select few.

Prosecutors: Shooting suspect threatened professor

DENVER (AP) - The suspect in a deadly movie theater attack was barred from the University of Colorado campus for threatening a professor, weeks before he opened fire at a midnight showing of the new Batman movie, prosecutors said in court documents released Friday.

Netanyahu's bomb steals the show in his UN speech

JERUSALEM (AP) - When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held up a cartoon-like drawing of a bomb during his speech at the U.N., he set off an explosion of jokes and mockery - but it also got plenty of attention.

Apple CEO apologizes for error-ridden new map app

NEW YORK (AP) - Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized Friday for the company's error-ridden new mobile mapping service, pledging to improve the application installed on tens of millions of smartphones and, in an unusual mea culpa, inviting frustrated consumers to turn to the competition.

No tax, no blessing: German church insists on levy

No tax, no blessing: German church insists on levy

BERLIN (AP) - The road to heaven is paved with more than good intentions for Germany's 24 million Catholics. If they don't pay their religious taxes, they will be denied sacraments, including weddings, baptisms and funerals.

Who's watching? 3-D TV is no hit with viewers

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Phil Orlins knows everything about producing TV in three dimensions. The ESPN producer has captured the undulating greens of Augusta National and the flying motor bikes of the X-Games for ESPN's 3-D channel. But he can only guess how well his shows resonate with viewers. That's because 3-D audiences are so small they can't be measured by Nielsen's rating system.

No sign of remains in new Mich. search for Hoffa

ROSEVILLE, Mich. (AP) - Authorities drilled through concrete and removed wet soil samples in a modest Detroit-area neighborhood Friday in the latest effort to find the remains of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared in 1975.

Kodak plans to end consumer inkjet printer sales

NEW YORK (AP) - Kodak said Friday that it plans to stop selling consumer inkjet printers and will eliminate 200 more jobs than previously projected as it requested more time to submit its framework for emerging from bankruptcy protection.

Higher gas costs push US consumer spending up

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans boosted their spending in August even though their income barely grew. Much of the spending increase went to pay higher gas prices, which may have forced consumers to cut back elsewhere.

3rd Calif. officer charged in homeless man's death

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A third former Fullerton police officer has been charged in the beating death of a mentally ill homeless man after a violent confrontation with police last year, prosecutors said Thursday.

US consumers more confident in September

WASHINGTON (AP) - Higher stock prices and rising home values boosted a measure of consumer confidence in September to its second-highest level in nearly five years.

Intel previews tablets powered by its new chip

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Intel previewed a wave of tablet computers powered by a microprocessor that the company redesigned to make a bigger dent in the rapidly growing mobile market.

2 arrested in art heist at Calif. financier's home

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) - Two suspects are under arrest after Santa Monica police say they recovered about $10 million worth of art stolen from the home of a Southern California financier by following up on a tip.

Could the next pope come from the United States?

NEW YORK (AP) - Conventional wisdom holds that no one from the United States could be elected pope, that the superpower has more than enough worldly influence without an American in the seat of St. Peter.

Calif. man arrested in Fla. in ex-wife's death

WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. (AP) - A California man has been arrested in southwest Florida on an outstanding murder warrant in the death of his ex-wife.

Budget cut warnings may prove harsher than reality

WASHINGTON (AP) - Get ready for two weeks of intensifying warnings about how crucial, popular government services are about to wither. Many of the threats could come true.

Meteor explodes over Russia, 1,100 injured

MOSCOW (AP) - With a blinding flash and a booming shock wave, a meteor blazed across the western Siberian sky Friday and exploded with the force of 20 atomic bombs, injuring more than 1,000 people as it blasted out windows and spread panic in a city of 1 million.

Obama in Chicago exhorts 'ladders of opportunity'

CHICAGO (AP) - Pressing his case in the town that launched his political career, President Barack Obama called Friday for the government to take an active, wide-ranging role in ensuring every American has a "ladder of opportunity" into the middle class.

Weeping Pistorius faces premeditated murder charge

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) - In a courtroom, not an Olympic stadium, there was no click-click-click of Oscar Pistorius' prosthetic limbs. His only sound Friday was loud, uncontrollable sobs as prosecutors charged him with premeditated murder in the shooting death of his model girlfriend.