HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Nghiem Ngoc Thuy has been slinging coffees to thirsty Vietnamese for 20 years in her colonial-style villa with peeling shutters, and she and her customers aren't too worried that the imminent arrival of U.S. giant Starbucks will alter their time-tested coffee traditions.
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - A group of neighborhood associations and residents in Pasadena has filed a lawsuit attempting to block city plans to offer the Rose Bowl as a temporary home to an NFL team that moves to Southern California while a permanent stadium is finished.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles city attorney's office says a talent scout has been convicted of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl who was attending his acting and modeling school.
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) - An escaped inmate who held a Santa Cruz preschool teacher at gunpoint and attacked a deputy faces life in prison after being convicted of 39 charges including attempted murder and kidnapping.
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Fresno County authorities say a 10-year-old boy has died of injuries he sustained after being shot with a pellet gun.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Kobe Bryant is no longer a holdout. He's on Twitter. With five words - "The antisocial has become social" - the Los Angeles Lakers guard sent the first tweet from his account Friday. About 270,000 people followed his verified account, (at)kobebryant, within a few hours. Bryant tiptoed into the Twitterverse last week when he briefly took over Nike basketball's account, when he sent out things like a photo of him hanging ...
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) - Los Angeles County prosecutors have charged six people in the theft of $3.2 million worth of paintings, wine, jewelry and a Porsche from a Santa Monica home.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Travelers to and from San Francisco may see extra delays this year as San Francisco International Airport temporarily shuts down a few runways over the coming months.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A woman suspected of making and appearing in child porn photos a decade ago that have circulated widely in the years since was arrested hours after authorities released images of her taken from those shots, federal officials announced Friday.
NEW YORK (AP) - The Standard & Poor's 500 closed at its highest level in five years Friday after a report showed that hiring held up in December, giving stocks an early lift.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Oscar won't be the only chiseled man in the spotlight at the 85th Academy Awards.
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Al Pacino says he decided not to meet famed record producer Phil Spector before portraying him in an HBO movie - only to find he already had.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - An appellate court ruling overturning a rape conviction because the victim wasn't married prompted anger Friday from women's groups and a state legislator who plans to introduce a bill that would close the legal loophole.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards will star on a new cable TV show alongside the woman he married after his release from federal prison on a corruption conviction.
NEWTON, Mass. (AP) - Massachusetts police responding to reports of teenagers tossing eggs at a house last month got quite a surprise when they tracked down the suspects.
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) - Ahead of a judge's decision on whether to release Oscar Pistorius on bail, South African police on Thursday appointed a new chief detective in the murder case, replacing a veteran policeman who was himself charged with attempted murder.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Nominations morning last month revealed major surprises for the Academy Awards, promising one of the most wide-open campaigns ever for Hollywood's highest honors.
ISLAMABAD (AP) - At least half the Afghan Taliban recently freed from Pakistani prisons have rejoined the insurgency, a Pakistani intelligence official says, throwing into question the value of such goodwill gestures that the Afghan government requested to restart a flagging peace process.
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Las Vegas Strip became a scene of deadly violence early Thursday when someone in a black Range Rover opened fire on a Maserati at a stoplight, sending it crashing into a taxi that burst into flames, leaving three people dead and at least six injured.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A group of San Francisco Star Wars fans who want to travel to a galaxy not that far away have created a combat choreography class for Jedis-in-training with their weapon of choice: the lightsaber.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration is quietly considering urging the Supreme Court to overturn California's ban on gay marriage, a step that would mark a political victory for advocates of same-sex unions and a deepening commitment by President Barack Obama to rights for gay couples.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department and the five Gulf coast states affected by a massive oil spill nearly three years ago have indicated they would like to settle their environmental and economic claims with BP PLC ahead of a trial scheduled to start next week.
THOMSON, Ga. (AP) - Federal and local authorities were investigating Thursday after a small jet crashed off the end of a runway at a Georgia airport, killing five people and injuring two.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Canadian tourist Elisa Lam had been missing for about two weeks when officials at the historic Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles found her body in a water cistern on the hotel roof.
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Much of the nation's heartland awoke Thursday to heavy snow, treacherous roads and a day off from work or school as a large, potentially dangerous winter storm pushed eastward out of the Rockies.
TUSTIN, Calif. (AP) - The first of three people killed in a gunman's rampage was identified Wednesday as a 20-year-old woman but police did not know why she was in the home of the shooter, who lived with his parents and was described by authorities as a video game-playing loner.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Bolivian President Evo Morales said Wednesday that he was unable to meet with his friend and ally Hugo Chavez when he came to the military hospital in Caracas where the Venezuelan president is undergoing unspecified cancer treatment.