WASHINGTON (AP) - The top Senate negotiators on the effort to prevent the government from going over the "fiscal cliff" offered a pessimistic assessment Sunday, barely 24 hours before a deadline to avert tax hikes on virtually every American worker. But negotiations continued, with Vice President Joe Biden taking on a new role.
SANTEE, Calif. (AP) - A home-built airplane that crashed in a San Diego County nature preserve, killing three members of an Arizona family, was owned by a Phoenix man.
The city of Santa Clarita is cutting back hours on some of its facilities to observe the New Year.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" continues to rule them all at the box office, staying on top for a third-straight week with nearly $33 million.
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pennsylvania beauty queen who resigned after alleging that the Miss USA pageant had been fixed says she is stunned by an arbitrator's ruling that she must pay the pageant organization $5 million for defamation.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Homeowners will have increased protections from foreclosure while parents will have an additional hurdle if they choose not to vaccinate their children, under some of the hundreds of state laws taking effect with the new year.
VENTURA, Calif. (AP) - A Southern California man's tradition of handing out cash totaling $1,000 to homeless men was broken when he was turned away by a shelter on Christmas Day.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says 50 U.S. troops have deployed to the African country of Chad to help evacuate U.S. citizens and embassy personnel from the neighboring Central African Republic's capital of Bangui in the face of rebel advances toward the city.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A late-night fire swept through a San Jose apartment, leaving three people dead, injuring three others, and forcing the evacuation of nearly 60 people, authorities said Sunday.
ATLANTA (AP) - Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who made a fortune as a health care executive, long opposed President Barack Obama's remake of the health insurance market. After the Democratic president won re-election, the Republican governor softened his tone. He said he wanted to "have a conversation" with the administration about implementing the 2010 law. With a federal deadline approaching, he also said while Florida won't set up the exchange for individuals to buy ...
WASHINGTON (AP) - Recalling the shooting rampage that killed 20 first graders as the worst day of his presidency, President Barack Obama on Sunday pledged to put his "full weight" behind legislation aimed at preventing gun violence.
PARIS (AP) - Embattled French President Francois Hollande suffered a fresh setback Saturday when France's highest court threw out a plan to tax the ultrawealthy at a 75 percent rate, saying it was unfair.
WASHINGTON (AP) - An animal rights group will pay Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus $9.3 million to settle a lawsuit the circus filed after courts found that activists paid a former circus worker for his help in claiming the circus abused elephants.
HELENA, Mont. (AP) - "Three Cups of Tea" co-author Greg Mortenson and his charity are suing their insurer to cover the cost of defending their legal woes of the past 18 months.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Confused about the federal budget struggle? So are doctors, hospital administrators and other medical professionals who serve the 100 million Americans covered by Medicare and Medicaid.
LONDON (AP) - BBC journalists walked off the job Monday in a 24-hour strike to protest job cuts at the broadcaster.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The criticism of Dr. Drew Pinsky spread on the Internet almost as quickly as news of Mindy McCready's death.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google's stock price topped $800 for the first time Tuesday amid renewed confidence in the company's ability to reap steadily higher profits from its dominance of Internet search and prominence in the increasingly important mobile device market.
Two major sponsors, Oakley and Nike, distanced themselves from Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius on Monday after the South African sports star was charged with murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend.
Somebody hacked Burger King's Twitter account on Monday, posting obscene messages and changing its profile picture to a McDonald's logo.
Waiting in line for the bus, a Pennsylvania kindergartener tells her pals she's going to shoot them with a Hello Kitty toy that makes soap bubbles. In Maryland, a 6-year-old boy pretends his fingers are a gun during a playground game of cops and robbers. In Massachusetts, a 5-year-old boy attending an after-school program makes a gun out of Legos and points it at other students while "simulating the sound of gunfire," as one school official put it.
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) - Oscar Pistorius told a packed courtroom Tuesday that he shot his girlfriend to death by mistake, thinking she was a robber. The prosecutor called it premeditated murder.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The CIA thrillers "Argo" and "Zero Dark Thirty" have won top screenplay honors from the Writers Guild of America.