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.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Southern California woman who grew up knowing little of her father - a heroic casualty of World War II - is now the proud owner of his long-lost battle medals, including a Silver Star and Purple Heart.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday that he's heading to California in an effort to get West Coast businesses to consider setting up shop in Iowa.
NEW YORK (AP) - Letters from John Lennon's killer detailing his obsession with the novel "The Catcher in the Rye" to the police officer who arrested him went on sale Monday through a Los Angeles auction house.
CARSON, Calif. (AP) - Drivers near Southern California's notorious Interstate 405 had reason to tone down their road rage when it was revealed the thing stopping traffic was a baby seal on city streets several miles from the ocean.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The U.S. Coast Guard says an Oregon man injured in a high-speed crash on the San Francisco Bay between a ferryboat and a motorboat has died.
GLOUCESTER, Mass. (AP) - His city's best fishing days are long past it, but lifelong Gloucester resident Ron Gilson still sees what once was when he drives past what remains.
WASHINGTON (AP) - With scant snowfall and barren ski slopes in parts of the Midwest and Northeast the past couple of years, some scientists have pointed to global warming as the culprit.
HEBER SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) - Mindy McCready, who hit the top of the country charts before personal problems sidetracked her career, died Sunday in Arkansas in an apparent suicide. She was 37.
PALM CITY, Fla. (AP) - Michelle Obama jokingly says a mid-life crisis is what inspired her new haircut with bangs.
MANTOLOKING, N.J. (AP) - On the surface, things look calm and placid. Just beneath the waterline, however, it's a different story.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Giant coffee table books, iPod Shuffles, signed letters from directors, even "Lincoln" turkey roasting pans. That's just some of the largesse doled out by the studios to voters for awards presented earlier this season - each with the potential to influence the outcome of Hollywood's most important awards, Sunday night's Oscars.
CARMEL, Calif. (AP) - Two scuba divers have died while diving off the coast of California's Monterey County, authorities said.
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Sandy Koufax hadn't worn a major league uniform for more than two decades until the Dodgers got him back in blue this spring.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Washington's protracted budget stalemate could seriously undermine the economy and stall gains made since the recession, exasperated governors said Saturday as they try to gauge the fallout from impending federal spending cuts.
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Kenny Cherry was an aspiring rapper who moved from the Bay Area to Las Vegas to pursue his career. His music videos online show him cruising the Strip in his Maserati.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - It has been just shy of 50 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Washington state law barring members of the Communist Party from voting or holding public-sector jobs is unconstitutional.
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) - North Korea warned the top American commander in South Korea on Saturday of "miserable destruction" if the U.S. military presses ahead with routine joint drills with South Korea set to begin next month.
BOSTON (AP) - Authorities in Massachusetts say a report of a gunman on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus was a hoax and that there is no threat to public safety.
U.S. stocks continued a two-day slide Thursday on weak economic data and concern about the Federal Reserve's resolve to keep juicing the economy.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - It's still February, but California gas prices are springing forward.
TORONTO (AP) - Canada's former ambassador to Iran, who protected Americans at great personal risk during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, said Friday if "Argo" wins the Oscar for best picture there would be something wrong with director Ben Affleck if he didn't mention Canada.
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - Six underground tanks that hold a brew of radioactive and toxic waste at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site are leaking, federal and state officials said Friday, prompting calls for an investigation from a key senator.
SEATTLE (AP) - A Washington state judge rejected a lawsuit Friday aimed at undoing a deal to build a new professional basketball and hockey arena in Seattle - a key part of plans to bring the NBA back to town.
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