NEW YORK (AP) - If you'd told investors what was going to happen in 2012 - U.S. economic growth at stall speed, an intensifying European debt crisis, a slowdown in China, fiscal deadlock in Washington, decelerating corporate earnings growth - and asked how the stock market would perform, few would have predicted a good year.
NEW YORK (AP) - For New York City, it wasn't an unusual sight: a possibly mentally ill woman pacing and mumbling to herself on an elevated subway station platform.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - FBI files on Marilyn Monroe that could not be located earlier this year have been found and re-issued, revealing the names of some of the movie star's communist-leaning friends who drew concern from government officials and her own entourage.
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Sin City has another New Year's Eve planned with celebrity-studded bashes, exclusive concerts and a rooftop fireworks display billed as the nation's largest.
NEW YORK (AP) - The phones at Red's Trading Post wouldn't stop ringing. Would-be customers from as far away as New York wanted to know if the Twin Falls, Idaho gun shop had firearms in stock. Others clamored to find out if their orders had been shipped.
Santa Clarita Valley native Harry Carey Jr., a character actor who starred in such Westerns as "3 Godfathers" and "Wagon Master," has died. He was 91.
MILWAUKEE (AP) - A Wisconsin couple says clucks, not fire trucks, helped them escape a blaze at their home.
HUGHSON, Calif. (AP) - A Central California man died after posting a suicide note on Facebook and then driving his car onto railroad tracks about an hour later, as friends and family frantically tried to get in touch with him.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A person familiar with the details says President Barack Obama is not making a new 'fiscal cliff' offer at his high-stakes meeting with congressional leaders at the White House.
LONDON (AP) - Few people keep Queen Elizabeth II waiting, especially when she has issued a personal invitation, but President Ronald Reagan managed to do so in 1982 without causing any lasting damage.
MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a law banning Americans from adopting Russian children, abruptly terminating the prospects for more than 50 youngsters preparing to join new families and sparking critics to liken him to King Herod.
NEW YORK (AP) - The "fiscal cliff" took the stock market on a roller coaster Thursday. Small developments in the tense budget standoff yanked stocks back and forth throughout the day.
NEW YORK (AP) - All the single ladies - and fellas - will have a chance to join Beyonce onstage at the upcoming Super Bowl.
NEW YORK (AP) - The union for longshoremen along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico has agreed to extend its contract for 30 days, averting a possible strike that could have crippled operations at ports that handle about 40 percent of all U.S. container cargo, a federal mediator announced Friday.
MILWAUKEE (AP) - An Iraq War veteran told detectives that he stalked his wife for several days while she was patrolling the streets of the Milwaukee suburb where she was a police officer, then ambushed her in the early hours of Christmas Eve and killed her, according to prosecutors.
REDLANDS, Calif. (AP) - Redlands police are looking for a man who pulled over a school bus, flashed a badge and told the driver he was a police officer.
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) - Officials described a devastating scene of shattered cars and other damage where two trains packed with rush-hour commuters collided in Connecticut, saying Saturday it's fortunate that no one was killed and that there weren't even more injuries.
Attention, bargain-hunters around the world: Japanese goods - from cars to televisions - are going on sale.
With its ranks deeply divided, the Boy Scouts of America is asking its local leaders from across the country to decide whether its contentious membership policy should be overhauled so that openly gay boys can participate in Scout units.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - There are no reports of damage or injuries after a 4.3 magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Northern California.
ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) - Two cups of coffee ended life on the run for an Internet sensation known as Kai the hatchet-wielding hitchhiker.
PARIS (AP) - Thieves ripped a safe from the wall of a hotel room near the Cannes Film Festival and made off with around $1 million worth of jewelry, in a brazen late-night burglary just hours after the screening of a film about break-ins at the homes of Hollywood celebrities, French officials said Friday.
CANNES, France (AP) - A live outdoor television broadcast from the Cannes Film Festival was briefly interrupted Friday when what sounded like gunshots sent crew and spectators scurrying for cover.
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) - Two commuter trains serving New York City collided in Connecticut during Friday's evening rush hour, sending 60 people to the hospital, including five with critical injuries, Gov. Dannel Malloy said.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - One of Alaska's most restless volcanoes has shot an ash cloud 15,000 feet into the air in an ongoing eruption that has drawn attention from a nearby community but isn't expected to threaten air traffic.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Los Angeles doctor was sentenced Friday to 14 years in federal prison for bilking patients out of more than $1 million by promising them that an herbal supplement she hawked could cure late-stage cancer and other diseases.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Hundreds gathered Friday to remember the late grandson of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X as mourners said Malcolm Shabazz was well on his way to cementing his own legacy.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown is defending his proposal to shift some education spending to the state's neediest children.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado is urging the U.S. Forest Service to make sure a contract dispute doesn't ground large air tankers used to fight wildfires.
SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in 4 1/2 years as the state experienced one of the sharpest drops in joblessness nationwide, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.