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.
NEW YORK (AP) - In running for mayor, Anthony Weiner is seeking to get past the tawdry-tweeter punch line that has dogged him since his congressional career imploded two years ago. And while he's facing an uphill sprint, his campaign could help his long-term prospects even if he loses, some experts say.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - A dam that threatened to give way and flood a North Dakota town was holding back the water on Wednesday, though the 1,300 residents of Cavalier were still being told to stay away from their homes.
PHOENIX (AP) - Jurors in the Jodi Arias murder trial told the judge Wednesday they are unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether the convicted murderer should be sentenced to life in prison or death for killing her one-time boyfriend, prompting the judge to send them back to the deliberation room to work through their differences.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Wendy Greuel is thanking supporters who tried to make her Los Angeles' first woman mayor.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Coroner's officials have identified a man found dead at the University of California, Los Angeles, campus after an apparent fall from a building.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A Republican has won a hotly contested state Senate contest in the southern San Joaquin Valley, with his top Democratic rival conceding Wednesday that the race will not go to a runoff.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - A Chechen immigrant was shot to death by authorities at his home early Wednesday while being questioned in the Boston Marathon bombing case, officials said.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The Oklahoma medical examiner's office says two infants are among 24 people killed by the tornado that ripped across the Oklahoma City area this week.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles voters have approved a proposition limiting the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - City Councilman Eric Garcetti defeated Controller Wendy Greuel to become next mayor of Los Angeles after a caustic campaign in which he depicted his fellow Democrat as a pawn of powerful labor bosses.
MOORE, Okla. (AP) - Helmeted rescue workers raced Tuesday to complete the search for survivors and the dead in the Oklahoma City suburb where a mammoth tornado destroyed countless homes, cleared lots down to bare red earth and claimed 24 lives, including those of nine children.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Summoned by Congress, a key figure in the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups plans to invoke her constitutional right against self-incrimination and decline to testify at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Officials at the University of California, Los Angeles say a man was found dead on campus after an apparent fall from a building.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Far-reaching legislation that grants a chance at citizenship to millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a solid bipartisan vote Tuesday night after supporters somberly sidestepped a controversy over the rights of gay spouses.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - About 17,000 Californians with serious medical problems will be moved from a state-run stopgap health insurance program to a federal plan starting in July, ensuring they will have no break in medical coverage until the national health care reforms kick in next year, state officials announced this week.