ATLANTA (AP) - Health officials say the death toll in a rare fungal meningitis outbreak across several states has risen to seven.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Jerry Sandusky should be sent to prison for life when a judge sentences him Tuesday, according to several of the jurors who convicted the former Penn State assistant coach of molesting several boys over a period of years.
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - Santa Ana police say they've arrested a 425-pound gang member who allegedly tried to kidnap a 10-year-old boy who was on his way to soccer practice.
RENO, Nev. (AP) - A seven-year study shows many mountain lions in Nevada are migrating westward to take up residence in California.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A North Korean soldier killed two of his superiors Saturday and defected to South Korea across the countries' heavily armed border in a rare crossing that prompted South Korean troops to immediately beef up their border patrol, officials said.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The Haqqani insurgent network, based in Pakistan and with ties to al-Qaida, is suspected of being a driving force behind a significant number of the "insider" attacks by Afghan forces that have killed or wounded more than 130 U.S. and allied troops this year, American officials said Friday.
PHOENIX (AP) - Friendly fire likely was to blame in a shooting near the Arizona-Mexico line that killed one federal agent and wounded another, the FBI said, noting the investigation was still ongoing in the case that reignited the political debate over border security.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - An 8-year-old Utah boy wrote a letter to his local newspaper after an animal shelter worker failed to write a note to save his cat from being euthanized. "Yesterday grown-ups killed my kitty, my best friend, when they weren't supposed to," he said.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Declaring that the nation is in a "jobs crisis," Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is charging ahead with his economic arguments in spite of unemployment dropping to its lowest level since President Barack Obama took office.
ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (AP) - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday the U.S. has moved into a new era in South America and is no longer the sole provider of security in the hemisphere.
VATICAN CITY (AP) - The pope's butler was convicted Saturday of stealing the pontiff's private documents and leaking them to a journalist in the gravest Vatican security breach in recent memory. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but the Vatican said a papal pardon was likely.
DALLAS (AP) - American Airlines says it has repaired 42 of 48 planes that were pulled aside and inspected because the seats could come loose.
HONOLULU (AP) - State and federal officials say Hawaii fishermen have found a 16-foot Japanese skiff swept out to sea by last year's tsunami and brought it to Honolulu.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - An unusual convergence of sporting and entertainment events in San Francisco this weekend promises to bring up to a million extra people into the densely populated bayside city.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A new estimate puts the deficit for the just-completed 2012 budget year at $1.1 trillion, the fourth straight year of trillion dollar deficits on President Barack Obama's watch.
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.
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson announced to screaming throngs of Kings fans Friday that the deal to sell the NBA franchise to a group led by software tycoon Vivek Ranadive has been signed.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The growing use of unmanned surveillance "eyes in the sky" aircraft raises a thicket of privacy concerns, but Congress is getting mixed advice on what, if anything, to do about it.
NEW YORK (AP) - Ratings for the "American Idol" finale plunged to a record low for the 12-year-old show.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Anchorage police say a young man who didn't want to return to jail ran out onto the uncertain ice of an Alaska lake to escape officers armed with an arrest warrant.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Days after a burst of gunfire brought a chaotic and bloody end to a Mother's Day neighborhood parade in New Orleans, news of six arrests gave an organizer of the traditional event reason to celebrate again.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama picked a senior White House budget official to become the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday, the same day another top official announced plans to leave the agency amid the controversy over agents targeting tea party groups.
ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) - A homeless, hatchet-wielding hitchhiker who became an Internet hero earlier this year was arrested Thursday for allegedly beating a New Jersey lawyer to death inside his home.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - Sitting on a dirty straw mat on the parched ground of southern Afghanistan, Masooma sank deeper inside a giant black shawl. Hidden from view, her words burst forth as she told her side of what happened to her family sometime before dawn on March 11, 2012.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A mother whose 4-year-old was being abducted chased the suspect down and crashed her vehicle into his car, triggering a manhunt and the arrest of the suspect, Albuquerque police said Thursday.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California is losing key employees at the Department of Water Resources because it can't pay afford to pay them enough.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The government allowed "a small but significant number" of terrorists into America's witness protection program and then failed to provide the names of some of them for a watch list that's used to keep dangerous people off airline flights, the Justice Department's inspector general says.
CINCINNATI (AP) - An Ohio man was found guilty Thursday of fatally shooting a man who authorities say identified his assailant by blinking his eyes while paralyzed and hooked up to a ventilator.