Cowboy charged after player dies in auto accident

IRVING, Texas (AP) - Police charged Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Josh Brent with intoxication manslaughter Saturday after he flipped his car in a pre-dawn accident that killed teammate Jerry Brown.

Rotting whale in Malibu likely left to nature

MALIBU (AP) - No government agency is taking action to remove the decaying carcass of a whale on a California beach, making it appear the job will be left to Mother Nature.

Anger at Australian radio station over royal hoax

LONDON (AP) - It started out as a joke, but ended in tragedy. The sudden death of a nurse who unwittingly accepted a prank call to a London hospital about Prince William's pregnant wife Kate has shocked Britain and Australia, and sparked an angry backlash Saturday from some who argue the DJs who carried out the hoax should be held responsible. At first, the call by two irreverent Australian DJs posing as royals was picked ...

'Walking Dead' wins game of the year at Spike VGAs

LOS ANGELES (AP) - "The Walking Dead: The Game" took a bite out of the Spike Video Game Awards.

Lupus forces singer Toni Braxton into LA hospital

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Singer Toni Braxton has been hospitalized in Los Angeles. The R&B performer says in a Tweet on Friday that she's been hospitalized because of "minor health issues" related to Lupus. A spokeswoman confirmed the hospitalization but had no other details. "But no worries!," Braxton wrote to fans. "I will be out any day now." The 45-year-old singer of "Un-break My Heart" revealed two years ago she has Lupus, a potentially deadly ...

USDA to allow more meat, grains in school lunches

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Agriculture Department is responding to criticism over new school lunch rules by allowing more grains and meat in kids' meals.

University of California introduces new logo

OAKLAND (AP) - After 144 years with the same logo, the University of California has decided it's time for a new look.

Typhoon may hit Philippines again

NEW BATAAN, Philippines (AP) - A typhoon that had left the Philippines after killing nearly 600 people and leaving hundreds missing in the south has made a U-turn and is now threatening the country's northwest, officials said Saturday.

NY mostly ignored reports warning of superstorm

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - More than three decades before Superstorm Sandy, a state law and a series of legislative reports began warning New York politicians to prepare for a storm of historic proportions, spelling out scenarios eerily similar to what actually happened: a towering storm surge; overwhelming flooding; swamped subway lines; widespread power outages. The Rockaway peninsula was deemed among the "most at risk."

Washington could become pot source for neighbors

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Now that marijuana is legal in neighboring Washington state, Portland police are offering some helpful advice to Oregon pot users. Sure, you can go over to Washington state to "smoke some weed," a police advisory states, but you might get arrested for driving under the influence if you're pulled over coming home, even if you're on a bike.

UN conference adopts extension of Kyoto accord

DOHA, Qatar (AP) - Seeking to control global warming, nearly 200 countries agreed Saturday to extend the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that limits the greenhouse gas output of some rich countries, but will only cover about 15 percent of global emissions.

Rolling Stones hit NY for 50th anniversary gig

NEW YORK (AP) - "Time Waits for No One," the Rolling Stones sang in 1974, but lately it's seemed like that grizzled quartet does indeed have some sort of exemption from the ravages of time.

USDA chief: Rural America becoming less relevant

WASHINGTON (AP) - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has some harsh words for rural America: It's "becoming less and less relevant," he says.

US consumer borrowing rises to record $2.75T

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans swiped their credit cards more often in October and borrowed more to attend school and buy cars. The increases drove U.S. consumer debt to an all-time high.

US job gains defy Sandy and fears of fiscal cliff

WASHINGTON (AP) - It takes more than a superstorm to derail the U.S. job market. Employers added 146,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate dipped to 7.7 percent, a four-year low, the government said Friday. Though modest, the job growth was encouraging because it defied disruptions from Superstorm Sandy and employers' concerns about impending tax increases from the year-end "fiscal cliff." Analysts said the job market's underlying strength suggests that if the White House ...

Vatican lashes out over accusations

VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican is lashing out at "defamatory" and "anti-clerical left-wing" forces seeking to discredit Pope Francis over his actions during Argentina's 1976-1983 military junta.

Westminster council meets on exclusion of gay group from parade

WESTMINSTER, Calif. (AP) - A Southern California city is reviewing its rules after a gay Vietnamese-American group was excluded from February's annual Tet Parade in Little Saigon.

Journalist charged in hacking case

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Federal authorities on Thursday charged a journalist with conspiring with the notorious hacking group "Anonymous" to deface a story on the Los Angeles Times' website a little more than two years ago.

LA pays settlement to newspaper carriers injured in Dorner case

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The city has agreed to give $40,000 to two women whose pickup was shot up by a Police Department protection detail that mistook their newspaper delivery vehicle for the truck driven by rogue ex-cop Christopher Dorner during his rampage, officials announced Thursday.

Foreclosure rates falling

LOS ANGELES (AP) - While the nation's foreclosure woes persist, new data show they're easing amid a resurgent housing market, rising home prices and efforts by some states to buy homeowners more time to avoid losing their homes.

Cruise line sends passengers home by air

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten (AP) - Passengers from the cruise ship Carnival Dream headed to the airport Thursday instead of sailing home after an on-board generator problem halted their trip in the latest maintenance headache for the world's largest cruise line.

TSA stands by plan to allow small knives on planes

Software glitch delays 660,000 tax refunds

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Internal Revenue Service says 660,000 taxpayers will have their refunds delayed by up to six weeks because of a problem with the software they used to file their tax returns.

Denver Nuggets owner buying Outdoor Network

DENVER (AP) - Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke is adding the Outdoor Network to his sports empire.

Missing movie exec's car found; homicide suspected

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Southern California authorities say they've found the car of a 20th Century Fox executive who vanished nearly a year ago and they now believe he is dead.

Shark used for Calif Kmart commercial dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A 5-foot-long shark has died after being put in a pool at a Los Angeles home that was used for filming of a Kmart commercial.

Study makes chilling forecast about quake, tsunami

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - More than 10,000 people could die when - not if - a monster earthquake and tsunami occur just off the Pacific Northwest coast, a new study predicts.

Furloughs increase Calif's long-term costs

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The state employee furloughs started under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger greatly increased the cash-out liabilities owed by California taxpayers when those workers leave government service.

Gulf spill trial: Contractor finds cement samples

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - BP's cement contractor on the Deepwater Horizon rig has discovered cement samples possibly tied to the ill-fated drilling project that weren't turned over to the Justice Department after the 2010 oil spill, a lawyer for the contractor said Thursday.

Ex-boss: NY rampage suspect was 'spooky'

HERKIMER, N.Y. (AP) - Police SWAT teams navigated a cluttered, abandoned bar to find the suspect in four fatal shootings holed up in a small room, killing him in a shootout early Thursday with officers after a nearly 19-hour standoff that paralyzed an upstate New York village.