SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Hundreds of guns have been taken off the streets of Oakland and San Francisco in a gun buyback program that Oakland police Officer Johnna Watson described as a "huge success."
NEW YORK (AP) - Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" led the box office with a haul of $84.8 million, a record-setting opening better than the three previous "Lord of the Rings" films.
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) - A man who fired about 50 shots in the parking lot of a crowded Southern California shopping mall, sending shoppers sprinting for safety, was cooperative when officers took him into custody, authorities said Sunday.
BEIRUT (AP) - Syria's longtime vice president said Sunday that his regime and the rebels are both going down a losing path after 21 months of civil war, a rare admission by a top government official that President Bashar Assad's victory is unlikely.
CAIRO (AP) - Nevine Mustafa finally had enough after 10 hours of waiting to cast her "no" vote in Egypt's referendum on a highly disputed draft constitution. She and the other women in line were convinced the judge running the polling station was deliberately stalling to drive away voters opposed to the document.
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) - North Korea parlayed the success of last week's rocket launch to glorify leader Kim Jong Un and his late father on Sunday, the eve of the first anniversary of his death.
TOKYO (AP) - Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic Party returned to power in a landslide election victory Sunday after three years in opposition, according to unofficial results, signaling a rightward shift in the government that could further heighten tensions with China, a key economic partner as well as rival.
NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) - The gunman in the Connecticut shooting rampage was carrying an arsenal of hundreds of rounds of especially deadly ammunition - enough to kill just about every student in the school if given enough time, authorities said Sunday, raising the chilling possibility that the bloodbath could have been far worse.
NEW YORK (AP) - Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" led the box office with a haul of $84.8 million, a record-setting opening better than the three previous "Lord of the Rings" films.
NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) - Six-year-old Jennifer Waters came to Mass on Sunday at Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church with a lot of questions.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic Sen. John Kerry stands tall as President Barack Obama's good soldier.
No water, power, cash: Syria rebels run broke town KARIN LAUB,Associated Press MAARET MISREEN, Syria (AP) - The anti-regime locals who have thrown together a ramshackle administration to run this northern Syrian town have one main struggle: Finding money to keep their community alive. Like other nearby rebel-held towns, Maaret Misreen is broke. Many of the town's 45,000 residents are out of work. There's no cash to keep water or electricity running, so ...
NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) - A worker who turned on the intercom, alerting others in the building that something was very wrong. A custodian who risked his life by running through the halls warning of danger. A clerk who led 18 children on their hands and knees to safety, then gave them paper and crayons to keep them calm and quiet.
DENVER (AP) - Sara Stevenson spends her working hours surrounded by Republicans, namely the married men who work alongside her in a Denver oil and gas firm company. But after hours and on weekends, she usually spends her time with other single women, and there's not a Republican in sight among the bunch.
A gold plaque hangs next to a bullet hole in the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., where a lone gunman killed six worshippers and injured three others last August. It is engraved with the words, "We Are One."
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court's conservative justices voiced deep skepticism Wednesday about a section of a landmark civil rights law that has helped millions of Americans exercise their right to vote.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A poll released Wednesday has promising news for marijuana users who hope California will join the two other states that have voted to legalize recreational use of the drug.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a settlement divvying up the multimillion-dollar estate of James Brown, saying a former attorney general didn't follow the late soul singer's wishes in putting together the deal.
NEW YORK (AP) - JPMorgan is trimming about 4,000 jobs, or about 1.5 percent of its work force, becoming the latest big bank to shrink its staff.
WASHINGTON (AP) - An ax is scheduled to hit the federal budget Friday: Unless the White House and Congress reach a budget deal by then, automatic cuts will carve $85 billion from authorized spending through Sept. 30 and $1.2 trillion over the next decade.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Chuck Hagel was sworn in Wednesday as defense secretary - President Barack Obama's third in just over four years - and said that one of his highest priorities will be ensuring fair treatment of troops, veterans and their families.
NEW YORK (AP) - The party's over for Fashion's Night Out.
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) - Former NBA star Dennis Rodman brought his basketball skills and flamboyant style - tattoos, nose studs and all - to the country with possibly the world's strictest dress code: North Korea.
OTAKI, New Zealand (AP) - Sandra Vidulich is so excited about the leather boots she ordered through Amazon that she rips open the box in front of the postman and tries them on.
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - The tale of a mysterious Nevada recluse's gold reached a new chapter Tuesday when a portion of the trove raked in more than $3.5 million at auction.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The mounting bill tied to the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant in California jumped to more than $400 million through December, as the company that runs it contends with costly repairs and a host of questions about its future, regulatory filings and officials said Tuesday.
CHICAGO (AP) - After a fierce primary campaign dominated by gun control, ethics and economic woes, voters were choosing the likely replacement for Jesse Jackson Jr. on Tuesday, three months after his legal troubles and battle with depression forced the son of the civil rights leader to resign from Congress.
NEW YORK (AP) - What could possibly go wrong?
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - For the second time in a week, a major winter storm paralyzed parts of the nation's midsection Tuesday, dumping a fresh layer of heavy, wet snow atop cities still choked with piles from the previous system and making travel perilous from the Oklahoma panhandle to the Great Lakes.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A ranking BP executive testified Tuesday that the London-based oil giant and its contractors share the responsibility for preventing blowouts like the one that killed 11 workers and spawned the nation's worst offshore oil spill in 2010.