
Gunman opens fire in Portland mall; 3 dead
A masked gunman wearing camouflage opened fire Tuesday in a busy Portland mall, leaving the gunman and two others dead and forcing the mall's Santa ...

Ariz. home: 'Ditto' to neighbor's Christmas lights
An Arizona woman who knew she couldn't compete head on with her neighbor's elaborate Christmas light display is attracting attention for her response.
Redbox Instant streaming plan takes on Netflix
DVD kiosk operator Redbox is launching a challenge to Netflix's streaming-video supremacy. Later this month, Redbox will offer an unlimited ...

Uruguay's lower house approves gay marriage law
Lawmakers in taboo-breaking Uruguay voted to legalize gay marriage late Tuesday night, approving a single law governing marriage for heterosexuals and ...

3 dead, including gunman, in Oregon mall shooting
A gunman opened fire in a suburban Portland shopping mall Tuesday, killing two people and wounding another as people were doing their Christmas ...

Americans finding dozens of ways to mark 12-12-12
A Michigan sixth-grader will put aside her nerves and get her ears pierced on her 12th birthday. Two law-enforcement officials will exchange wedding ...

Families fear Sandy killed cottages, traditions
The small yellow cottage has always been more than a house to Bob Bratek and his family. It was their tiny slice of oceanfront heaven, a repository ...

Top chefs join call for gender-neutral Easy-Bake
Some well-known male chefs are getting behind a New Jersey girl's call for Hasbro to make a gender-neutral Easy-Bake Oven. Chefs including Manuel ...

Delta grabs bigger share of key NY-London route
Delta Air Lines is grabbing a bigger share of the world's most important travel route: New York to London. The airline is paying $360 million for ...

California chefs encourage fresh dining in Cuba
Rice, beans, pork — and lots of it. That's a typical restaurant meal in Cuba, widely regarded by travelers as a culinary wasteland where the variety ...

Diller steps aside at TripAdvisor; sells stake
Barry Diller is stepping down as chairman of TripAdvisor and selling his stake in the travel-website owner to Liberty Interactive. Liberty Interactive ...

Heavy snow keeps Balkans in deep freeze
Blizzards blocked roads, stranded villages, disrupted power supplies and temporarily shut down an airport in the Balkans on Tuesday, the fourth ...
British government to legalize same-sex marriage
The British government announced Tuesday that it will introduce a bill next year legalizing gay marriage — but banning the Church of England from ...

There arose such a clatter over pipe-free Santa
Santa has kicked the habit in time for Christmas. No, not the sugar plum habit, or his fur-wearing habit, or his penchant for romping recklessly ...

Monopoly comes to Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city
Nigeria's largest city of Lagos is no boardwalk, but now Monopoly is taking inspiration from the city's sprawling chaos. Officials unveiled a ...

Man strips at Austrian art exhibition of nude men
An Austrian museum says a man took the concept of life imitating art to an extreme when he suddenly stripped at an exhibition of pictures and ...

Van Gogh dazzles at Netherlands' Kroeller-Mueller
With the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam closed for renovations until April, the world's second-largest collection of the tortured Dutch master's work ...
Pet apps make clutter-free gifts for owners
Apps aren't just for people anymore. Here is a roundup of popular pet apps for mobile devices. The cost of apps ranges from free to a few dollars.

Holiday gifts for pets following high-tech trend
A holiday present for Fido or Fluffy used to be an extra table scrap or a new squeeze toy. But as with gifts for their human counterparts, pet ...

Peppermint pigs a smashing tradition in NY
A holiday tradition in this upstate New York resort town has a peppermint twist: pig-shaped hard candies are sold with little metal hammers to smash ...

Government investigating makers of cellphone apps
The government is investigating whether software companies that make cellphone apps violated the privacy rights of children by quietly collecting ...

Spaniards hope for eviction reprieve amid crisis
Irene Gonzalez is desperately waiting to hear if she'll benefit from an emergency government decree that protects Spaniards such as her from being ...
Bike, large truck deaths soar, bucking trend
Deaths of bicyclists and occupants of large trucks rose sharply last year even as total traffic fatalities dropped to their lowest level since 1949, ...

NY, NJ ponder new boardwalks without the boards
Coastal areas of New Jersey and New York that lost their boardwalks to Superstorm Sandy's surge are racing to rebuild them in time for tourist season ...

Black women battle obesity with dialogue, action
Nicole Ari Parker was motivated by frustration. For Star Jones, it was a matter of life or death. Toni Carey wanted a fresh start after a bad breakup.