New Focus in Mali Is Finding Militants Who Have Fled Into Mountains

Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesA fish market, above, in Konna, Mali, that had been occupied by Islamist rebels. It was the seizure of Konna, in the Mopti region, that provoked France’s military intervention last month. DAKAR, Senegal — Just as Al Qaeda once sought refuge in the mountains of Tora Bora, the Islamist militants now on the run in Mali are hiding out in their own forbidding landscape, a...

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Tiger Woods & Lindsey Vonn Are 'Spending More Time' Together: Source

Buzz By Steve Helling 02/09/2013 at 06:00 PM EST Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn Mick Tsikas/Reuters/Landov; Luis Guerra/Ramey It was quite the gesture. After Lindsey Vonn suffered a devastating injury during the Alpine World Championships in Austria, she got a bit...

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four...

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Moreno Valley school board member guilty of pimping

A member of the Moreno Valley Unified School District board was convicted on nearly two dozen charges including pimping and...

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A Faceless Teenage Refugee Who Helped Ignite Syria’s War

Bryan Denton for The New York TimesA boy from Dara’a, Syria, now living in Jordan, who was part of a group whose arrest and torture helped start Syria’s uprising. AMMAN, Jordan — In a listless border town, the teenager goes unnoticed, one of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled the Syrian civil war, dashing across villages and farms to land in Jordan, just five miles from home. ...

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Minka Kelly: 'I'm Not Worthy' of Acting with Oprah

By Jennifer Cress 02/08/2013 at 07:40 PM EST Minka Kelly as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Pacific Coast News It's intimidating enough to play Jackie O, but Minka Kelly felt even more pressure to perform when she found out who was joining the cast of her latest film,...

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four...

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Brown proposal targets flame retardants

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown wants to free manufacturers of furniture and baby products from having to treat those items with...

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At Brooklyn College, Pro-Palestine Speakers Attract Protests Outside

Uli Seit for The New York TimesDemonstrators gathered outside Brooklyn College on Thursday night to protest a lecture held by two pro-Palestinian speakers. Tensions were evident everywhere as two pro-Palestinian speakers arrived Thursday night at Brooklyn College. Protesters began gathering across the street from the student center, where the college-sponsored talk was scheduled, more than an hour...

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American Idol: Early Favorites Eliminated in Hollywood

TV Watch American Idol By Steve Helling 02/07/2013 at 10:30 PM EST From left: Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Ryan Seacrest, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban Michael Becker/FOX. At the beginning of Thursday's American Idol, there were 43 men left in the competition. The...

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Southern diet, fried foods, may raise stroke risk

Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast — the nation's "stroke belt" — suffer more of them.Blacks were five times more likely than whites...

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L.A.'s top budget official warns of big cuts if tax measure fails

The top budget official at Los Angeles City Hall warned Thursday that a defeat of a sales tax hike on the March 5 ballot could...

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Japan Spends Heavily to Keep Whaling Industry Afloat, Report Says

TOKYO — A wildlife conservation group said in a report on Wednesday that Japan has been propping up its whaling industry with nearly $400 million in tax money in recent years, stepping up subsidies even as consumption of whale meat here has slumped. The report, compiled by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, in Yarmouth Port, Mass., challenges assertions by the Japanese government...

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Leeza Gibbons: I Count My Blessings - Not My Stretch Marks

By Mike Fleeman 02/06/2013 at 07:30 PM EST When TV personality Leeza Gibbons married Steven Fenton in 2011, she joked that she was finally embracing "my inner cougar" – on their first date he was 38 and she was 51.Now approaching their two-year anniversary in April, Gibbons has given a little more thought to...

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New whooping cough strain in US raises questions

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers have discovered the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a germ that may be resistant to the vaccine.Health officials are looking into whether cases like the dozen found in Philadelphia might be one reason the nation just had its worst year for whooping cough in six decades. The new bug was previously reported in Japan, France and Finland."It's quite intriguing....

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L.A. County Sheriff's Department intends to fire seven deputies

Seven Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies have been notified that the department intends to fire them for belonging to a secret...

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Tsunami Fear After Quake Off Solomons

Residents of islands from the South Pacific to Australia were preparing Wednesday for the possible effects of a tsunami set off by an 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Solomon Islands, according to scientists and news reports from the area. “Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said on its Web site. The earthquake struck around 11...

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Kim Kardashian's Pregnancy Is No Reason to Speed Divorce, says Kris Humphries

By Mike Fleeman 02/05/2013 at 09:20 PM EST Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian Seth Browarnik/StarTraks Kim Kardashian's baby is not even born yet and already is being drawn into mama's divorce.Kardashian, carrying boyfriend Kanye West's child, has bristled at what...

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Critics seek to delay NYC sugary drinks size limit

NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city's novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.With the rule set to take effect March 12, beverage industry, restaurant and other business groups have asked a judge to put it on hold at least until...

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Charges filed against three alleged distributors of 'bath salts'

When a woman smashed into a Moorpark home with her car last June, police at first thought they were dealing with a garden-variety...

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Report Says 54 Countries Helped C.I.A. With Interrogations After 9/11

WASHINGTON — Some 54 countries helped facilitate the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret detention, rendition and interrogation program in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a new human rights report that documents broad international involvement in the American campaign against Al Qaeda. The report, to be made public Tuesday by the Open Society Justice...

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Jillian Michaels: My Son Phoenix Is 'Fiery' Like Me

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 02/04/2013 at 03:00 PM ET Gregg DeGuire/WireImageJillian Michaels‘ son Phoenix is already taking after his mama — just not the right one!Although The Biggest Loser trainer expected her baby boy to inherit her partner’s laidback approach to life — Heidi Rhoades delivered...

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Bullying study: It does get better for gay teens

CHICAGO (AP) — It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the...

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Accused ex-priest remained in L.A. Unified despite red flags

An ex-priest accused of molestation remained employed by the Los Angeles Unified School District for more than a decade despite...

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India Approves Tougher Rape Laws

NEW DELHI — India’s government on Sunday approved tough new laws to deter sexual violence against women, including the death penalty in certain rape cases, as leaders moved to respond to public outrage over a recent gang rape case in the national capital. The new package of laws, signed on Sunday by President Pranab Mukherjee after earlier approval by the cabinet, amends India’s penal code...

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