WASHINGTON - (AP) — President Barack Obama signed a landmark law Wednesday repealing the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the military, fulfilling one of his major campaign pledges and casting the issue as a matter of civil rights long denied.

ATLANTA – The U.S. teen birth rate in 2009 fell to its lowest point in almost 70 years of record-keeping — a decline that stunned experts who believe it's partly due to the recession.

A gift-giver's thoughtfulness is as apparent in how a gift is wrapped as in what's inside.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The world is a crazy busy, crazy big place for grandparents and grandkids looking to connect, so why not ditch the slippers for the holidays and focus on gifts grand-kin can enjoy together?

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York's incoming governor, Democrat Andrew Cuomo, says he won't raise taxes even though he will inherit a budget deficit of at least $9 billion when he takes office in January. Ohio Republican Gov.-elect John Kasich is promising to cut taxes, despite a shortfall of about $8 billion.
 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Word that the world's largest military power will allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military brought strong and swift reaction last week, with supporters declaring a civil rights milestone and detractors insisting it would weaken and divide the armed forces.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- Florida officials filed an obscenity charge Monday against the author of a self-published how-to guide for pedophiles that was yanked from Amazon.com last month after it generated online outrage.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama lobbied senators by phone Monday to back an arms treaty with Russia that he's called a national security imperative, as a top Senate Democrat conceded "house by house combat" would be needed to win enough GOP votes to prevail.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- `Twill be nights before Christmas and high overhead, the moon will turn brown or maybe deep red. The Earth and the sun with celestial scripts will conspire to make a lunar eclipse.
 

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Hoping for a flood of tips, police released scores of photographs Thursday of unidentified women that were found at the home of the accused ``Grim Sleeper'' serial killer.