WASHINGTON (AP) -- Newt Gingrich calls it giving advice. Most people would call it cashing in on his prominent name.

Deadline nearing, the deficit-reduction talks in Congress sank toward gridlock Friday after supercommittee Democrats rejected a late Republican offer that included next-to-nothing in new tax revenue. Each side maneuvered to blame the other for a looming stalemate.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A U.S. government audit on Friday found inadequate monitoring of American weapons sales to Persian Gulf countries with questionable human rights records or recent clashes with protesters.

STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) -- A high school teacher is under investigation after school officials said she was maintaining a pornographic website from her school-issued laptop computer.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- Secretary of State Dianna Duran's car was one of several that struck a man's body on a highway near Santa Fe after the pedestrian had been hit and killed a short time earlier by another vehicle, police said Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top international climate scientists and disaster experts meeting in Africa had a sharp message Friday for the world's political leaders: Get ready for more dangerous and "unprecedented extreme weather" caused by global warming.

CALDWELL, Ohio (AP) -- A 16-year-old boy was charged Friday with attempted murder and complicity to attempted murder by authorities investigating the killing of one man and the wounding of another who had responded to a phony job ad on Craigslist.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Treasury Department has raised $12.2 million from the sale of warrants of 17 banks that received government support during the financial crisis. The sales are part of the government's efforts to recoup the costs of the $700 billion financial bailout.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The blockbuster drug Avastin should no longer be used in advanced breast cancer patients because there's no proof that it extends their lives and it presents dangerous side effects, the government declared Friday.

ATLANTA (AP) -- Health officials say birth rates for the nation's youngest mothers hit new lows last year.