AP Posts

The 83-year-old news veteran, who underwent heart surgery in May 2010, apparently avoided a disease that hits most people when they are children. It can be serious in older people because of the possibility of complications like pneumonia.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced Thursday he is lifting a ban on women serving in combat. He said he believes women have become an integral part of the military's ability to succeed.

Authorities at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport have held up a shipment of 18 human heads sent from Rome and bound for a facility in the U.S. where they would be used in anatomical research.

Officials of a town near Newtown, Connecticut are renaming a local school for a resident killed in the massacre there and hailed as a hero. HoneySpot Elementary School in Stratford will be named after 27-year-old Victoria Soto who died trying to shield her students from the gunman inside Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Justice Clarence Thomas did something at a Supreme Court argument Monday for the first time in nearly seven years — he spoke. But what Thomas said is not clear, other than he appears to have joked about Ivy League lawyers.

The shooting occurred about 9 a.m. at Taft Union High School, a community of fewer than 10,000 people amidst oil and natural gas production fields about 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

The actor, who was dubbed "McDreamy" by fans of the hospital drama while his co-star was affectionately called "McSteamy," won a bankruptcy auction to buy Tully's Coffee, a small coffee chain based in Seattle. Among those Dempsey beat out is Tully's much bigger Seattle neighbor, Starbucks Corp., which wanted to convert the cafes to its own brand.

Newly retired Rep. Barney Frank revealed on Friday that he would like to serve as a temporary successor to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the secretary of state nominee. Under state law, the Democratic governor will be required to fill the seat with an interim appointment if the Senate confirms Kerry as secretary of state. The special election would then be scheduled between 145 days and 160 days — about five months — after Kerry's departure.

U.S. employers added 155,000 jobs in December, a steady gain that shows hiring held up during the tense negotiations to resolve the fiscal cliff. The solid job growth wasn't enough to push down the unemployment rate, which remained 7.8 percent last month, the Labor Department said Friday. The rate for November was revised up from an initially reported 7.7 percent.

The evacuation of the U.S. diplomats comes in the wake of criticism of the Obama administration's handling of diplomatic security at its consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The ambassador and three other Americans were killed in a Sept. 11 attack.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the Newtown school shootings have changed the gun control debate and that rural America is ready to be part of a national conversation that he believes could bring people together.

The meeting lasted a little over an hour and neither the president nor the four lawmakers spoke with reporters before or immediately after the session. The guest list included two Republicans, House Speaker John Boehner, and McConnell; as well as Democrats Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, her party's leader in the House.

It is unclear what legislation the House might consider Sunday, since Speaker John Boehner is publicly insisting that the Senate must make the next move to avert the cliff. With the Senate in session, Democrats in both chambers of Congress have been harshly critical of the House's absence. The "fiscal cliff" deadline is four days away.

On Christmas Day, the North Texas congressman will become the oldest person ever to serve in the U.S. House, surpassing the record of North Carolina Rep. Charles Manly Stedman, who died in office in 1930 at age 89 years, seven months and 25 days.

Panetta said the international military coalition has managed to reverse a five-year trend of growing violence. And he said Afghan forces are on track to take the lead for securing the entire country next year.