A Wisconsin couple says fire clucks, not trucks, helped them escape a blaze at their home.

Jean Harris, who spent 12 years in prison for killing the "Scarsdale Diet" doctor in a lovers' quarrel, has died at age 89.

Authorities say a passenger jet bound for the Washington, D.C., area turned back to Albany, N.Y., after smoke was reported in one of the restrooms.

President Barack Obama says "the hour for immediate action is here" on a deal to avert the fiscal cliff.

Police say a 24-year-old woman has been charged in connection with the ambush slaying of two volunteer firefighters responding to a house fire in upstate New York.

Chicago has logged its 500th homicide of 2012.

Three officers have been injured in a shooting at a police station in southern New Jersey.

A Senate Democrat says he believes "odds are better than people think" that a deal can be reached to avoid automatic tax increases and spending cuts next week.

President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children, part of a harsh response to a U.S. law targeting Russians deemed to be human rights violators.

The FBI has re-issued files it kept on Marilyn Monroe, removing dozens of redactions from entries related to surveillance of the actress for communist ties.

Commerce could be brought to a near standstill at every major port from Boston to Houston if a walkout by thousands of dock workers takes place.

Former President George H.W. Bush is unlikely to leave the Houston hospital where he's being cared for anytime soon but would tell well-wishers to "put the harps back in the closet," an aide says.

Top members of Congress and President Barack Obama are holding out slim hopes for a limited fiscal deal before the new year. Congressional leaders are preparing to meet at the White House, but there are no signs that legislation palatable to both sides is taking shape.

When a student fired a shotgun through the windows of a California high school to start an attack in 2001, Rich Agundez was ready. The El Cajon police officer was assigned to the school and wounded the shooter before the student could get inside the building.

Chicago soon will have the nation's most expensive downtown parking meters.

Reaction to the death Thursday of retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf from former President George H.W. Bush, the White House, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Authorities in Ecuador say an American expert on teen sexual health has died while climbing a volcano in the South American nation.

The Austin police officer who helped stop Charles Whitman's 1966 sniper rampage from atop the University of Texas tower has died.

A U.S. official says retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991, has died. He was 78.

George H.W. Bush's chief of staff says the former president is getting excellent medical treatment in Houston and that he would ask that people "put the harps back in the closet."

A central Pennsylvania man is charged with suffocating his 17-year-old girlfriend after injuring her by intentionally driving into a guardrail at about 100 miles per hour in the middle of the night.

A man suspected in a shooting spree that targeted motorists along the Interstate 96 corridor in four southeast Michigan counties is facing fresh charges, including terrorism.

A Wisconsin husband accused of shooting and killing his police officer wife on Christmas Eve has been ordered held on $1 million cash bond.

Newtown is trying to keep Sandy Hook Elementary school students occupied with fun activities while they remain out of school following the massacre at their school.

Massachusetts U.S. Rep. Edward Markey says he'll run for John Kerry's U.S. Senate seat if Kerry is confirmed as the nation's new secretary of state.