For the second time in a little more than a year, a glitch at one of the two centers that handle flight plans for the nation's air travel system set off delays and cancellations for passengers around the country.

The daughter of Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, was arrested in Hollywood, Calif., early yesterday morning on suspicion of drunken driving.

California health officials yesterday reported that flu-related deaths and hospitalizations slowed last week but emphasized that the H1N1 strain remains a major problem. Deaths statewide remain in the double digits weekly, and hundreds of people are still being hospitalized each week, authorities said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada worked yesterday to nail down the votes to move to a final debate on health-care legislation, but a tepid assessment of the public insurance plan he crafted emerged as the latest potential obstacle to the passage of the plan.

The Oprah Winfrey Show, an iconic broadcast that grew from a local Chicago talk show into the foundation of a multibillion dollar media empire, will end its run in 2011 after 25 seasons on the air, Winfrey's production company said last night.

The Pentagon is launching an urgent review of whether military procedures hinder the identification of servicemembers who pose a threat to their fellow troops.

A gang in the remote Peruvian jungle has been killing people for their fat, the police charged yesterday, draining it from their corpses and offering it on the black market for use in cosmetics. Medical experts expressed skepticism that a major market for fat might exist.

The U.N. climate chief has a message for naysayers about the Copenhagen, Denmark, climate conference next month: It will succeed.

The foreclosure crisis likely will persist well into next year as high unemployment pushes more people out of homes, pulls down housing prices and raises concerns about the broader economic recovery.

A city-sponsored training academy for gang intervention workers will open at least a year later than Los Angeles officials had hoped after a collision of philosophies and egos - a hitch in the city's effort to modernize its campaign against street violence.

Across a patch of pineapples shrouded in smoke, Idris Hadrianyani battled a menace that has left his family sleepless and sick - and has wrought as much damage on the planet as has exhaust from all the cars and trucks in the United States. Against the advancing flames, he waved a hose with a handmade nozzle confected from a plastic soda bottle.

A landmark court ruling blaming the Army Corps of Engineers' "monumental negligence" for some of the worst flooding from Hurricane Katrina could lead to a new deluge: billions of dollars in legal action from thousands of storm victims.

The U.S. Army plans to prevent news media from covering Sarah Palin's appearance at Fort Bragg, fearing the event will turn into political grandstanding against President Obama, officials said yesterday.

AOL LLC, an internet company struggling to adapt to an advertising-driven economy, is looking to shed as much as 36 percent of its work force as it prepares to spin off from Time Warner Inc. next month.

A small, family-owned Connecticut newspaper sued the state's largest newspaper yesterday, saying it repeatedly plagiarized stories after cutting its own reporting staff to save money.

Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season likely won't get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.