MIAMI (Reuters) - Beating on cooking pots and honking car horns, hundreds of Cuban exiles streamed into the streets of Miami's Little Havana to celebrate news that Cuban President Fidel Castro had handed over power.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend, according to a new U.S. study that found three of four women would prefer a new plasma TV to a diamond necklace.

AP - Their deaths shook a nation that had grown used to the slowly mounting U.S. military casualties in Iraq.

AP - Tropical Storm Chris was headed for the Turks and Caicos on Friday as it pushed across the eastern Caribbean, scattering rain over Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands but no longer posing a hurricane threat to the region.

AP - A man was arrested Friday for investigation of murder in the deaths of his parents and 16-year-old sister, whose bodies were found at their San Fernando Valley home, police said.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - United Steelworkers members ratified a three-year contract covering about 3,450 workers at three of Michelin's BFGoodrich tire manufacturing plants in the United States, the union and company said late Saturday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Shopping carts, escalators and lawn mowers injure 35,000 American children every year and should be redesigned, researchers said on Monday.

AP - A computerized system that guides arriving planes onto a runway at Los Angeles International Airport failed, marking the second serious problem to disable the world's fifth-busiest airport in the past three weeks, officials said.

RED BANK, New Jersey (Reuters) - Indie film director Kevin Smith chatted with fans, dispensed wry career advice to aspiring filmmakers and flat-out refused to sign a woman's rear end on Tuesday night when he came home to New Jersey for an outdoor screening of his breakthrough film 'Clerks.'

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - CBS will air an updated version of the '9/11' documentary about the attacks at the World Trade Center and the firefighters who responded that September day five years ago.

AP - A man who was convicted of killing three people, then fought for two years to end his appeals and be put to death, was executed early Friday.

AP - A man released pit bulls that attacked three people because he wanted 'to see what kind of trouble he could cause,' prosecutors said Friday.

AP - Houston's FBI office has placed the fugitive daughter of a deceased Utah polygamist on the agency's 'most wanted' list after getting a tip about the woman from a relative in prison.

AP - Officials declared victory Sunday over a wildfire that just missed two upscale subdivisions in the Sierra foothills west of Reno.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Surging revenues allowed U.S. states to grow their 2006 fiscal year-end aggregate surplus by nearly 25 percent to $57.1 billion, but this will shrink in the new fiscal year as the economy slows, according to a budget survey released on Tuesday.

AP - Gov. Dave Freudenthal declared a state of emergency Tuesday as winds pushed a fast-moving wildfire toward hundreds of evacuated homes south of Casper.

AP - Pumps slowly drained waist-deep floodwater from parts of this southern New Mexico town Wednesday, while crews worked to reinforce a diversion ditch's banks that washed away, causing hundreds of residents to flee their homes.

AP - A San Antonio man with a previous conviction for manslaughter was executed Thursday for the abduction, rape and fatal stabbing of a woman more than 12 years ago.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Frank Quattrone, the former Silicon Valley star technology banker facing a possible third trial for obstructing justice, reached a deal with prosecutors in which he could avoid another trial and resume a career in finance, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

VICTORIA, British Columbia (Reuters) - American Aaron Peirsol set a world record in the 200 meters backstroke at the Pan Pacific Championships on Saturday while the U.S. men's team also clocked a world mark in the 4x100 freestyle relay.

VICTORIA, British Columbia (Reuters) - Americans Michael Phelps and Brendan Hansen broke their own world records and South Korean youngster Tae Hwan Park won his second gold medal on the last day of the Pan Pacific Championships on Sunday.

AP - Bureaucracy and a lack of money are slowing the rebuilding of New Orleans nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina hit, Mayor Ray Nagin said Monday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Paramount Pictures and actor Tom Cruise called an end to their 14-year production deal on Wednesday as the chairman of the studio's parent company took a parting shot at the movie star's off-screen behavior.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. Gulf Coast emergency rooms could not cope if a hurricane the size of Katrina strikes this year, according to a survey of the region's emergency physicians released on Thursday.

AP - An ocean away from the nearest casino, bingo parlor or horse track, Hawaii residents still find ways to place bets and play games of chance. And despite a ban, gambling addiction here is as widespread as other states.

AP - A chemical released into the air from an industrial plant Friday sent 23 people to the hospital and closed some roads, officials said.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Mississippi River remained partially closed on Saturday due to vessel accidents, a U.S. Coast Guard official said on Saturday.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA on Sunday clung to plans for a Tuesday launch of space shuttle Atlantis even as it prepared to scrub the liftoff and pull the ship indoors to ride out approaching Tropical Storm Ernesto.

LEXINGTON, Kentucky (Reuters) - A small plane crashed on Monday in rugged southeastern Kentucky and killed all seven people aboard, a day after Sunday's fatal airliner crash in Lexington, Kentucky, aviation authorities said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp. said on Tuesday it is withdrawing an offer of free iced coffee to a limited number of employees and their friends and families in the southeast United States.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Andy Roddick was not in party mood after marking his 24th birthday with victory at the U.S. Open, trying to put to rest rumors he is romantically linked with Russian Maria Sharapova.