AP - Former police officer Drew Peterson paid a relative to help him move a large container from a bedroom on the day Peterson's wife vanished, according to a friend of the relative.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A day after they learned that they would be laid off, employees of 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' have received news that might ease the blow.

BOSTON (Reuters) - The Boston Celtics posted an 80-70 home win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, who struggled without the injured LeBron James on Sunday.

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - The New England Patriots overcame a lackluster performance and frigid temperatures to defeat the Baltimore Ravens 27-24 on Monday and remain on course to become the NFL's first unbeaten team in 35 years.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state prosecutors have sent subpoenas to Wall Street firms seeking information related to the packaging and selling of debt tied to high-risk mortgages, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Striking screenwriters and Hollywood studio executives ended a second straight day of contract talks on Wednesday on the most upbeat note yet during the month-old walkout.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday announced record annual cocaine seizures worth more than $4.7 billion and said trafficking in the illicit drug appears to be shifting from the Caribbean to the Pacific.

FRESNO, California (Reuters) - A conservative California diocese appears poised to leave the U.S. Episcopal Church on Saturday in a historic split following years of disagreement over gays, women and other issues.

AP - Searchers have found a body and wreckage from a medical helicopter missing since Monday, a spokesman for the rescue effort said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. housing slump has damaged many states' revenue streams, leaving some with shortfalls and worries about funding education and health care, according to a report released by the National Conference of State Legislators on Monday.

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Drew Brees passed for three touchdowns to lift the New Orleans Saints to a convincing 34-14 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Monday.

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam will deport on Wednesday two more American citizens of Vietnamese origin detained since mid-November on unsubstantiated accusations of involvement in terrorism, the U.S. embassy said.

AP - Federal authorities have subpoenaed financial records and employees in an apparent probe of the Rev. Al Sharpton's 2004 presidential bid, nonprofit civil rights group, and for-profit businesses, a newspaper reported Thursday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Idled television talk-show hosts Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien are likely to return to work in early January, even if the Hollywood writers strike is not settled by then, Daily Variety reported in its Friday edition.

AP - A passenger handcuffed after a car chase with police early Friday tried to save a sheriff's deputy who had suffered a fatal heart attack moments after arresting him, authorities said.

PRAIRIE CITY, Iowa (Reuters) - Gordon Wassenaar has his eye on a $300,000 combine harvester to replace the 1990 model he repairs each winter in the workshop on his farm. And he just bought more land to add to his 1,600-acre spread.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Record-setting Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre achieved another NFL milestone when he became the league's career leader in yards passing in the Green Bay Packers' 33-14 road victory over the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Retirement benefits for U.S. public employees could cost states some $2.73 trillion over the next three decades, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A recent decline in U.S. news coverage from Iraq coincides with improved public opinion about the war just as the 2008 presidential campaign heads to an early showdown, a study released on Wednesday said.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - For the second consecutive year, the rise in gas prices was the most interesting news story in the United States, according to a poll released Wednesday.

ONTARIO, California (Reuters) - Between railroad tracks and beneath the roar of departing planes sits 'tent city,' a terminus for homeless people. It is not, as might be expected, in a blighted city center, but in the once-booming suburbia of Southern California.

AP - A key U.N. committee approved a two-year budget of $4.17 billion Friday night, with the United States casting the only 'no' vote because it included $6.7 million for a follow-up to a conference the U.S. considered anti-Israel.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nicolas Cage topped the North American box office for the second time this year on Sunday with 'National Treasure: Book of Secrets,' a sequel to the biggest movie of his career.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Katherine Heigl, an Emmy-winning star of medical drama 'Grey's Anatomy,' married her musician boyfriend in Utah on Sunday, US Weekly magazine reported on its Web site.

AP - The military is looking for a few good acres — very, very dark ones.

GHARA TEPE SHEIKH, Iran (Reuters) - American Louise Firouz made Iran her home half a century ago. Now 75, she runs a stud farm in the remote northeast and has watched the turbulent transformation of her adopted country from U.S.-ally to arch foe.

AP - The teen gunman who killed eight people and himself in a mall this month once told social workers he was satanic and acknowledged that he often acted before thinking of the consequences, according to newly released court records.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - The state of Alaska acted properly when it rejected as inadequate a development plan for the long-languishing Point Thomson oil and gas field on the North Slope, a state judge ruled on Thursday.

AP - A pickup truck traveling in the wrong direction on Interstate 95 collided with a minivan Friday night, killing four people and injuring four others, New Jersey State Police said.

AP - A steady, decade-long drop in teen offender recidivism rates here in Pierce County is not the result of reforms implemented in some other places — building smaller, homelike facilities, adding social workers and making therapists available 24-7.

AP - An apartment building fire killed three people, and authorities said Sunday they were investigating the blaze as a possible case of arson.