TUCSON, Ariz. - Grief-stricken after the Tucson supermarket massacre, shooting victim James Eric Fuller found comfort writing down the Declaration of Independence from memory while still recovering in the hospital.

The best weekend of the season has come and gone, and the final four have been identified.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - An explosion ripped through a minibus traveling in a militant-infested area of northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing 18 people, police said.

NEW YORK - There might be trouble brewing behind the glassy eyes of kids who spend too much time and energy on video games, according to a controversial new study.

PHOENIX - Arizona has become a national leader in the gun rights movement in recent years as the state enacted law after law to protect the people's right to bear arms nearly anywhere, at anytime.

JERUSALEM - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak abruptly announced Monday that he was leaving the Labor Party - dividing the movement that dominated Israeli politics for decades and setting off a chain reaction that cast new doubts over already troubled peace efforts with the Palestinians.

BEIJING - Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his Chinese counterpart said on Monday stronger military ties were needed to avoid missteps between the two global giants, whose forces have pushed up against each other in Asia.

The militant Basque separatist group ETA declared a permanent cease-fire on Monday in what it called a firm step toward ending its bloody decades-long independence fight, but Spain's government quickly dismissed the announcement and demanded ETA disband outright.

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is "holding her own" and continues to respond to simple commands, Dr. G. Michael Lemole Jr., the chief of neurosurgery at Univ. of Ariz. said Monday.

A Portuguese male model has been charged with murder in the slaying of a celebrity Portuguese television journalist, who was found castrated and bludgeoned to death in a New York City hotel, police said Monday.

More than 200 Chinese children have been poisoned by lead from battery plants located too close to houses in the east of the country, state media said on Thursday, the latest in a string of heavy metal pollution cases.

The U.S. government has strongly protested to Vietnam over the treatment of an American diplomat, the ambassador said Thursday. A media report said the human rights officer was roughed up while trying to meet with a prominent dissident.

Iranian authorities have detained a 55-year-old American woman on spying charges, local media reported Thursday.

A California-based Internal Revenue Service agent could spend up to nine years in prison after acknowledging that he cheated on his own taxes.

God's mind was behind complex scientific theories such as the Big Bang, and Christians should reject the idea that the universe came into being by accident, Pope Benedict said Thursday.

Thousands of dead red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky in an Arkansas town on New Year's Eve after massive trauma, tests by veterinary officials concluded on Monday.

When salmonella-laced peanut products sickened hundreds during a recent scare, President Barack Obama said consumers should be able to have confidence that their government will keep peanut butter-eating children safe - and that included his daughter Sasha.

Homicides rose by 15 percent in New Jersey last year, marking the first time in four years that the state saw an annual increase in slayings, according to a Star-Ledger survey of county prosecutor's offices.