J1Q2010

Home prices are falling across most of America's largest cities, and average prices in eight major markets have hit their lowest point since the housing bust.

The British monarchy saga "The King's Speech" reigns at the Academy Awards with 12 nominations, including acting honors for Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush and positioning itself to challenge "The Social Network" for best picture.

The weekend brought more bad news for the racy new MTV show "Skins." After the Parents Television Council urged a boycott and a federal investigation into the series for possible violations of child pornography laws, advertisers are following in the footsteps of Taco Bell and are pulling their ads from the show.

TROMSOE, Norway - The Arctic Ocean needs tough new shipping rules as a rapid thaw opens the remote, icy region and brings risks of disasters on the scale of the Titanic, politicians and experts said on Monday.

CHICAGO - Oprah Winfrey has discovered she has a half-sister - a Milwaukee woman who was given up for adoption by Winfrey's mother nearly 50 years ago, when the talk show host was eight years old.

Washington (CNN) -- The House of Representatives voted to repeal the Obama administration's signature health-care legislation Wednesday evening, a vote the newly elected Republican majority called a fulfillment of their No. 1 campaign promise.

London -- Airports around the world are likely to boost security checks in the wake of Monday's deadly bombing in Moscow, experts say.

An Ohio community of 3,200 people was told to flee Monday because of fires apparently caused by natural-gas line pressure problems.

Two people froze to death, including one woman whos frozen body was found on a driveway, as an Arctic blast hit the northern U.S., dropping temperatures as low as minus 36 degrees.

A North Carolina woman who raised a child snatched from a New York hospital more than two decades ago was scheduled to appear Monday in federal court to face kidnapping charges.

An explosion ripped through the arrivals hall at Moscow's busiest airport on Monday, killing 35 people and wounding about 130, officials said.

Devastating floods in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state have killed more than 800 people, according to new government figures.

(CNN) -- The man who opened fire on officers inside a Detroit police station had a relative who is scheduled to be sentenced for double homicide Monday, said the city's police chief, who he would not confirm that as the motive behind the attack.

(CNN) -- American fitness guru Jack LaLanne died Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay, California, according to his long-time agent, Rick Hersh. He was 96. The cause, said Hersh, was respiratory failure due to pneumonia. LaLanne had been ill for the past week. His wife, Elaine, was at his side, along with his family and friends, Hersh said. No funeral arrangements were announced, but his agent said plans were being made. LaLanne spent decades talking about the healthful benefits of exercise and fitness. He opened his own health spa in California in 1936, years before the fitness craze swept the United States. LaLanne even designed the world's first leg-extension machine, along with several other pieces of fitness equipment now standard in the fitness industry.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The leading professional group for doctors who implant defibrillators said it was cooperating in a Justice Department investigation into proper use of the devices. The Heart Rhythm Society said in a statement on Friday that it was providing expertise to officials conducting a civil investigation into implanted defibrillators, which correct dangerous heart rhythms using electrical shocks. A spokeswoman for the group declined to give details. The announcement comes two weeks after a medical journal article suggested one in five heart defibrillators may be implanted for questionable reasons. The devices are not recommended for patients who have recently had a heart attack or bypass surgery, or those with short life expectancies.

On an 18-hour flight from California to Singapore a few years ago, Timothy D. Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, had little time for small talk with a colleague. Glued to his business class seat, Mr. Cook had his nose in spreadsheets, preparing for a thorough review of Apple's Asian operations. In Silicon Valley, Mr. Jobs is also known for relentlessness. Yet on many levels, he and Mr. Cook are opposites. While Mr. Jobs is mercurial and prone to outbursts, Mr. Cook, who was raised in a small town in Alabama, is polite and soft-spoken. He is often described as a "Southern gentleman." While Mr. Jobs obsesses over every last detail of Apple's products, Mr. Cook obsesses over the less glamorous minutiae of Apple's operations.

There was one Monster of the Midway in the NFC Championship Game and his name was Aaron Rodgers. He wasn't even at his best and, still, he was better than the first, the second and the third quarterback used in vain by the Chicago Bears against their bitter rivals. Rodgers ran for a score and made a TD-saving tackle in leading the Green Bay Packers into the Super Bowl with a bone-jarring 21-14 victory Sunday over Chicago."It's an incredible feeling," Rodgers said. "I'm at a loss for words." Rodgers played well enough to keep the Bears off balance all afternoon, Green Bay punter Tim Masthay kept Devin Hester under wraps and the Packers' superb defense took care of the rest in knocking the Bears out of the playoffs.

More than 100 prison inmates had to be temporarily moved after a fire broke out this afternoon at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, authorities said. The fire started late this afternoon in one of the cottages at the facility, said Matt Schuman, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. No injuries have been reported.

hree police officers -- two St. Petersburg, Florida, officers and a deputy U.S. marshal -- were shot and wounded while serving an arrest warrant on a St. Petersburg home, authorities said. All three officers were taken to a local hospital after the incident, which occurred just before 7 a.m., St. Petersburg police spokesman Mike Puetz said.

MOSCOW - An explosion rocked an international terminal of Moscow's busiest airport on Monday afternoon in what Russian officials described as an apparent terrorist attack. The Health Ministry reported that at least 30 people had been killed and 130 injured, according to Russian state media.