WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) Oscar-winning sound editor Mike Hopkins, who worked on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and other Peter Jackson films, has died in a rafting accident in New Zealand. He was 53. Hopkins drowned on Sunday when his inflatable raft capsized during a flash flood in a river...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are feeling lucky about their first child together. "It's true," the 32-year-old reality TV star said in a statement on her site Monday. "Kanye and I are expecting a baby. We feel so blessed and lucky and wish that in addition to both of...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Many Americans seem to be in a sour mood as 2013 begins, after Hurricane Sandy ravaged parts of the East Coast, a gunman massacred 20 school children in Connecticut and a long, contentious election campaign was followed by failure to resolve the "fiscal cliff" issue by year-end....

NEW YORK (AP) ESPN anchor Hannah Storm will return to the air on New Year's Day, exactly three weeks after she was seriously burned in a propane gas grill accident at her home. Storm suffered second-degree burns on her chest and hands, and first-degree burns to her face and neck. She lost her...

LOS ANGELES (AP) Oscar voters will have an extra day to cast their ballots. The motion picture academy says it's extending the deadline for members to vote for the Academy Awards to Jan. 4, following criticism of its new electronic voting system. The nominations are set to be announced Jan....

NEW YORK (AP) From teeming Times Square to a once-isolated Asian country celebrating its first public New Year's Eve countdown in decades, the world looked to the start of 2013 with hope for renewal after a year of economic turmoil, searing violence and natural disasters. Fireworks, concerts...

LOS ANGELES (AP) A tiny hobbit has a mighty hold on the box office, staying on top for a third-straight week and wrapping up a year that saw a record-breaking $10.8 billion in total annual grosses. The Warner Bros. fantasy "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" remained at No. 1 with $32 million...

CHICAGO (AP) More than four years after crushing debt and plunging advertising sales forced it to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Tribune Co. has emerged with a new television-focused board and over $1 billion in new financing. Led by such creative and technology heavyweights as Ross...

LONDON (AP) Lavish fireworks displays ushered in 2013 across the Asia-Pacific region on Tuesday, and Europe was holding scaled-back festivities and street parties in the hope of beginning a new year that will be kinder to its battered economies. Asian cities kicked off New Year's celebrations...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) A kid for Kimye: Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are expecting their first child. The rapper announced at a concert Sunday night that his girlfriend is pregnant. Kardashian was in the crowd at Revel Resort's Ovation Hall with her mother, Kris Jenner, and West's mentor and...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Social games publisher Zynga Inc confirmed on Monday that it has carried out 11 of the planned shutdowns of 13 game titles, with "Petville" being the latest game on which it pulled the plug. Zynga in October said it would shut down 13 underperforming titles after warning...

NEW YORK (AP) A woman I haven't spoken to in six years is pregnant with her second son. Another college acquaintance reads the Bible a lot. A high school classmate likes to rant about politics. A college dormmate thinks he works too much. On Facebook, I'm connected to a lot of people who are...

ALEPPO PROVINCE, Syria (Reuters) - At a converted warehouse in the midst of a block of residential homes in a northern Syrian town, men are hard at work at giant lathes, shavings of metal gathering around them. Sacks of potassium nitrate and sugar lie nearby. In a neat row against the wall is...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Employers in California and Illinois will be prohibited from demanding access to workers' password-protected social networking accounts and teachers in Oregon will be required to report suspected student bullies thanks to new laws taking effect in 2013. In all, more than 400...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's Instagram lost almost a quarter of its daily users a week after it rolled out and then withdrew policy changes that incensed users who feared the photo-sharing service would use their pictures without compensation. Instagram, which Facebook bought for...

TORONTO (Reuters) - Angry Birds, Instagram and Facebook continued to be among the most downloaded apps of the year but rising stars also earned coveted spots on smartphones and tablets. This year consumers spent on average two hours each day using mobile applications, an increase of 35 percent...

LOS ANGELES (AP) "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" continues to rule them all at the box office, staying on top for a third-straight week and capping a record-setting $10.8 billion year in moviegoing. The Warner Bros. fantasy epic from director Peter Jackson, based on the beloved J.R.R. Tolkien...

NEW YORK (AP) Hundreds of thousands of revelers from around the globe are expected to cram into New York City's Times Square to see the ball drop and ring in 2013. The giant ball is covered with 2,688 Waterford crystal triangles and illuminated by more than 32,000 LEDs in red, blue, green and...

(Reuters) - Rapper Kanye West and reality TV star Kim Kardashian are expecting their first child, celebrity media outlets reported on Monday. Fans and family took to Twitter to congratulate the celebrity power couple. "Been wanting to shout from the rooftops with joy and now I can!" wrote Kardashian's...

PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) A tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy Oregon highway and 100 feet down a steep embankment Sunday, killing nine people and injuring more than 20 others, authorities said. The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on snow- and ice-covered...

BANGKOK (AP) With just hours left before the U.S. hits the "fiscal cliff," stocks on the other side of the world wilted as investors sold off riskier assets to lock in profits just in case budget negotiations fail in Washington. American political leaders face a Monday night deadline to reach...

NEW YORK (AP) A 31-year-old woman accused of shoving a man to his death in front of a subway train because she believed he was Muslim laughed and smiled during a court hearing where she was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Erika Menendez, 31, was charged Saturday night with murder...

(Reuters) - A major Iranian partner of Huawei Technologies offered to sell at least 1.3 million euros worth of embargoed Hewlett-Packard computer equipment to Iran's largest mobile-phone operator in late 2010, documents show. China's Huawei, the world's second largest telecommunications equipment...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Blake Krikorian has quit the board of Amazon.com Inc about a year and a half after joining to take up an unspecified role at the buyer of a company he owned. Krikorian, known for co-founding Sling Media in 2004, informed the rest...