CALIFORNIA

The Nobel-winning medical science that points the way to a cancer cure was sparked by curiosity, not business sense, a new laureate said on Monday.

Playboy Enterprises Inc on Tuesday named an 11-year veteran of the adult entertainment company and magazine publisher as president, a new position that will oversee all of its businesses.

California and three other states were among the first recipients of more than $6.8 million in grants to map broadband use in U.S. homes, the Commerce Department said on Monday.

With the population aging and fewer young people to take the place of baby boomers, the demand for housing may slow for years to come, keeping home values from increasing as they have done since World War II, according to at least one well-known housing expert.

Three Americans won the Nobel prize for medicine on Monday for revealing the existence and nature of telomerase, an enzyme which helps prevent the fraying of chromosomes that underlies aging and cancer.

Southern California Edison shut the 472-megawatt Unit 3 at the Mountainview natural gas-fired power station in Southern California for planned reasons by Sunday afternoon, the California Independent System Operator said in a report.

Are you at risk for dowager's hump? Findings from a small study suggest you may want to try yoga to decrease this age-related curve of the upper spine.

Amid job losses, workers and small businesses can seek gov't help

The U.S. Treasury will soon finalize a plan to expand its incentives for mortgage companies to include short sales as a way to stem a rising tide of foreclosures, according to a Treasury spokeswoman.

Ally McBeal -- the quirky TV comedy whose mini-skirted neurotic star, nose-whistling lawyers and unisex bathrooms found a worldwide audience -- finally arrives in stores next week as a complete DVD series with all its original music intact.

Gun shots ring sharply across a valley littered with rusting hulks of Soviet tanks as Afghan soldiers crouch down and open fire into the dusty haze.

High-risk patients who took a combination of three older heart drugs -- a generic statin, a generic blood pressure pill and a low-dose aspirin -- cut their risk of a heart attack or stroke by as much as 80 percent, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

A U.S. and Canada tour by Kanye West and Lady Gaga has been canceled with no reason given just weeks after the rap star came under public fire for humiliating country star Taylor Swift at an awards ceremony.

The largest private forest owner in California, Sierra Pacific Industries, is entering carbon markets with a deal to preserve redwoods and other trees and sell credits for soaking up greenhouse gases to power companies and investors, the company said on Wednesday.

California utility Pacific Gas and Electric said on Thursday that it has signed power agreements for more than 2,000 megawatts, boosting its use of energy from solar resources and natural gas.

She grew up a child star in a famous Hollywood family, and Drew Barrymore has gone from acclaimed actress to movie producer and now director of her first feature film, Whip It.

Support for abortion rights has slipped in America this year and now barely edges opposition, while the issue's importance has fallen, according to a new survey released on Thursday.

Fifteen states could run out of hospital beds and 12 more could fill 75 percent of their beds with swine flu sufferers if 35 percent of Americans catch the virus in coming weeks, a report released Thursday said.

More unemployed workers filed for temporary government insurance protection last week, with the total initial claims rising by 17,000 to 551,000, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Film director Roman Polanski, arrested earlier this week in Switzerland, saw support weaken on Wednesday for his effort to evade sentencing in the United States in the rape of a 13-year-old girl three decades ago.

A British government minister asked California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday to shut down a U.S. website that allows men to rate prostitutes, including many working in London.