New York City proposes raising age for cigarette purchases to age 21

Odd News

VIETNAM POLICE SEIZE 53 KING COBRAS FROM CAR: HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Vietnamese police say they have seized 53 king cobras from a car in Hanoi and arrested the driver.

Bill jeopardizes tax-free online shopping

Teen arrested in T-shirt flap back in class

Campbell ends touring career, to release new album

Flight delays pile up amid FAA cuts

Boston bombing suspect charged

Bomb suspect had 2 outbursts at mosque

Nation news briefs

NH KILLER APOLOGIZES TO MACHETE VICTIM'S FAMILY : MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - A man convicted of hacking a woman to death with a machete and maiming her daughter during a home invasion has ordered his lawyers not to argue for a reduced sentence, and said in a statement Monday that he doesn't deserve or expect forgiveness.

Students fight bill that would raise class fees

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Proposed legislation that would raise fees for high-demand courses during summer and winter sessions at California community colleges is meeting opposition from students and faculty.

SoCal fire forces evacuation of 200 homes east of Los Angeles

MONROVIA (AP) - Authorities lifted evacuation orders for some residents Saturday night as firefighters made advances on a brush fire in foothills east of Los Angeles, officials said.

Despite Brown decree retirees in some state jobs

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Data reviewed by The Sacramento Bee shows that more than two dozen departments are still using retired executives to fill some of the highest-paying positions in state government, the newspaper reported Sunday.

Bombing suspects planned more attacks

BOSTON (AP) - As churches paused to mourn the dead and console the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing Sunday, the city's police commissioner said the two suspects had such a large cache of weapons that they were probably planning other attacks. The surviving suspect remained hospitalized and unable to speak with a gunshot wound to the throat.

Prayer and waiting in Texas town rocked by blast from fertilizer plant

WEST, Texas (AP) - The First Baptist Church in the tiny Texas town where a fertilizer plant exploded is still off-limits, so the Rev. John Crowder put folding chairs in a hay pasture and improvised a pulpit on a truck flatbed. At the elementary school, an official carted extra desks and chairs into the only public school campus that's left.

NATION NEWS BRIEFS

• FBI: ILL. MAN TRIED TO JOIN AL-QAIDA-LINKED GROUP: CHICAGO (AP) - An Illinois teenager who was friends with a man charged last year with trying to bomb a Chicago bar was arrested at an airport on his way to try to join a terrorist group in war-torn Syria, the FBI said Saturday.

‘Hatchet hitchhiker' arrested in murder

Georgia governor in Bible dispute

Obama picks budget official to run IRS

Brady Campaign sues Georgia town over mandatory gun law they imposed

Nation news briefs

TEXAS SENIOR, 18, BAGS 800-POUND RECORD ALLIGATOR : HOUSTON (AP) - A Houston-area high school senior has bagged a 14-foot, 800 pound alligator - the heaviest ever certified in Texas - on his first alligator hunt.

Obama tries to regain control amid controversies

Petraeus email objected to Benghazi talking points

IRS head ousted over tea party targeting

Nation news briefs

ARMY GENERAL FACING SEX CHARGES HAD PORN ON LAPTOP; FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - An expert in Afghan culture has testified that pornography found on the computer of a U.S. Army general then deployed to the Muslim country would be highly offensive to local residents.

Angelina Jolie has double mastectomy

SC amputee, 80, dies after being attacked by dogs

Man dribbling soccer ball to Brazil killed by vehicle on Oregon highway

Abortion doctor agrees to life in prison

Tougher drunken driving threshold?

Simpson was dependent on main attorney