A federal appeals court has declared California's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, paving the way for a likely U.S. Supreme Court showdown on the voter-approved law.

The agency building the new World Trade Center has let costs get out of control, with the estimated price tag soaring nearly $4 billion over the last four years, auditors said Tuesday.

A California woman accused of killing her infant son by breastfeeding him after she used methamphetamine has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Good news for budget-minded travelers: There's no proof that flying economy-class increases your chances of dangerous blood clots, according to new guidelines from medical specialists.

A high-ranking official resigned Tuesday from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer charity after a dispute over whether the group should give funding to Planned Parenthood, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

A Missouri teenager who admitted stabbing, strangling and slitting the throat of a young neighbor girl wrote in her journal on the night of the killing that it was an "ahmazing" and "pretty enjoyable" experience - then headed off to church with a laugh.

After five years of legislative struggling, 23 stopgap measures and a two-week shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, Congress finally has passed a bill aimed at prodding the nation's aviation system into a new high-tech era in which satellites are central to air traffic control and piloted planes share the skies with unmanned drones.

Republican presidential challenger Rick Santorum is hoping that his weeks of criticism of GOP front-runner Mitt Romney will pay off Tuesday when Colorado and Minnesota hold nominating caucuses. Romney, in turn, is looking to continue his winning streak after back-to-back victories in Florida and Nevada last week.

President Barack Obama is urging his top fundraisers to support a Democratic super political action committee which can spend unlimited amounts of cash to influence elections.

The faculty at Miramonte Elementary School will be removed following allegations of child sex abuse against two teachers, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy said Monday night at a meeting with parents.

The U.S. closed its embassy in Syria and Britain recalled its ambassador to Damascus on Monday in a new Western push to get President Bashar Assad to leave power and halt the murderous grind in Syria - now among the deadliest conflicts of the Arab Spring.

Iranian authorities have arrested several people over alleged links to the British Broadcasting Corporation's Farsi-language service, Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency reported Monday.

A federal judge for the first time in U.S. history heard arguments Monday in a case that could determine whether animals enjoy the same constitutional protection against slavery as human beings.

The children of missing woman Susan Cox Powell have said for years that "Mommy's in the mine," an attorney representing the Cox family said on Monday. The attorney also said Charlie Powell drew a disturbing picture as a part of a school assignment several months ago.

The person killed in a propane gas explosion outside a remote Northern California training base was the wife of a U.S. Marine, and the two people seriously injured were a Navy corpsman and his wife, military officials said on Saturday.