Drug overdose deaths up for 11th consecutive year

CHICAGO (AP) — Drug overdose deaths rose for the 11th straight year, federal data show, and most of them were accidents involving addictive painkillers despite growing attention to risks from these medicines."The big picture is that this is a big problem that has gotten much worse quickly," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which gathered and analyzed...

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Appeals court revives women inmates' bid for Wiccan chaplain

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For His Second Act, Japanese Premier Plays It Safe, With Early Results

Toru Hanai/ReutersPrime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose policies have sent the Tokyo stock market up, will visit Washington this week. TOKYO — Since taking office less than two months ago, Japan’s outspokenly hawkish new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has been in what some political analysts are calling “safe driving mode.” He has carefully avoided saying or doing anything to provoke other Asian nations,...

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Mindy McCready: Under Police Scrutiny at Time of Suicide?

By Steve Helling and Mike Fleeman 02/18/2013 at 06:00 PM EST Mindy McCready and David Wilson Courtesy Mindy McCready When Mindy McCready talked to police in recent weeks, her account of how her boyfriend came to be found with a fatal gunshot wound to the head...

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Hip implants a bit more likely to fail in women

CHICAGO (AP) — Hip replacements are slightly more likely to fail in women than in men, according to one of the largest studies of its kind in U.S. patients. The risk of the implants failing is low, but women were 29 percent more likely than men to need a repeat surgery within the first three years.The message for women considering hip replacement surgery remains unclear. It's not known which models...

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Attorney killed wife on Italian cruise for her money, police say

A former Orange County attorney allegedly killed his ex-wife for financial gain in 2006 by strangling her and throwing her overboard while on a cruise along the Italian coast, authorities said.Lonnie Kocontes, 55, a former Mission Viejo resident, was arrested Friday at his home in Safety Harbor, Fla., in connection with the death of his former wife, Micki Kanesaki, 52, of Ladera Ranch, authorities...

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Netanyahu Defends Israel’s Handling of Prisoner X Case

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended his government’s handling of an Australian-Israeli who was held under a pseudonym for months in a maximum-security prison until he committed suicide in 2010, suggesting that the threats his country faces justify the extraordinary measures and the secrecy shrouding the case. “We are not like other countries,” Mr. Netanyahu told...

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See The Dress Only Jennifer Lopez Could Wear

Stylewatch Style News Now 02/15/2013 at 06:00 PM ET Dave Allocca/Startraks; Amanda Edwards/WireImage; Jason LaVeris/FilmMagicJudging by the red carpet looks seen at the Grammys and the creations sent down the runways at New York...

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UN warns risk of hepatitis E in S. Sudan grows

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations says an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says the influx of people to the camps from neighboring Sudan is believed to be one of the factors in the rapid spread of the contagious, life-threatening inflammatory viral disease of the liver.Edwards...

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Christopher Dorner supporters organize on Facebook

Several days after Christopher Dorner's death ended his standoff with authorities, some sympathizers have been expressing support for him online and on the street.Dorner -- accused of the slayings of four people -- has gained some supporters on the Web who have read his alleged manifesto and believe its claims that he was unfairly fired by the Los Angeles Police Department and was a victim...

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