Ken Stanford

The police killings of unarmed blacks in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere - and the investigations and tumultuous protests they inspired - was the top news story of 2014, according to The Associated Press' annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors.

BMW has agreed to demands from the government to replace driver's-side air bags across the entire U.S.

North Korea experienced sweeping and progressively worse Internet outages extending into Monday, with one computer expert saying the country's online access is "totally down." The White House and the State Department declined to say whether the U.S. government was responsible.

Cuba says it has a right to grant asylum to U.S. fugitives, the clearest signal yet that the communist government has no intention of extraditing America's most-wanted woman despite the warming relations.

Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery held a contest to name the newest bronze addition in the Noah's Ark section at Memorial Park Cemetery, a 900-pound gorilla.

Fewer Americans bought homes in November as buying slid to its slowest pace in six months.

Regions Bank will close its Mundy Mill/McEver Rd. branch in West Hall next spring.

Big-city police departments and union leaders around the country are warning the rank and file to wear bulletproof vests and avoid making inflammatory posts on social media in the days after a man ambushed two officers and shot them to death inside their patrol car.

An Arizona sheriff and his attorney want to halt President Barack Obama's immigration order in the first courtroom battle over an initiative designed to spare nearly 5 million people from deportation.

As the U.S. and Cuba begin to normalize relations for the first time in half a century, some Americans are already roaming the streets of Old Havana, attending dance exhibitions and talks on architecture as they take part in scripted cultural tours that can cost more than a decent used car back home.