Posted: 7:59 AM The election of a new pope could help heal the wounds left by a Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis that has savaged the church's reputation worldwide.

Posted: 7:56 AM It's been eight years since Maryland executed a convicted killer, but that could be the last time if the General Assembly gives final passage this week to a bill to abolish capital punishment.

Posted: 7:48 AM For the second time this week, Carnival Cruise Lines says one of its ships has experienced problems during a cruise.

Posted: 7:46 AM Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio says he now supports gay marriage because one of his sons is gay.

Posted: 7:40 AM A New Jersey bakery has closed after federal officials found sugar in sugar-free items and fat content well above what was on the labels.

Updated: 12:17 AM Samsung Electronics is kicking up its competition with Apple with its new Galaxy S 4 smartphone, which has a larger, sharper screen than its predecessor, the best-selling S III.

Posted: 11:01 PM Senate Democrats have pushed a budget through committee that calls for roughly $1 trillion in new tax revenues over the coming decade and increases spending slightly over current projections.

Updated: 8:27 AM A 75-year-old Michigan woman who fatally shot her teenage grandson is returning to the witness stand for more testimony in her first-degree murder trial.

Posted: 8:21 AM Authorities in upstate New York say the suspected gunman in a rampage at a car wash and a barbershop that left four people dead has been killed by police in a shootout.

Updated: 5:28 PM White smoke appeared out of the Sistine Chapel in Rome meaning the Conclave has chosen the next Pope.

Posted: 8:16 AM Ammunition limits and expanded gun background checks are nearing passage in Colorado.

Posted: 8:12 AM President Barack Obama is rejecting the notion that an American pope would be too closely aligned with the U.S. government.

Posted: 7:02 AM Cardinals celebrate a final Mass before they sequester themselves in the Sistine Chapel for the conclave to elect the next pope.

Posted: 8:18 AM Investigators are focusing on speeding as a key factor in the crash of a sport utility vehicle carrying eight teenagers, six of them killed when it slammed into a guardrail and flipped over into a swampy pond.

Posted: 7:33 AM President Barack Obama's former campaign chief and a political reporter will visit the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to talk about the 2012 presidential campaign.

Posted: 6:27 AM South Korea and the United States are staging annual military drills that North Korea says it will respond to by scrapping the armistice that ended the Korean War and launching a nuclear attack on the U.S.

Updated: 6:31 AM Nebraska Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry has helped write a bill that would let those with conscience and religious objections opt out of some requirements in the federal health care overhaul -- such as covering the cost of birth control.

Posted: 11:49 AM Cardinals set Tuesday as the start date for the conclave to elect the next pope.

Posted: 11:41 AM Chuck Hagel has arrived in Afghanistan in his first trip to the country as defense secretary.

Posted: 7:42 AM Federal statistics show that efforts to douse the largest of the nation's wildfires last year cost more than $580 million, and some fires burned for more than three months.

Posted: 8:22 AM Mitt Romney has a new position with his son's Boston-area venture capital firm.

Posted: 8:16 AM President Barack Obama's prospects for expanded background checks for gun sales seem shaky as the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares for Congress' first votes on curbing guns since December's horrific shootings at a Connecticut elementary school.

Posted: 8:12 AM A South Carolina man has been charged with taking about $19,000 in Girl Scout cookies from a Spartanburg warehouse.

Posted: 7:29 AM President Barack Obama will sign a law extending and expanding protections for victims of domestic violence.

Posted: 7:23 AM The founder of a California wild animal park says a worker killed by a lion was a female intern-volunteer.