ALBUQUERQUE, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The major college bowl season begins Saturday with the playing of the first two of the 33 games that will lead to the crowning of a national champion.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- West Virginia assistant John "Doc" Holliday Friday was named the next head football coach at intrastate rival Marshall University.
VATICAN CITY, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- An Irish bishop has resigned after being criticized in a report saying the Irish Catholic Church covered up priests' sexual abuse of Dublin children.
MILW, Wis., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The Milwaukee School Board voted unanimously to allow condoms to be distributed at many city high schools.
GARY, Ind., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- An Indiana doctor accused of healthcare fraud and on the run for five years has been arrested in northern Italy, the FBI confirms.
DALLAS, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A member of the Dallas "Scarecrow Bandits" bank robbing gang was sentenced to almost 16 years in prison, authorities say.
LAS VEGAS, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Lawsuits against HMOs and insurance companies in Nevada charge they neglected to adequately inspect several Las Vegas clinics suspected in a hepatitis outbreak.
LONDON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Australian researchers watching octopuses manipulate halved coconut shells into shelter claim it is the first example of tool use by the cephalopods.
PORT ANGELES, Wash., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Police in Washington state surrounded an apartment building after a 911 call about a man brandishing a rifle, which turned out to be a realistic fake.
PITTSBURGH, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The Christmas and New Year holidays are the hardest time to be single, harder even than Valentine's Day, a poll of a U.S. Catholic online community says.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Christmas trees heading north to Alaska may be carrying an extra "ornament" -- frogs -- and fish and game officials say they bring a threat of disease.
SYDNEY, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Australian customs and border-protection authorities intercepted a ship carrying 55 asylum seekers off the country's northwest coast Friday, officials said.
MILWAUKEE, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A call to re-establish the natural barrier between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River to restrain non-native species is gaining ground, officials say.
MINSK, Belarus, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The question of independence for two former Georgian republics will not be considered by the Belarusian Parliament before the spring of 2010, officials said.
ROANOKE, Va., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A federal jury in Virginia Friday convicted neo-Nazi William A. White of threatening and trying to intimidate litigants in a housing discrimination lawsuit.
RIMROCK, Ariz., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Police in Arizona said they arrested a man who allegedly cut his girlfriend's finger with a sword while holding her and his mother hostage.
NASHUA, N.H., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Police in New Hampshire said they arrested a former auto dealership employee for allegedly tampering with the business' computer to alter prices.
NEW YORK, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- ABC says its U.S. evening news broadcast will be called "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer," starting Monday.
DETROIT, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Three Detroit-area men have pleaded guilty in a $4.2 million Medicare fraud scheme, federal prosecutors said Friday.
LONDON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Heavy snows produced travel chaos in Britain Friday, cutting power, forcing flight cancellations and stranding motorists, officials said.