Tropical Storm Barry headsforms off Mexican coast

VERACRUZ, Mexico — The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Barry is bearing down on Mexico's Gulf Coast, poised to make landfall within hours.

Attorneys meet to discuss Jodi Arias case

PHOENIX — Jodi Arias returns to court Thursday for the first time since the penalty phase of her case ended in mistrial last month as lawyers discuss plans for a new trial to decide the punishment for the convicted murderer.

Actor James Gandolfini dies in Italy at age 51

LOS ANGELES — James Gandolfini's lumbering, brutish mob boss with the tortured psyche will endure as one of TV's indelible characters.

Birth control shots could alter life in poor areas

LOS ANGELES — A decade ago, the Rosebud Sioux Indians in South Dakota were paying people to catch and shoot wild dogs. Dogs that weren't caught were covered in mange and parasites. Some froze. Some starved. In packs, they survived be eating each other. And dog bites were 20 times worse than the national average.

Bulger trial: The hit man of Country Club Lane

MILFORD, Mass. — He parks his silver Mercedes-Benz sedan behind his condo, below a deck decorated with white and pink flowers, where a couple of small dogs bark at the few passers-by.

Italy film fest dedicates homage to Gandolfini

ROME — Organizers of the Taormina, Sicily, Film Festival are scrambling to put together a tribute to U.S. actor James Gandolfini, who had been expected to attend the festival's closing ceremony this weekend.

AP EXCLUSIVE: Taliban offer to free US soldier

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Afghan Taliban are ready to free a U.S. army soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their senior operatives imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay as a conciliatory gesture, a senior spokesman for the group said Thursday.

Homes evacuated as wildfire flares near Denver

EVERGREEN, Colo. — Dozens of homes were evacuated near Denver as a wind-driven wildfire flared, one of many in the western states where hot and windy conditions were making it easy for the wild land blazes to start and spread.

Zimmerman jurors reveal personal details

SANFORD, Fla. — One potential juror at George Zimmerman's second-degree murder trial belongs to the National Rifle Association. Another says she was the victim of a violent crime that is constantly on her mind. A third is a competitive arm-wrestler.

Texas auction house to sell John Brown leg irons

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The leg irons that restrained abolitionist John Brown after his failed 1859 raid on a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry are being sold Saturday in Texas, but two historical parks dedicated to his legacy can't afford to bid on them