Preliminary data indicates Black Friday sales got off to a roaring start this year, with consumers shopping earlier and online sales increasing significantly over last year. Retailers across the board reported strong crowds early Friday, with high-definition televisions, laptops, winter coats and the popular toy Zhu-Zhu pets among the hottest items. "There were bargain-hungry shoppers out there, and retailers really did pull out all the stops for people," says Kathy Grannis, a spokesperson for the National Retail Federation, ...

A 22-year-old woman whose claims that she was abused in a trailer in rural West Virginia in 2007 helped send six people to prison now says she made up the story, her lawyer said Wednesday. "She is recanting her entire story," attorney Byron Potts told reporters in Columbus, Ohio, about his client, Megan Williams, who moved there after the incident. "She says it did not happen. She fabricated it." He added, "She wanted to get back at her boyfriend. She ...

You can understand why some NFL players are disinclined to work for Rush Limbaugh, should he become a co-owner of the St. Louis Rams. The conservative yakmonster has openly wished for the nation's first black president to fail—which won't endear him to a league dominated by black athletes who probably don't share that sentiment about President Obama. Nor does the country that elected him. And as a commentator for ESPN in 2003, Limbaugh made a racist remark that quickly ...

Movie star and singer Harry Connick Jr. made waves around the world by condemning, on air, an Australian television skit featuring a group of performers who wore blackface to impersonate the late pop star Michael Jackson and his brothers. The "Jackson Jive" performed the song "Can You Feel It" Wednesday wearing huge black wigs, blackface and one spangled glove each. The Michael Jackson impersonator wore whiteface. Connick was one of the judges on the program, a special ...

A 37-year-old Pennsylvania woman died Sunday after being mauled by her pet black bear, authorities said.

After a heady week on a high-stakes world stage, President Obama returned to America's messiest political mosh pit -- the health care debate. Speaking before the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's annual dinner on Saturday night, Obama prescribed the same contentious policy pill he's embraced since taking office: health care reform and his intention to "get it done this year." "We must bring about a better health care system in this country not in ten years, not in five years, not ...

Rielle Hunter, the woman at the center of the John Edwards sex scandal, has been known variously as a spiritual seeker, an aspiring actress, a party girl and a political operative, according to media reports. Last year, after months of denials, Edwards admitted having an affair with Hunter while he was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2006. Edwards' campaign paid Hunter $114,000 to make a series of short webisode videos about his presidential campaign, and she ...

Was it a suicide or an accident? Authorities investigating the death of DJ AM have found that he had eight undigested OxyContin pills in his stomach and a ninth in his mouth, a law enforcement source told PEOPLE. The finding suggests that DJ AM -- real name Adam Goldstein -- swallowed the powerful painkillers quickly. "He wanted to die," said the source, who said the suicide theory is supported by the pills and other evidence. "He was going unconscious when ...

Nokia has pledged to strike back at Apple and produce mobile phones that will compete effectively with the U.S. technology company's iPhone. Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chief executive of Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, said that it was aiming to be "even more competitive" following criticism that it had failed to come up with a handset to match the iPhone. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Kallasvuo also insisted that Nokia would succeed with its strategy of transforming ...

Brad Pitt gets top billing in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," but Austrian actor Christoph Waltz may have turned in the most memorable performance as a Nazi "Jew Hunter." Waltz, a 52-year-old veteran of German television, was hardly known outside of Europe, until now. Tarantino, insisting on actors with geographic origins similar to their characters, chose Waltz to play a complex and unforgettable villain: Nazi Col. Hans Landa. Landa mixes charm, humor and intelligence with great cruelty and opportunism ...