Reuters - Louisiana has displaced Mississippi as the unhealthiest U.S. state and other Southern states were close rivals due to high obesity and smoking rates in new rankings that deemed Vermont the healthiest.

AP - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper shut down Parliament on Thursday in an unprecedented attempt to keep his government in power, fending off a no-confidence vote he was all but certain to lose.

AFP - A week-old baby girl who survived a high-risk emergency operation to separate her from her conjoined twin is now "very sick", a London hospital said Thursday.

AFP - Car bombers killed at least 15 people in a former rebel bastion on Thursday as Iraq's security pact with Washington won final approval before its launch at the end of the month.

E! Online - John Mayer has a reason to get a date (like he needs one). Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus have a shared reason to grouse. Jennifer Hudson has a reason to smile.

AP - Oil tumbled below $44 a barrel Thursday and average gasoline prices slipped under $1.80 a gallon, both four year lows, as unemployment benefit claims hit a 26-year high and major companies announced more job cuts.

AP - President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush have bought a home in an affluent, North Dallas neighborhood, where they will live after the president leaves office in January.

AP - U.S. automakers drew fresh skepticism from lawmakers Thursday in a rocky confrontation over their pleas for an expanded $34 billion rescue package they say they need to survive. Congressional analysts said one bailout plan under consideration would fall short of what the carmakers want.

AP - Retailers who suffered through a miserable November — despite a surge in sales the day after Thanksgiving — are worried that the usual lull between the holiday weekend and the final days before Christmas could be dangerously quiet this year.

AP - Israeli soldiers and police stormed a disputed building in the biblical city of Hebron on Thursday, dragging out 250 young settlers in a raid meant to send a warning to Jewish extremists fighting to keep what they see as God-promised land.

AP - Israeli soldiers and police stormed a disputed building in the biblical city of Hebron on Thursday, dragging out 250 young settlers in a raid meant to send a warning to Jewish extremists fighting to keep what they see as God-promised land.

AP - Suicide bombers killed 17 people — including two American soldiers — and wounded more than 100 in a string of blasts in two Iraqi cities Thursday as a timetable for withdrawing all U.S. troops won final government approval.

AP - Airports in India went on high alert Thursday following fresh attack warnings, and officials said India suspects two senior leaders of a banned Pakistani militant group orchestrated last week's deadly Mumbai attacks.

AP - If a solar-powered car can drive 32,000 miles (52,000 kilometers) around the globe without using a drop of oil, perhaps it can be forgiven for not having a coffee cup holder.

AP - Europe's top human rights court Thursday struck down a British law that allows the government to store DNA and fingerprints from people with no criminal record — a landmark decision that could force Britain to destroy nearly 1 million samples on its database.

AP - Israel on Thursday lifted a four-week ban on international journalists entering Gaza and temporarily eased a blockade on shipments of goods to the coastal strip.

AP - Mexico is sending illegal Cuban migrants home for the first time under a new accord aimed at cutting off an increasingly violent human-trafficking route to the United States, an official said Thursday.

AP - Zimbabwe declared a national emergency over a cholera epidemic and the collapse of its health care system, and state media reported Thursday the government is seeking more international help to pay for food and drugs to combat the crisis.

AFP - The Indian capital's international airport was the scene of a major security scare overnight Thursday but no incidents have been confirmed, a security official at the airport told AFP.

AP - Top Hollywood stars are going the indie route at next month's Sundance Film Festival, whose lineup features Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Winona Ryder, Richard Gere, Uma Thurman and Ashton Kutcher.

E! Online - Anne Hathaway is starting off award-season right.   

E! Online - Kathy Griffin really wants to be friends with Clay Aiken, but it doesn't sound like the American Idol warbler wants anything to do with her.

E! Online - Don't blame the Yankee.

AP - Top Hollywood stars are going the indie route at next month's Sundance Film Festival, whose lineup features Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Winona Ryder, Richard Gere, Uma Thurman and Ashton Kutcher.

AP - Since Proposition 8 passed in California, much of Hollywood has been up in arms. Now, they are singing and dancing, too, in a new Web video called "Prop 8: The Musical."

AP - CBS' Grammy nominations special wasn't a breakaway hit with viewers Wednesday night, but it didn't play off-key.

Reuters - Director Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" was named best film of 2008 by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures on Thursday in the first major award of the Oscar season.

Reuters - Author J.K. Rowling said on Thursday that it was demand from Harry Potter fans that prompted her to publish her latest work "The Tales of Beedle the Bard."

AP - If a solar-powered car can drive 32,000 miles (52,000 kilometers) around the globe without using a drop of oil, perhaps it can be forgiven for not having a coffee cup holder.

AP - Pressured by the economic turmoil and the mounting loss of traditional phone customers, AT&T Inc. is cutting 12,000 jobs, about 4 percent of its work force.

AP - In broadcasting the world's first live 3-D football game to theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Boston on Thursday evening, the NFL promises an "up close, personal, visceral" experience that could open a new revenue stream for the league.

Reuters - Sales of mobile phones are shrinking faster than expected as consumers are cutting spending, the world's top mobile phone maker Nokia said on Thursday in its second warning in three weeks.

AP - A conservation group is going to court to force the federal government to consider adding the Pacific walrus to the list of threatened species.

AP - More than 400 years after Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe challenged established wisdom about the heavens by analyzing a strange new light in the sky, scientists say they've finally nailed down just what he saw.

AP - What does a teenage brain on Google look like? Do all those hours spent online rewire the circuitry? Could these kids even relate better to emoticons than to real people? These sound like concerns from worried parents. But they're coming from brain scientists.

AP - A cold front packing showers stretched from New England to the Gulf of Mexico early Thursday, while the Rockies were snowy and much of the rest of the West woke to a clear day.

AFP - Technical glitches have forced US space agency NASA to delay the launch of a landmark mission to Mars, which was due to lift off in the autumn of next year, officials said Thursday.

AP - Kids can keep visiting Billy the elephant at the Los Angeles Zoo — for now.

LiveScience.com - A fossil of a toothless flying pterosaur, with a body bigger than some family cars, represents the largest of these extinct reptiles ever to be found and has forced the creation of a new genus, scientists announced today.

AFP - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has for the first time admitted that the fall in world oil prices will affect the economic projects of his government, local media reported on Thursday.