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BBC Mammoth Lakes becomes second bankrupt Californian town The ski resort town of Mammoth Lakes has voted to become the second California local government to file for bankruptcy. The town of 8,000 in the Sierra Nevada mountains is facing a bill of $43m (£28m) for a botched development...

BBC No evidence of mermaids, says US government There is no evidence that mermaids exist, a US government scientific agency has said. The National Ocean Service made the unusual declaration in response to public inquiries following a TV show on the mythical creatures. It is thought...

BBC GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is to pay $3bn (£1.9bn) in the largest healthcare fraud settlement in US history. The drug giant is to plead guilty to promoting two drugs for unapproved uses and failing to report safety data about a diabetes drug to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The...

BBC European plane manufacturer Airbus has confirmed plans for a $600m (£482m) factory in Alabama, marking its first assembly plant in the US. The plan will put it into direct competition with rival Boeing, which dominates commercial plane manufacturing in the US. The factory, which...

BBC Viewers may soon be able to watch films on soap bubbles - after researchers developed a technology to project images on a screen made of soap film. An international team produced a display that uses ultrasonic sound waves to alter film's properties and create either a flat or a 3D...

BBC Breaking News The US Supreme Court has upheld the individual mandate at the heart of President Obama's healthcare law as constitutional Live text BBC News - LIVE: US Supreme Court healthcare ruling

BBC A court in Germany has ruled that circumcising young boys for religious reasons amounts to bodily harm. In a decision that has caused outrage among Jewish and Muslim groups, the court said that a child's right to physical integrity trumps religious and parental rights. The case...

BBC Is there a law that FB has broken to purposely change a users email address without permission? BBC Facebook is facing a backlash from users after replacing email addresses listed in members' contacts with those provided by its @facebook.com system. The company said it had...

BBC Mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole for juvenile offenders violate the US constitution, the Supreme Court has ruled. The court on Monday threw out the life sentences of two men convicted as boys of murders in Arkansas and Alabama. In both cases, state law mandated...

BBC The US Supreme Court has upheld a key part of a tough Arizona immigration law that would give new powers to police to check the immigration status of people stopped and arrested. However, three of four challenges brought by the Obama administration were upheld by the court. The US...

BBC Saudi Arabia is to allow its women athletes to compete in the Olympics for the first time. A statement issued by the Saudi Embassy in London says the country's Olympic Committee will "oversee participation of women athletes who can qualify". The decision will end recent...

BBC The Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Mursi has been declared the winner of Egypt's presidential election run-off. He won 51.73% of the vote, beating former PM Ahmed Shafiq, the Higher Presidential Election Commission said. The head of the panel of judges, Farouq Sultan, said it had...

Discovery News U.S. Navy warships and aircraft failed to find Amelia Earhart when the pioneering female aviator vanished in the South Pacific during her second attempt to fly around the world in 1937. This summer, aviation archaeologists have enlisted the help of underwater robots to find the...

BBC Former US college football coach Jerry Sandusky has been found guilty of 45 out of 48 counts of child sex abuse. The jury reached its verdict at the end of its second day of deliberations. Sandusky, 68, denied 48 counts of abusing 10 boys over 15 years. A full guilty verdict could...

BBC A Muslim who admitted posting internet threats against the creators of the South Park TV show has been sentenced to 11 years and six months in prison. Jesse Curtis Morton, 33, who founded the now-offline Revolution Muslim website, had already admitted using it for al-Qaeda propaganda...

BBC An Arizona man is in intensive care after a 16ft (5m) saguaro cactus toppled and crushed him. The Yuma city worker was responding to an emergency water leak when he was struck by the spiny plant falling from a nearby property. William Mason's colleagues were able to free him and...

BBC A school bus monitor verbally abused by New York students has seen an internet campaign to send her on holiday raise $225,000 (£144,000). A video of the taunting has gone viral with more than 1.5 million views. Karen Klein, 68, says she does not want those involved charged, but...

BBC Victims of forced sterilisation in the US state of North Carolina will not get compensation, after a payout plan failed in the state Senate. A plan to give $50,000 (£31,800) to each victim passed the House but was rejected in the Senate. Republicans said the state did not have the funds...

BBC A US father who found his five-year-old daughter being raped, then beat the alleged attacker to death will not be charged, prosecutors have said. The 23-year-old man told police he found the girl being assaulted on Saturday 9 June by Jesus Mora Flores in a rural part of southern Texas...

BBC China warns its rare earth reserves are declining China has warned that the decline in its rare earth reserves in major mining areas is "accelerating", as most of the original resources are depleted. In a policy paper, China's cabinet blamed excessive exploitation and illegal...