Renee Montagne gets an update from freelance radio reporter Jean-Jacques Cornish on the pre-trial hearings for South African Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius. He is charged with murdering his supermodel girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp for a burglar.

Janet Sims-Wood, 67, is like millions of other seniors still working in order to make ends meet. For the part-time librarian, the recession put a huge dent in her savings, so she expects she'll have to work as long as her health allows.

A group of nurses is competing for $10,000 in a weight-loss contest. A New York man motivated himself by pledging to donate to a cause he hated. Both approaches use money to reach a target weight. But which is better — the carrot or the stick?

Following the lead of cities like San Francisco and Washington, D.C., New York wants to permit passengers to use smartphone apps to find a yellow cab. But the prospect of change has prompted a lawsuit from private car services, whose passengers already use smartphones to hail drivers.

Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri returned to his home country late last year, after spending eight years in Canada. The cleric, who draws huge crowds to his rallies, says he wants to enlighten people about their democratic rights. His critics call him a demagogue, who's more interested in the limelight.

We often put athletes on a pedestal. But after the latest accusations of bad behavior — accusations that include a murder charge against Oscar Pistorius — it may be time to lower that pedestal several notches, says Frank Deford.

Hospitals are partnering with pharmacies to keep discharged patients from returning too soon. Walgreens, for one, is helping hospitals to manage patients' medications after they go home.

President Obama spoke Tuesday about the impacts of deep spending cuts scheduled to take effect March 1. With a group of first responders in uniform standing behind him in the White House, he said if Congress doesn't stop the cuts, responders won't be able to help communities respond to disasters.

The couple thought they'd hit the jackpot when they found out they were expecting twins. Then they heard four heartbeats. About 1 in 800,000 births are quadruplets. But two sets of identical twins — what are the odds? About 70 million to 1.

The hackers changed Burger King's bio, saying the company was sold to rival McDonalds because the Whopper had flopped. McDonalds tweeted "Not Us!" The hackers, however, brought Burger King 30,000 new followers.

Overhauling immigration is complicated and controversial. There's been a proposed increase in H-1B visas. Those are the visas that allow companies to bring in skilled foreign workers for jobs that can't be filled by Americans.

The African nation of Mali has long claimed it gave birth to the blues. Renee Montagne reports that the country's musical tradition was threatened this past year when Islamist militants took over the deserts of northern Mali and banned music.

People have been downloading about 10 apps per month onto their devices. Great news for businesses, except research from the business consulting firm Nuance Enterprise shows that the vast majority of those apps are quickly forgotten about, especially those that are free.

The Internet is causing big changes to the hospitality business. Instead of sleeping in hotels, many travelers now spend the night in private homes, which they find through websites such as Airbnb. But there's a catch.

India has dispatched investigators to Italy to examine allegations of kickbacks involving a $700 million defense deal. The case involves the sale of a dozen helicopters to India from one of Italy's largest industrial groups, Finmeccanica.

Quentin Tarantino's slavery revenge story Django Unchained, has been nominated for a number of Oscars. The spaghetti western is up for best picture, original screenplay and actor Christoph Waltz has been nominated for his supporting role in the film. The state of Mississippi plays a supporting role too, but Mississippians are tired of being typecast.

Cyberattacks on dozens of American companies appear to have originated in an area of Shanghai that houses a Chinese military unit, according to a report out Tuesday from the U.S. cybersecurity company Mandiant. The company says the group behind the attacks is the most prolific it's ever found.

As the Italian elections near, disgraced former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his coalition have surged to second place. Many are curious as to how he was able to resurrect himself.

Academics have long believed that parenting is a driver of unhappiness, based in part on a 2004 study by Nobel prize-winning economist Danny Kahneman. But a new study disagrees with that theory.

Unless Congress and the president can agree on an alternative, in less than two weeks the government will be facing across-the-board cuts in everything from defense to domestic spending. Linda Wertheimer talks to David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, about the impact of the impending spending cuts known as the sequester.