By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles has earned the dubious distinction for the second year in a row as the U.S. city with the most dog attacks on mail carriers, the U.S. Postal Service said. California's biggest city accounted for 69 such attacks in fiscal 2012, which ended in September, compared with 42 attacks each in Seattle, Washington, and San Antonio, Texas, which tied for second place. Chicago ranked third with 41 attacks. The Postal Service said there were 5,879 dog attacks on U.S. postal carriers in the United States that year. ...

CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio man was found guilty Thursday of fatally shooting a man who authorities say identified his assailant by blinking his eyes while paralyzed and hooked up to a ventilator.

PHOENIX (AP) — Jurors deciding the fate of convicted murderer Jodi Arias became visibly shaken by dramatic statements from the victim's family members as they described how their lives were ripped apart by the killing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Thursday the nation's military leaders told him they are "ashamed" of their failure to end sexual abuse in the armed services. Obama pledged to "leave no stone unturned" in the effort to halt the abuse, which he said undermines the trust the military needs to be effective.

By Jeff Mason and Patrick Temple-West WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday chose a White House budget official to lead the beleaguered Internal Revenue Service and vowed to ensure that the tax-collection agency will not single out any more groups based on their political beliefs. Danny Werfel, who has been Obama's point man in overseeing the controversial "sequestration" budget cuts, will tackle the biggest scandal of Obama's presidency when he takes charge of the IRS on May 22. It could be a thankless job. ...

SEATTLE (AP) — It's one thing to legalize marijuana. It's another to figure out how to sell it, grow it, regulate it, test it and tax it.

By Tim Gaynor PHOENIX (Reuters) - Jurors weighing the death penalty for Jodi Arias, convicted of murdering her ex-boyfriend in Arizona, heard from his siblings on Thursday about how they had endured nightmares about his brutal death. Arias, 32, was found guilty last week of murdering Travis Alexander, whose body was found slumped in the shower of his Phoenix-area home five years ago. He had been stabbed 27 times, shot in the face and had his throat slashed. ...

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top general in the U.S. Armed Forces warned of a crisis of confidence in the growing ranks of women soldiers due to a rash of sexual assault cases that has prompted lawmakers to act. The warning by Army General Martin Dempsey came hours before President Barack Obama asked military leaders at a White House meeting to get the problem of sexual assaults under control. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — An American imprisoned in Cuba settled a lawsuit Thursday against the company he was working for when arrested, a lawsuit that claimed he wasn't properly warned about or prepared for the risks of working in the communist nation.

PHOENIX (AP) — Jurors deciding the fate of convicted murderer Jodi Arias were brought to tears Thursday, visibly shaken by dramatic statements from the victim's family members as they described how their lives were ripped apart by the killing.

By Richard Cowan and Rachelle Younglai WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Thursday they had reached a tentative deal to revamp the immigration system, after disputes over a temporary worker program and healthcare benefits threatened to derail their efforts. "We have essentially come to an agreement on all the major points," Democratic Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky told reporters after a two-hour meeting with six other Democratic and Republican lawmakers. ...