States cannot ban the sale or rental of ultraviolent video games to children, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, rejecting such limits as a violation of young people's First Amendment rights and leaving it up to parents and the multibillion-dollar gaming industry to decide what kids can buy.

The high court, on a 7-2 vote, threw out California's 2005 law covering games sold or rented to those under 18, calling it an unconstitutional violation of free-speech rights. Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia, said, "Even where the protection of children is the object, the constitutional limits on governmental action apply."

Check into the hospital and you may get a blood transfusion you didn't really need.

There's a lot of variation around the country in how quick doctors are to order up a few pints — not in cases of trauma or hemorrhage where infusing blood fast can be life-saving, but for a range of other reasons.

The Obama administration has placed the Lebanese government on a blacklist for not fully complying with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking and not making significant efforts to do so.

In its annual Trafficking in Persons report, the State Department identified 23 nations as failing to meet minimum international standards to curb the scourge, which claims mainly women and children as victims. That's up from 13 in 2010.

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel won his sixth race of the season at the European Grand Prix on Sunday to further strengthen his already commanding Formula One championship lead.

Vettel beat Fernando Alonso of Ferrari by 10.891 seconds for his second straight victory along Valencia's street circuit. It was the German's fifth win this season starting in pole and came in stifling 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit) heat.

Yoda's short tufts of hair, protruding tongue, and long, seemingly hairless legs were enough to earn it the World's Ugliest Dog title at a Northern California fair.

The 14-year-old Chinese crested and Chihuahua mix won the honor Friday night at the 23rd annual contest at the Sonoma Marin Fair.

The Vatican, whose communications problems are no secret, is taking a leap into the world of new media next week with the launch of a news information portal that Pope Benedict XVI himself may put online with a papal click.

Vatican officials said Saturday that Benedict has been following the development of the portal, which will for the first time aggregate information from the Vatican's various print, online, radio and television media in a one-stop-shop for Holy See news.

A yearlong experiment with the nation's electric grid could mess up traffic lights, security systems and some computers — and make plug-in clocks and appliances like programmable coffeemakers run up to 20 minutes fast.

"A lot of people are going to have things break and they're not going to know why," said Demetrios Matsakis, head of the time service department at the U.S. Naval Observatory, one of two official timekeeping agencies in the federal government.

NASA says a newly discovered asteroid will have a close encounter with Earth on Monday, but there's no need to worry.

The space agency's Near-Earth Object Program Office says the small space rock — dubbed 2011 MD — will pass 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers) above Earth's surface over the southern Atlantic Ocean at about 6:30 a.m. PDT (1330 GMT).

Same-sex marriage is now legal in New York after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that was narrowly passed by state lawmakers Friday, handing activists a breakthrough victory in the state where the American gay rights movement was born.

New York becomes the sixth state where gay couples can wed and the biggest by far.

With the help of an audacious between-the-legs trick shot, Andy Murray will head into the second week of Wimbledon again carrying the hopes of a nation for a first homegrown men's champion in 75 years.

The fourth-seeded Murray advanced to the fourth round by defeating Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4) in a match that ended at nearly 10 p.m. Friday under the roof on Center Court.