Lipitor, the best-selling drug in the history of pharmaceuticals, is the blockbuster that almost wasn't.

When it was in development, the cholesterol-lowering medicine was viewed as such an also-ran it almost didn't make it into patient testing.

A hard-line Israeli group said Tuesday it was launching plans for a new tourist center at the site of a politically sensitive archaeological dig in a largely Arab neighborhood outside Jerusalem's Old City, drawing fire from Palestinian officials.

The project's sponsor, the Elad Foundation, said the new visitors center and parking garage will be built above a section of the excavation area known as the City of David, leaving the ruins below accessible. The foundation said no additional land beyond the current excavation site would be used and that construction, which must pass several zoning committees, was still several years away.

Forrest Gump's oft-imitated line, "My momma always said, 'Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get' " will be immortalized among the nation's treasures in the world's largest archive of film, TV and sound recordings.

The Library of Congress on Wednesday announced that 1994's smash hit "Forrest Gump" starring Tom Hanks was one of 25 films chosen to be included this year in the National Film Registry.

After finishing three games in roughly 56 hours with their best effort yet, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers demonstrated why their demise might not be as imminent as many thought.

Bryant scored 26 points, Pau Gasol added 22 points and nine rebounds, and the Lakers avoided just the fourth 0-3 start in franchise history with a 96-71 victory over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night.

Van Halen will tour in 2012.

The rock band has posted a video on its website announcing that the first tickets will go on sale Jan. 10.

A giant saltwater crocodile named Elvis with an apparent affinity for household machinery charged at an Australian reptile park worker Wednesday before stealing his lawn mower.

Tim Faulkner, operations manager at the Australian Reptile Park, north of Sydney, was one of three workers tending to the lawn in Elvis' enclosure when he heard reptile keeper Billy Collett let out a yelp. Faulkner looked up to see the 16-foot (5-meter), 1,100-pound (500-kilogram) crocodile lunging out of its lagoon at Collett, who warded the creature off with his mower.

A Florida animal sanctuary says Cheetah the chimpanzee from the Tarzan movies of the early 1930s has died at age 80.

The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor announced that Cheetah died Dec. 24 of kidney failure.

Helen Frankenthaler, an abstract painter known for her bold, lyrical use of color who led a postwar art movement that would later be termed Color Field painting, died Tuesday at her home in Connecticut, her nephew said. She was 83.

One of Frankenthaler's most famous works is "Mountains and Sea," a 1952 painting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., which she created by pouring thinned paint directly onto raw, unprimed canvas laid on the studio floor.

Mildewed feed given to cows caused the high levels of a cancer-causing toxin found in milk from China's biggest dairy company and a smaller one, according to a government safety agency investigating the troubled dairy industry's latest scandal.

An expert review identified the mildewed feed as the cause of the excessive levels of aflatoxin in milk from industry giant Mengniu Dairy Group and the Fujian Changfu Dairy Industry Group, the quality supervision and inspection agency said in a statement posted on its website late Monday.

Drug companies are working to develop a pure, more powerful version of a highly abused medicine, which has addiction experts worried that it could spur a new wave of abuse.

The new pills contain the highly addictive painkiller hydrocodone, packing up to 10 times the amount of the drug as existing medications such as Vicodin. Four companies have begun patient testing, and one of them — Zogenix of San Diego — plans to apply early next year to begin marketing its product, Zohydro.