Academy Award hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco are unlikely to be seeking tips from Ricky Gervais.The British comedian was brash, profane and cruelly funny at Sunday's Golden Globes, delivering his trademark humor as promised for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in his second go-round as host of the ceremony that has "butt-talking" appearances by Jim Carrey and Jack Nicholson in its his...

Duke Energy Corp. is buying Progress Energy Inc. for more than $13 billion in stock in a deal that would create one of the nation's largest utilities.The transaction announced Monday by the two North Carolina companies would create a business with about 7.1 million electric customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.It would also have a sizable nuclear energy ...

While some consumers braved a rare Columbia snow Sunday to use gift cards and exchange unwanted gifts, Midlands’ retailers are expecting heavier sales throughout the rest of this week because many shoppers opted to stay home on the day after Christmas – typically a busy day for stores.“We were pretty busy, but it wasn’t busy like a normal day after Christmas because of ...

Some consumers braved a rare December snow in Columbia to make use of gift cards and exchange unwanted gifts Sunday.However, Midlands’ retailers are expecting heavier sales this week as many opted to stay home on what is typically a busy day for stores."We were pretty busy, but it wasn’t busy like a normal day after Christmas because of the weather," said Tom Dornfeld, general manager of...

Few U.S. diplomats had the breadth, depth or length of service of Richard Holbrooke, who wrote part of the Pentagon Papers, was the architect of the 1995 Bosnia peace accords and served as President Barack Obama's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan.Holbrooke's unexpected death Monday at 69, following surgery for a tear in his aorta, marked the end of a storied career. He served through defi...

More than 500 illegal immigrants have been flagged for deportation in Charleston County after detention officers began screening inmates as part of a federal program.The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Sunday that specially trained detention officers can use Department of Homeland Security computers to screen foreign-born offenders charged with state crimes.Jail administrator Chief Deputy ...

The White House on Sunday expressed confidence that Congress will pass the tax-cut compromise negotiated by President Barack Obama and Republican leaders, even as Democratic lawmakers continued to say the president gave in too easily. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said he wished the president would play hardball with Republicans right up to News Year's Eve, the day the Bush-era tax cuts expire, in...

In a disclosure of some of the most sensitive information yet revealed by WikiLeaks, the website has put out a secret cable listing sites worldwide that the U.S. considers critical to its national security. U.S. officials said the leak amounts to giving a hit list to terrorists.Among the locations cited in the diplomatic cable from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are undersea communicati...

Hundreds of thousands of State Department documents leaked Sunday revealed a hidden world of backstage international diplomacy, divulging candid comments from world leaders and detailing occasional U.S. pressure tactics aimed at hot spots in Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea.The classified diplomatic cables released by online whistle-blower WikiLeaks and reported on by news organizations in the Un...

General Motors is returning to life as a public company Thursday with a stock offering worth potentially $23 billion, ending the government's role as majority shareholder and closing a remarkable chapter in American corporate history.The U.S. government should make about $13.6 billion when GM shares start trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The federal Treasury is unloading more than 400 milli...

Court documents say a Charleston pastor ran a financial scam out of his church for several years.The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Tuesday a federal judge has frozen what remains of $3.3 million that investigators say the Rev. Ronald Satterfield used in a foreign currency investment scam.Satterfield is rector at St. John's Reformed Episcopal Church.Court documents filed in U.S. District ...

LOS ANGELES - Dino De Laurentiis, the flamboyant Italian movie producer who helped resurrect his country's film industry after World War II and for more than six decades produced films as diverse as the 1954 Federico Fellini classic "La Strada" and the 1976 remake of "King Kong," has died. He was 91. De Laurentiis, who moved to the United States in the 1970s, died in Los Angeles, Italian media...

GREENVILLE - A former teacher and girls’ basketball coach in Greenville has been put on probation after pleading guilty to assaulting three of his students.The Greenville News reported that 27-year-old Jeremy Michael Spencer pleaded guilty Monday to three counts of aggravated assault and battery in exchange for prosecutors dropping a criminal sexual conduct charge.The former J.L. Mann High Sc...

An ex-sheriff was convicted Tuesday of more than 30 drug conspiracy and racketeering charges in what prosecutors said was a wide-ranging corruption case in a small South Carolina county.A federal jury of eight men and four women deliberated 15 hours over two days before deciding that E.J. Melvin conspired to extort money from drug dealers in exchange for protection from investigation. Prosecutors ...

A former teacher and girls' basketball coach in Greenville has been put on probation after pleading guilty to assaulting three of his students.The Greenville News reported that 27-year-old Jeremy Michael Spencer pleaded guilty Monday to three counts of aggravated assault and battery in exchange for prosecutors dropping a criminal sexual conduct charge.The former J.L. Mann High School teacher agree...

Jurors are scheduled to begin their second day of deliberations over the fate of a former Lee County sheriff facing dozens of federal charges including drug conspiracy and racketeering.Jurors were told to return Tuesday to discuss the fate of E.J. Melvin after deliberating for more than eight hours Monday.Melvin resigned in May after he and 11 others were charged with conspiring to deal drugs. Dur...

Jurors are to begin deliberating the fate of a former Lee County sheriff facing dozens of federal charges, including drug conspiracy and racketeering.Defense attorney Jack Swerling is giving his closing argument Friday for the trial of E.J. Melvin.Melvin resigned in May after he and 11 others were charged with conspiring to deal drugs in Lee County.Many of his co-defendants have pleaded guilty and...

Prosecutors began laying out their drug conspiracy and racketeering case against former Lee County Sheriff E.J. Melvin on Monday, telling jurors the lawman began abusing his power as soon as he was sworn in as sheriff, soliciting bribes from drug dealers and extorting businesses for kickbacks."You are going to get a glimpse into a world that existed for a very long time in Lee County," Assistant U...

The next leader of North Korea from the only ruling family the isolated nation has ever known made his public debut Sunday, clapping and smiling as tanks and long-range missiles rolled past in what was said to be the largest military parade staged by the communist state.Two weeks after he was made a four-star general and set on the path to succession, Kim Jong Un sat next to his father, current No...

Secret talks aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan have begun between representatives of the Taliban and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, The Washington Post reported on its website Tuesday night.Afghan and Arab sources cited by the Post said they believe for the first time that Taliban representatives are fully authorized to speak for the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban organiza...

Residents of a neighborhood have sued Rock Hill to prevent the city from halting water service to their area.The Herald of Rock Hill reported that residents in the Miller Pond neighborhood sued the city Thursday to preserve their water service.The city had said it would cut off utility service to the neighborhood Monday unless residents agreed to be annexed into the city.Rock Hill officials say th...

Rock Hill plans to shut off water for more than 100 homes unless homeowners agree to be annexed.The Herald of Rock Hill reports the city plans to start turning off water Monday in the Miller Pond neighborhood.The city gave residents until Wednesday to sign an annexation petition. Only 20 of the 121 property owners agreed. South Carolina law requires 75 percent to agree for annexation to proceed.Ro...

Sentencing has been scheduled for a former sheriff in a South Carolina county reeling from scandal.U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles said Wednesday a Sept. 21 sentencing hearing has been scheduled in Spartanburg for former Union County Sheriff Howard Wells.Wells pleaded guilty in January to lying to agents about money he loaned in exchange for interest he didn't report as taxable income. He faces up to f...

Edwin Newman, who brought literacy, wit and energy to NBC newscasts for more than three decades, and battled linguistic pretense and clutter in his best sellers "Strictly Speaking" and "A Civil Tongue," has died. He was 91.NBC News did not immediately say Wednesday where or when Newman had died, or the cause of death.At NBC from 1952 until his retirement in 1984, Newman did political reporting, fo...

Six people will be inducted into the Richland 1 Hall of Fame, which recognizes alumni and others who have made significant contributions to the district, their professions and community.The six, announced this morning, are:Donald Ralph “Don” Belt Jr., a 1968 graduate of A.C. Flora High who is senior editor and chief foreign affairs correspondent for National Geographic magazine;Retired...

Lexington County authorities arrested a Batesburg-Leesville bondsman on the unusual charge of forced labor after he was accused of making a woman do sexual favors and work for him in exchange for bail.Sheriff's deputies arrested Curtis Jackson Maroney, 51, of Sandpit Road, Monday afternoon on charges of blackmail and trafficking in persons for forced labor or services, the sheriff's department sai...

The world ramped up assistance to flood-ravaged Pakistan on Thursday three weeks after the crisis began, and U.S. Sen. John Kerry said Washington did not want Islamist extremists to come out of the disaster stronger.The U.S., Germany and Saudi Arabia all announced new pledges of aid, while Japan said it would send helicopters to help distribute food, water and medicine. The Asian Development Bank ...

Visitors to South Carolina's coast during the summer are as likely to be waited on by a college student from Taiwan or Eastern Europe as they are a local teen, The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reported Sunday.Hundreds of foreign workers every year find summer work along the state's Grand Strand, despite a statewide jobless rate of 10 percent. But Sheryl Kline of the University of South Carolina's Scho...

Hundreds of people with eligible arrest warrants were cleared from the Richland County justice system through the Sheriff's Department's "Operation Fresh Start" program that wrapped up last week.The program allowed anyone with outstanding traffic or magistrate level warrants to appear before a judge between July 21 and 23 to have their outstanding warrants adjudicated. Outcomes included paying res...

Veteran reporter and commentator Daniel Schorr, whose hard-hitting reporting for CBS got him on President Richard Nixon's notorious "enemies list" in the 1970s, has died. He was 93.Schorr died Friday at a Washington hospital after a brief illness, said Anna Christopher, a spokeswoman for National Public Radio, where Schorr continued to work as a senior news analyst and commentator.Schorr's career ...