Contributions

When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A federal jury in the political corruption trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards deliberated for a second day Monday without reaching a verdict, as Edwards quietly awaited his fate inside a federal courthouse. The jury of eight men and four women requested seven prosecution exhibits. Among them were emails in 2006 and 2007 that discussed $725,000 provided to Edwards by wealthy heiress and supporter Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, now 101, during Edwards' campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination.

BEIJING - "Beijing power struggle heralds end of China Communist Party," screams one headline. More sensational headlines purport to reveal how the wife of recently sacked Politburo member Bo Xilai poisoned an Englishman, who may have been her lover. And if that weren't enough, other stories claim that "Bo planned airline crash" and "slept with more than 100 women. " It's payback time for Chinese exiles, especially those with a printing press, television station or just a computer at their disposal.

Nearly every time Andrew Bynum muscled his way inside, two barricades stopped his imposing presence. One roadblock came in the form of Thunder center Kendrick Perkins, whose physical approach to defense suddenly prevented Bynum from bullying his way to the basket. The other barrier simply reflected Bynum missing routine hooks, post-up shots or "bunnies," as he likes to call them. The Lakers' 99-96 victory Friday over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinal playoff series featured Bynum shooting only two of 13 from the field, leading him to say, "My touch today was a little off around the rim. " Yet, Lakers Coach Mike Brown gushed afterward that Bynum "was an absolute monster.

Hotel magnate Barron Hilton, grandfather of heiress Paris Hilton, has bequeathed 97% of his estimated $2.3-billion net worth to his father's charity foundation, officials said Wednesday. The contribution to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, to come from the sale of Hilton Hotels Corp. and the pending sale of Harrah's Entertainment Inc. after the money is placed in a trust, is the largest in the foundation's history and will bring its value to about $4.5 billion.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Both sides in the John Edwards trial gave detailed closing arguments Thursday to a federal jury that will decide whether the former presidential candidate knowingly violated campaign finance laws in a scheme to hide an extramarital affair. Prosecutors told jurors that testimony and evidence in the nearly four-week trial prove that Edwards solicited and orchestrated secret payments of $925,000 from two wealthy benefactors to save his campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination from scandal.

Nearly every time Andrew Bynum muscled his way inside, two barricades stopped his imposing presence. One roadblock came in the form of Thunder center Kendrick Perkins, whose physical approach to defense suddenly prevented Bynum from bullying his way to the basket. The other barrier simply reflected Bynum missing routine hooks, post-up shots or "bunnies," as he likes to call them. The Lakers' 99-96 victory Friday over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinal playoff series featured Bynum shooting only two of 13 from the field, leading him to say, "My touch today was a little off around the rim. " Yet, Lakers Coach Mike Brown gushed afterward that Bynum "was an absolute monster.

Every morning when UC San Diego physicist Herbert Levine laces up his running shoes and chugs alongside Mission Bay, his earphones crackle with radio ads opposing a proposed $1-per-pack cigarette tax to raise money for cancer research. The ads are funded by the tobacco industry. They call Proposition 29, the tobacco tax that state voters will consider on the June 5 ballot, a bureaucratic boondoggle, an initiative that would raise mountains of cash for research but not a penny for treatment.

For the Miami Central High marching band, the money that appeared for new uniforms, instruments and airline tickets to New York so that they could strut their stuff in last year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was nothing short of magic. "We were blessed," said band director Shelby Chipman after West African millionaire Foutanga Dit Babani Sissoko wrote out a check for $300,000 minutes after running into fund-raising band members playing dance tunes at a bar mitzvah in a downtown hotel.

After complaints from Los Angeles County assessor's office employees worried that their boss may have extended improper tax breaks to prominent campaign contributors, state Assemblyman Mike Gatto decided to introduce a bill to curb such practices. So he was shocked when Assessor John Noguez - whose alleged misdeeds inspired the proposed reform - beat him to the punch with a news release declaring his enthusiastic support for the bill, before it had been posted on the Legislature's website.

WASHINGTON -- The Romney campaign added two noteworthy names to the donor rolls this week: Ann and Mitt Romney. The couple donated a combined $150,000 this week to the Romney Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee established last month that collects cash for the Romney campaign, the Republican National Committee and several state political parties. The donation was first reported by CNN and was confirmed to the Tribune Washington Bureau/Los Angeles Times by a Romney aide.

The Angels lost Thursday because they couldn't see into a blinding sun and because pitcher C.J. Wilson couldn't seem to find home plate. The Chicago White Sox took advantage, using sun-caused misplays and six walks in less than four innings by under-the-weather Angels starter Wilson to earn a 6-1 victory at Angel Stadium. Wilson, battling a stomach virus he said nearly caused him to pass out in the first inning, fell behind, 1-0, in the third on a two-out walk to Paul Konerko and a run-scoring single to right field by A.J. Pierzynski.

The California Science Center has received what officials describe as an "extraordinary" financial contribution to the new Air and Space Center that will house the space shuttle Endeavour. The gift, to be announced at a news conference Thursday, comes from a foundation chaired by Lynda Oschin, wife of the late Los Angeles businessman and philanthropist Samuel Oschin, whose name already graces the Griffith Observatory planetarium and the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center cancer institute stemming from charitable contributions there.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - After weeks of riveting and often salacious testimony about an extramarital affair and the elaborate lies that once kept it hidden, testimony in the John Edwards trial turned Monday to a more prosaic topic: campaign finance law. As Edwards' legal team opened his defense, the finance director for his failed 2008 presidential run testified that more than $900,000 from two wealthy benefactors was not reported as campaign contributions...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — I've got your grit and grind here, Memphis, and they are wearing Clippers uniforms. The Grizzlies were supposed to be the better team, with fans holding up "Believe Memphis" towels and a newspaper columnist here detailing the intangibles early on that would separate Memphis from L.A. But while the columnist moves on now to write about the minor league baseball team here or the town's best bowlers, the Clippers have already...

After complaints from Los Angeles County assessor's office employees worried that their boss may have extended improper tax breaks to prominent campaign contributors, state Assemblyman Mike Gatto decided to introduce a bill to curb such practices. So he was shocked when Assessor John Noguez - whose alleged misdeeds inspired the proposed reform - beat him to the punch with a news release declaring his enthusiastic support for the bill, before it had been posted on the Legislature's website.

Formula One champion Michael Schumacher, who lost one of his bodyguards in the Asian tsunami last month, will donate $10 million to the victims of the Dec. 26 tidal waves that devastated Indian Ocean shorelines. "The dawning of the New Year has not been as joyful for us this year because of the catastrophe in Asia," the seven-time F1 champion said on his website. "It's so unfathomable and horrible, what happened to so many people. One cannot simply blind it out. We're suffering with them."

The Swing King was still a young man when he retired in 1954. On Thursday, legendary band leader Artie Shaw, now 93, retired two of his beloved clarinets, giving them to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. During a ceremony in Westlake ViIlage near his home, the wheelchair-bound Shaw was presented with the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal for his contributions to music.

When my son Noah was little - no more than 2 years old - his favorite book was"Where the Wild Things Are"by Maurice Sendak, who died on Tuesday at age 83. We used to read it and reread it, every night before bed. The routine was always the same: Noah would stand up against the slats of his crib and stare at the fabulous lushness of Sendak's drawings, while I not so much recited as intoned the text. Often, Noah would mouth the words along with me; although he couldn't yet read, he'd heard the story so many times he had it memorized.