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Los Angeles County prosecutors on Tuesday accused singer Chris Brown of failing to complete his court-ordered community service for his 2009 assault conviction and questioned whether the documents submitted as proof of his service were fraudulent. A motion filed by the district attorney's office said that Brown claimed he completed four hours of trash pickup between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on one day when he was actually on a private plane to Cancun that he boarded at 4 p.m. On another day that the entertainer said he was picking up trash in a Richmond, Va., alley, news photographers were snapping him 100 miles away in Washington, D.C., where he hosted a charity event that raised funds for the developmentally disabled, prosecutors contended.

If you go THE BEST WAY TO NEW ORLEANS From LAX, Delta, Southwest and United offer nonstop service to New Orleans. Southwest offers direct service (stop, no change of plane), and American, Delta, United, Southwest and Frontier offer connecting service (change of plane). Restricted round-trip fares begin at $452.

The future of American Airlines is still unclear. Will it merge with Tempe, Ariz.-based U.S. Airways or try to go it alone when it exits bankruptcy in the next few weeks? Whatever happens in Bankruptcy Court, the Fort Worth-based carrier will definitely have a new look. Last month American unveiled a new logo and livery, featuring a silver mica color for its planes and red, white and blue stripes on the tails. The airline also announced recently that it would introduce new crew uniforms created by a pair of designers who have dressed celebrities such as Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Halle Berry and Jennifer Aniston.

Despite numerous incidents and high-profile fires involving lithium-ion batteries on its new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet, aerospace giant Boeing Co. defended installing the technology on the plane and vowed to quickly determine what went wrong. The 787 has been grounded since Jan. 16 by the Federal Aviation Administration because of problems with onboard lithium-ion batteries. Investigators around the world are looking into the matter. In a conference call announcing Boeing's fourth-quarter earnings, Chief Executive James McNerney said the company is working with customers and the regulatory agencies to get the matter resolved but is not permitted to comment directly on the ongoing investigations.

As frigid water from the Hudson River poured into the single-engine plane he sat inside, Christopher Smidt made a frantic phone call. Smidt's voice was clear, but his thoughts came in bursts. “All right, the plane is … we're definitely … we're going down. We're going down,” Smidt said in the 911 call he made moments after the Piper PA-32 he was learning to fly malfunctioned and plunged into the water Sunday. After ascertaining that there were two people on board -- Smidt and pilot Deniece DePriester -- and confirming that both had life preservers, the dispatcher asked for their location.

When flying to Singapore, watch your language or you could face more than a stern scolding. A 47-year-old Australian man learned this lesson earlier this month when he got into an altercation with another passenger on a Tiger Airways flight from Perth to Singapore. In the heat of the feud, the man, identified in news reports as maritime industry worker Bruce Griffiths, unleashed a few obscenities and was met by Singapore police when he got to the airport. Even though Griffiths was still in the air, his foul language violated Singapore's strict “outrage of modesty” laws, which are punishable by a jail term of up to two years, a fine or 24 lashes with a rattan cane.

MOSCOW -- The Russian government is sending planes to the Mideast to evacuate Russians who want to leave Syria, an official said Monday night. “On orders from the leadership of the Russian Federation, the Emergency Situations Ministry is sending two planes ... to Beirut so that all Russians wishing to leave Syria could leave,” the ministry's spokesperson, Irina Rossius, told the RIA-Novosti news agency. The announcement was the latest indication of concern in Moscow about the deteriorating security situation in Syria.

It is still unclear if American Airlines will emerge from bankruptcy alone or merged with US Airways. What is clear now is that the Fort Worth-based airline will come out of it with a new logo in red, white and blue. Tom Horton, the airline's chairman and chief executive, announced the changes Thursday morning, saying the modern livery reflects upgrades that are being made to the planes and the interiors. "You've been hearing a lot about how the modern travel experience is going to feel and today we are going to show you how it's going to look," he said in an online video.

More bad news for Boeing Co.: Japan Airlines Co. said Sunday tests on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet showed the plane leaking fuel. The airline, known as JAL, was performing maintenance work on the aircraft after it was spotted spilling nearly 30 gallons of fuel onto the taxiway at Boston's Logan International Airport on Tuesday. While being examined at the Narita International Airport near Tokyo, the grounded plane began to leak fuel from a nozzle on the left wing, JAL said in a memo.