WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- President-elect Barack Obama's leadership is rated as high as President George Bush's was after the 2001 terrorist attacks, poll results indicate.

DETROIT (AP) -- When Dr. Trevor Banka treats cancer patients alongside Dr. Michael Mott he is working with not only his mentor, but the physician who helped save his life. "I wanted to work next to Dr. Mott and I wanted to train with him," said Banka, a 28-year-old second-year oncology resident at Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital. "We have a very special relationship." That relationship started in 1993 when a 12-year-old Banka was diagnosed with bone cancer in his right knee....

I was 5 years old and my dad and I were on our way to the neighborhood bakery to buy a loaf of bread. It was early on the morning of January 1, 1959. A stranger stopped us on the deserted street right outside our second-floor apartment.

HONOLULU (AP) -- A new study of pygmy killer whales - one of the least understood marine mammal species - shows that those living off Hawaii tend to stay close to the islands and don't swim out to the open ocean. There are very few of the whales, probably less than 200 individuals, in this distinct pygmy killer whale population off the islands. The population's limited number make it more vulnerable than other whale populations to potentially harmful human behavior, including fishing an...

SEOUL, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- North Korea said Thursday it will denuclearize in the coming year and rebuild its ailing economy.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- U.S. executions in 2008 tumbled to a 14-year low and new death sentences fell to their lowest number since 1976, a research group reports.

FORT MYERS, Fla., Jan. 1 (UPI) -- A yacht club set to be built in Lee County, Fla., marks the newest hurdle in the fight to protect manatees from area boaters, animal advocates say.

"Knight" good, Night bad. That was the upshot of the responses from CNN.com users when asked to pick the best and worst movies of 2008. "The Dark Knight," the latest in the Batman series, was named best movie of the year by several respondents, while M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" was roundly hooted.

CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Travel throughout Canada's Maritime provinces was nearly impossible Thursday as heavy snowfall and winds struck the region, authorities say.

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- An Ohio woman was arrested early Thursday after police discovered her driving the wrong way on an interstate highway with her 21-month-old son in the car.

NEW YORK, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Attorneys for John Gotti, whose late father John ran the Gambino crime family, say he is planning on seeking bail in order to leave a Florida jail.

Federal guidelines amended to right old wrongs spur legal battles between offenders, prosecutors.

Police in Racine, Wis., said 43-year-old Brian A. Rubenstein tried to steal $625 in groceries. The total included $365 in lobster and $213 in ribeye and beef roasts.

Law-abiding Italians outraged as thousands of countrymen bow down to notorious mobsters online.

Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom says it has cut all gas supplies to Ukraine after talks on a new supply deal failed.

A San Antonio teacher plans to sue her former employer, a downtown Catholic high school, saying she was fired for marrying a man who had been divorced, a proceeding not recognized by the Catholic Church, the San Antonio Express-News reported Tuesday.

Time Warner Cable Inc. said Wednesday it reached a deal with Viacom Inc. on carriage fees, avoiding a blackout of 19 cable channels including MTV and Comedy Central.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Helen Suzman, who fought apartheid as a member of the South African parliament, died Thursday at the age of 91.

ATLANTA, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- A historic black college in Atlanta is fighting for its life following the shutoff of water because of unpaid bills.