Napa city officials sued real estate financier Richard E. Warren last month on allegations that he is running illegal hotels in Browns Valley, but court records reveal the city may have to stand in line if it wants a piece of him in court.

Toting pink balloons and signs proclaiming "Marriage equality now" and "Equal love = equal rights," about 20 local gay and lesbian couples marched into the Napa County Clerk's office to request marriage licenses on Valentine's Day.

County prosecutors have sued the former owners of Napa Pipe, claiming the company fouled local waterways with sludge from its south Napa plant.

By DAVID GERMAIN

CHICAGO -- It sounds like a perfect parlor game for baby boomers suddenly confronting their own mortality: What are your chances of dying within four years?

WASHINGTON -- Despite record profits, oil and gas producers may avoid billions of dollars in royalty payments to the government because of a decade-old law designed to spur production when energy prices are low.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Leading presidential candidate Rene Preval claimed Tuesday that "gross errors" and likely fraud marred the vote that saw him fall just short of a first-round victory, and he said he would contest the results.

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran on Tuesday said 135 wild swans died of bird flu in marshlands near the Caspian Sea in the country's first case of the spreading virus, and officials in Germany and Austria said the virus had apparently reached there as well.