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For the first time in 45 years, homicide has fallen off the list of the nation's top 15 causes of death, government health officials said Wednesday.

Cancer-related deaths in the United States are dropping — and have been for the past two decades — according to this year's annual report by the American Cancer Society. And some of the largest reductions came in cases involving the biggest killers, including breast, colon, lung, and prostate cancers. The decline came thanks mostly to early detection by increasingly sophisticated screening methods, and advances in treatment.

A burst of hiring in December pushed the U.S. unemployment rate to its lowest level in nearly three years, giving the economy a boost at the end of 2011. The Labor Department said Friday that employers added a net 200,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, the lowest since February 2009. The rate has dropped for four straight months

Amid signs that the overall jobs climate was improving, manufacturing stands out as an area of surprising strength.

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell further last week, ending the year on a three-month run of declines that point to stronger hiring in 2012. Weekly applications dropped by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 372,000 last week, the Labor Department said. That’s 11 percent lower than the same time last year and a positive sign ahead of Friday’s important read on December job growth.

U.S. album sales rose more than 3 percent last year for the first gain since 2004 — a sign that rising digital sales are finally stemming the decade-long decline of compact discs. The uptick to 458 million album sales was helped by the hugely popular sophomore album "21" from British singer Adele, which sold 5.8 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Huge interest in Adele also led to the sales of 856,000 copies of "19," her debut album from 2008.

Stocks rose sharply on the first trading day of 2012 as upbeat U.S. economic data overshadowed continuing concerns about the European debt crisis.

When top retailers post their December sales this week, Wall Street analysts are expecting them to report a healthy end to the holiday season, helped by discounts, improved consumer sentiment and tactics like extended hours and layaways.

After hitting a 30-year low in 2009, U.S. auto sales are poised for a second straight year of growth - the result of easier credit, low interest rates and pent-up demand for cars and trucks created by the Great Recession....

Top investors stumble, but a strong fourth quarter pushes blue chips into the black. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 ends the year almost exactly where it started.