Hollywood — long considered the land of excess— is becoming more cost-conscious, as movie executives rethink what they're willing to pay to make a blockbuster.

After years of beefing up budgets to meet audience expectations, movie studios are cutting back and canceling projects that are too costly. Half-baked, expensive movie ideas that would have received approval a few years ago are now under scrutiny. For movies that are made, producers have to settle for toned-down special effects, cheaper actors and fewer locations for shoots.

European Union finance ministers are debating a tax on financial transactions that could raise money for the EU as well as make banks share bailout burdens with taxpayers.

But European internal markets Commissioner Michel Barnier said after a meeting Saturday "there's no consensus" on the tax, which would take a tiny fraction from a wide range of financial dealings.

President Barack Obama signed into law Friday a major overhaul of the U.S. patent system, a measure designed to ease the way for inventors to bring their products to market. "We can't afford to drag our feet any longer," the president said.

Passed in a rare display of congressional bipartisanship, the America Invents Act is the first significant change in patent law since 1952. It has been hailed as a milestone that would spur innovation and create jobs.

Which wine goes best with mealworms and crickets? The annual contest at a North Carolina museum may help answer the question.

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is hosting its annual BugFest Critter Cook-off on Friday. It's the official kickoff to BugFest 2011.

Early on, it looked ominous when an Air Force base on the southern edge of Tucson in the U.S. state of Arizona was locked down Friday morning amid unconfirmed reports of gunfire. In the end, no shots were fired, and no weapons and gunman were found.

Traffic into the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base was limited as the unspecified security situation was first announced. Schools on the base were locked down. Ambulances and fire engines were rushed to the base, and a TV station reported that emergency workers were responding to a possible patient with multiple gunshot wounds.

A World War II-era fighter plane flown by a veteran Hollywood stunt pilot plunged into the edge of the grandstands Friday during a popular air racing show in the U.S. state of Nevada, killing three people, injuring more than 50 spectators and creating a horrific scene strewn with smoking debris.

The plane, flown by 74-year-old Jimmy Leeward, spiraled out of control without warning and appeared to disintegrate upon impact in Reno. Bloodied bodies were spread across the area as people tended to the victims and ambulances rushed to the scene.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas vowed Friday to lodge a bid for U.N. membership before the Security Council in one week, despite mounting Israeli and U.S. opposition.

"We are going to the Security Council," he said in a televised address to the Palestinian people from his Ramallah headquarters.

It slowly began to dawn on Esther and Bruce Huffman that perhaps they were being filmed.

"Warning," the gray-haired, bespectacled grandmother reads off the screen. "You must stop recording before trying to close cyber link."

Talk about a tough professor.

Trinity College in Dublin was spoofed Thursday when an unknown prankster posted an academic profile of its newest English lecturer: a certain Conan T. Barbarian, complete with Hollywood mug shot of a shirtless, sword-clad Arnold Schwarzenegger in his maiden film role.

In science fiction, amber preserved the DNA that allowed rebirth of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. In real life, amber preserved feathers that provide a new image of what dinosaurs looked like.

"Now, instead of scaly animals portrayed as usually drab creatures, we have solid evidence for a fluffy colored past," reports Mark A. Norell of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.