Actors often complain about short rehearsal times, but some of entertainment's biggest names — including Melanie Griffith, Amanda Seyfried, Uzo Aduba, Peter Dinklage, Nina Dobrev and Pablo Schreiber — are about to have virtually none.

They'll be appearing next month in the 14th annual benefit "The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway," which asks over a dozen actors, six writers and six directors to come up with six original short plays over the course of a day. Proceeds help the Urban Arts Partnership.

The Duchess of Cambridge has resumed her royal duties after spending more than two months out of the public eye while suffering from acute morning sickness.

Kate and her husband Prince William welcomed the president of Singapore to London at the start of a state visit Tuesday. She greeted President Tony Tan and his wife Mary at the Royal Garden Hotel and told them "I've been looking forward to getting out of the house, that's for sure."

Warmer water and recent storm swells are to blame for mounds of stinky kelp piling up on the sand in the upscale Southern California resort city of Laguna Beach, scientists say.

Steve May, Laguna's public works director, said the sheer volume of kelp that has washed ashore in recent months is the most he's seen in 20 years on the job.

A New Mexico man says he made an error while paying his electric bill that led him to overpay by thousands of dollars.

The Public Service Company of New Mexico says it could take weeks to get him his money back.

The latest version of Samsung's popular big-screen Galaxy Note has gone on sale at a crucial time for the South Korean company as it suffers a rapid decline in profit from its global smartphone business.

With the Note 4 launch in the U.S. last week, Samsung introduced one of the biggest design changes to the Note series since it started sales three years ago, ditching plastic in favor of metal for its frame.

Facebook is suing several law firms that represented a man who claimed he owned half of the social network and was entitled to billions of dollars from the company and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The case was dismissed in April and the man, Paul Ceglia, is facing related criminal charges. Facebook Inc. and Zuckerberg filed a lawsuit Monday against DLA Piper and other law firms and lawyers, saying they conspired to file and prosecute a fraudulent lawsuit. DLA Piper is one of the world's largest business law firms.

Oscar Pistorius was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp by a South African judge who cited the "gross negligence" he showed when he shot her multiple times through a toilet cubicle door in his home.

Judge Thokozile Masipa also sentenced the double-amputee Olympian to three years in prison for unlawfully firing a gun in a restaurant in a separate incident weeks before Steenkamp's 2013 shooting death. She ordered that sentence to be wholly suspended.

Wyoming stood poised Tuesday to become the latest U.S. state to allow gay marriage, bringing the national wave of expanded rights for same-sex couples to a state where the 1998 beating death of Matthew Shepard still influences national perceptions.

The state was scheduled to file a legal notice saying it won't defend a Wyoming law that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Manchester United came from behind twice to earn a 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League on Monday, with Daley Blind scoring the second equalizer with three minutes remaining.

United looked like coming unstuck on the road again when Saido Berahino restored West Brom's lead in the 65th minute, running clear of the defense to curl home a sixth goal in his breakthrough season.

Liverpool and Real Madrid meet in a heavyweight Champions League match on Wednesday with their star strikers going through contrasting fortunes in front of goal.

Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo is two goals away from the Champions League group-stage scoring record of 71 goals held by Raul Gonzalez, another attacking great who wore the white shirt of the Spanish giants.