USA

Airline flight delays during the first six months of this year were the worst they've been in 13 years, according to the Department of Transportation. Nearly a third of domestic flights were late. Industry officials say increased demand for air travel and a lack of modern satellite-based air-traffic control equipment are factors in the poor on-time performance.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) of California said he would appeal a federal judge's ruling that blocks a California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors. At this point, there is no evidence that video games "cause injury to children" or are more threatening than violent television or movies, the court ruled.

Officials conducting the investigation into last week's bridge collapse in Minneapolis said they've turned to US Navy divers and a small submarine to help recover eight people missing and believed dead. Local divers have been thwarted in their efforts to search through dangerously unstable wreckage.

As a protection to whales, a federal court in Los Angeles issued a preliminary injunction Monday stopping the Navy from using high-powered sonar in coming training exercises off the California coast. The Navy contends the sonar, used to detect hostile submarines, is critical to national security, while the Natural Resources Defense Council counters that the sonar is harmful, and sometimes fatal, to whales.

Four galaxies are in the process of colliding to create a single behemoth galaxy possibly 10 times larger than the Milky Way, according to a new paper accepted for publication by the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Galaxy mergers that occur over millions of years aren't rare, but this one has the potential to reveal how massive galaxies form.

An innovative Musicians' Village, the brainstorm of New Orleans-born performers Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis, is coming together as an affordable housing complex aimed at keeping local musicians in the city, according to the Associated Press. Most of the 80 brightly painted, 1,100-square-foot homes developed by the local branch of Habitat for Humanity are reserved for musician homeowners.

A petition filed months ago with the Food and Drug Administration to change the official definition of "chocolate" has set off a raging debate, according to comments filed with the agency. Purists believe chocolate must contain between 50 and 60 percent cocoa butter, while others, including large manufacturers, favor allowing the use of vegetable oils.