LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The great white shark is lurking in cyberspace, in the form of an iPhone application launched this week that allows users to track a dozen of the predators as they roam around the Pacific Ocean.

The California-based Marine Conservation Science Institute launched the app, which the nonprofit describes as the first shark tracker of its kind, to raise funds for its research.

By Alex Dobuzinskis

(Reuters) – The House Ethics Committee on Wednesday detailed a woman’s allegations of sexual harassment, including unwelcome physical contact, by Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings, and the panel’s top members said further review of the case was warranted.

The accusations against Hastings, 75, a 10-term Democrat whose South Florida district includes Fort Lauderdale, were first leveled last year by Winsome Packer, a staff member with the Helsinki Commission on which he serves.

By Alex Dobuzinskis

(Reuters) – Americans believe that there is more conflict between rich and poor than between immigrants and the native-born or between blacks and whites, according to a Pew Research Center opinion survey released on Wednesday.

Researchers found 30 percent of Americans say there are “very strong conflicts” between the poor and the rich, which is the largest share expressing that opinion since the question was first asked in 1987, the Pew report said.

By Alex Dobuzinskis

(Reuters) – Americans believe that there is more conflict between rich and poor than between immigrants and the native born or between blacks and whites, said a Pew Research Center opinion survey released on Wednesday.

Researchers found 30 percent of Americans say there are “very strong conflicts” between the poor and the rich, which is the largest share expressing that opinion since the question was first asked in 1987, the Pew report said.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Heather Donahue is best known for 1999 horror film “The Blair Witch Project” that showed her hyperventilating and weeping in the forest as she and her friends were terrorized by unseen evil.

The low-budget horror movie became a blockbuster hit, but did little to help Donahue’s fledgling career as an actress.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A serial killer may be responsible for the slayings of three homeless men in Southern California who were each found stabbed multiple times, police said on Thursday.

The December killings, by an attacker described by police as a thin man between the ages of 18 and 25, have put the homeless population in Orange County on edge.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A rash of arson fires in Los Angeles that has seen more than 30 cars torched in recent days had authorities on the lookout for at least one suspect on Saturday, amid fears more blazes could result in serious injury.

So far, no residents have been wounded but one firefighter was treated and released for injuries fighting the spate of apparently related arson fires, which triggered a broad local and federal response, authorities said.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Celebrities may resist the urge to send a stream of consciousness on Twitter in the new year, after famous people tweeted their way into trouble on everything from boxer briefs to breast-feeding in 2011.

NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne became the latest celebrity to blunder on Twitter, when he recently had to apologize for a tweet critical of public breast-feeding.

By Alex Dobuzinskis

(Reuters) – A federal judge on Friday issued legal sanctions against high profile Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio for destroying documents in a civil rights lawsuit accusing him and his department of racially profiling Latinos.

Citing the admitted destruction of emails and patrol records by Arpaio’s office, U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow said he would punish the department by drawing certain incriminating conclusions of fact against the agency when it comes time to rule on the suit.

By Alex Dobuzinskis

(Reuters) – A college student stranded in her car for nine days on a barren northern Arizona road has been rescued after living on candy bars and melted snow, authorities said on Thursday.

Arizona State University student Lauren Weinberg, 23, was found Wednesday by two U.S. Forest Service employees patrolling on snowmobiles, Coconino County Sheriff’s Office patrol Lieutenant Jim Coffey said.