LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Making his much-anticipated comeback as Oscar host after an eight-year absence, comedian Billy Crystal poked fun on Sunday night at his own reluctance to return as he paid light-hearted tribute to leading nominees for the 84th annual Academy Awards.

In his ninth appearance as Oscar master of ceremonies, Crystal, 63, opened the show with one of his signature film montages, inserting himself into footage from the biggest and most-honored movies of 2011.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. F-16 fighters intercepted a small plane that strayed into restricted airspace around President Barack Obama’s helicopter on Thursday in Los Angeles, and more than 20 pounds of marijuana was later found aboard the intruding aircraft, officials said.

The two F-16s were scrambled from March Air Reserve Base, east of Los Angeles, by North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) Command officials alerted to an airspace violation “in the vicinity” of Los Angeles International Airport, a NORAD spokesman said.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Country music veteran Glen Campbell, diagnosed last year with Alzheimer’s disease, had no trouble remembering words to his signature song as he gave a rousing performance of “Rhinestone Cowboy” at the Grammy Awards show on Sunday.

The 75-year-old entertainer took the stage with contemporary country stars The Band Perry and Blake Shelton, who preceded him with their own versions of two other Campbell hits, “Gentle on My Mind” and “Southern Nights.”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Beach Boys, led by the band’s three surviving co-founders, played their landmark hit “Good Vibrations” on the stage of the Grammy Awards on Sunday in their first performance together in more than two decades.

The rendition of their landmark single by original Beach Boys Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine, along with newer members Bruce Johnston and David Marks, was an upbeat highlight of a show shadowed by the death of pop star Whitney Houston on Saturday.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 12 (Reuters) – Coroners on Sunday
completed their autopsy on the body of singer Whitney Houston
and confirmed that she was found in the bathtub of her Beverly
Hills hotel room, but said the cause of death would not be
determined until more lab tests were completed.

Ed Winter, assistant chief coroner for Los Angeles County,
revealed little about the autopsy at a news conference, but
said medical examiners found no visible signs of trauma or foul
play.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 12 (Reuters) – From the New
Jersey church where Whitney Houston’s singing career first took
flight to the Beverly Hills hotel where her life abruptly ended,
family and fans of the pop diva expressed their grief on Sunday
with prayer, tears and raw anguish.

Houston’s only child, daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown,
18, was taken by paramedics from the hotel to nearby
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Sunday suffering from anxiety,
Beverly Hills police and fire officials said.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – From the New Jersey church where Whitney Houston’s singing career first took flight to the Beverly Hills hotel where her life abruptly ended, family and fans of the pop diva expressed their grief on Sunday with prayer, tears and raw anguish.

Houston’s only child, daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, 18, was taken by paramedics from the hotel to nearby Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Sunday suffering from anxiety, Beverly Hills police and fire officials said.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – One of two reactors at the San Onofre nuclear power station in Southern California was shut down on Tuesday after a small leak was detected in a steam generator tube, but the incident posed no risk to the public or plant workers, the facility operator said.

The reactor unit, which normally provides 1,100 megawatts of electricity, was shut down at about 5:30 p.m. local time as a precaution and will remain off line for a least a couple of days, said Gil Alexander, a spokesman for Southern California Edison.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Representative Jerry Lewis, dean of California’s congressional delegation and the state’s longest-serving Republican ever on Capitol Hill, said on Thursday he will retire at the end of this year after nearly five decades in politics.

Lewis, 77, is the latest in a parade of California lawmakers headed for the exits in 2012 after an overhaul of political boundaries in the state left many incumbents who had long held safe seats in both parties facing difficult or uncertain races in newly drawn districts.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A leading Jewish human rights organization is calling on Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul to address newly published assertions by a former aide that Paul favors abolishing Israel.

Such a position, if true, would mark a radical departure from more than 60 years of bipartisan U.S. support for the Jewish state, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center.