Los Angeles  - Al Jefferson's season appears to be over after an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test on Monday confirmed that the Minnesota Timberwolves' centre has a torn right anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), the club announced on its website.

Jefferson, averaging team-highs of 23.1 points and 11 rebounds per game, suffered the injury in Sunday's 101-97 loss to New Orleans, when he came down awkwardly on his right leg while trying to block Sean Marks' shot underneath the basket.

Los Angeles  - As among the brightest and most successful young stars in the US music industry, Chris Brown and Rihanna were a match made in publicists' heaven. But just as they were set to send their relationship into hyperdrive with a joint appearance at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night, the fairy-tale romance turned sour and very ugly.

Brown, just 19, stands accused of making criminal threats against Rihanna, 20, and police say that prosecutors could charge him with more - or less - depending on their investigation.

Los Angeles  - Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks Studios has signed a long-term distribution deal with Walt Disney Studios, the companies confirmed Monday.

The deal comes after Spielberg signed a huge financing deal last year with Indian media conglomerate Reliance, and after a previous distribution deal with Universal Studios fell through because of the credit crisis.

Los Angeles  - The mother of the woman who gave birth to octuplets has slammed her daughter's actions as "unconscionable" and said that the single mother has no way to support the babies and her six other children.

Angela Suleman made the comments to the website radaronline. com as her daughter Nadya Suleman showed the babies for the first time in an interview with NBC Monday morning.

Los Angeles  - The league-leading Los Angeles Lakers tweaked their roster Saturday, dealing little-used Serbian forward Vladimir Radmanovic to the Charlotte Bobcats for Adam Morrison and Shannon Brown, a pair of young, unproven players.

It marks the second straight campaign with an in-season trade for the Lakers (40-9), who last week lost starting center Andrew Bynum for at least two months with a torn knee ligament. En route to the 2008 NBA Finals, they dealt Brian Cook to Orlando for swingman Trevor Ariza.

Los Angeles - The Grammy Awards, which annually gather the who's who of the US music industry for a virtual orgy of self- appreciation, are all set for blastoff on Sunday night.

The list of performers is long enough to make the organizers of President Barack Obama's inaugural celebrations cringe with envy, while the slate of nominees in more than 100 categories could serve as an encyclopedia of the US music industry.