Los Angeles  - The short-handed Boston Celtics rode the hot hand of Paul Pierce to shoot them over the finish line.

Pierce poured in 21 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, and the Celtics beat the Miami Heat 112-108 on Wednesday night to clinch their second straight Atlantic Division title.

Los Angel

Los Angeles  - Two of the octuplets born in January to single mother Nadya Suleman were enjoying their first day at home Wednesday, hours after a raucous reception from paparazzi might have made the hospital seem calm.

The photographers and other onlookers clung to Suleman's vehicle as it drove up to the suburban Los Angeles home through a throng of hundreds awaiting the arrival of the celebrity babies and their controversial mother.

Los Angeles  - An arsonist who set a massive wildfire in southern California in 2006 that killed five firefighters is facing the death penalty after being convicted for murder and arson, it was reported Wednesday.

Raymond Lee Oyler, 38, was convicted on five counts of murder, 20 counts of arson and 17 counts of using an incendiary device, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The prosecutor said Oyler coldheartedly killed the five firefighters in the 2006 Esperanza fire, which he set using a device made with matchsticks and a cigarette.

Los Angeles  - A woman who tried to assassinate police officers thirty years ago and hid for 24 years mostly as a suburban housewife was released from jail Tuesday after serving almost eight years of a 14-year sentence.

Sara Jane Olson, 62, was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, an urban guerrilla group in the US which is most notorious for the 1974 kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst.