America’s favorite dietary supplements, multivitamins, modestly lowered the risk for cancer in healthy male doctors who took them for more than a decade, the first large study to test these pills has found.

The result is a surprise, because many studies of individual vitamins have found they don’t help prevent chronic diseases, and some even seemed to raise the risk of cancer.

In the new study, multivitamins cut the chance of developing cancer by 8 percent. That is less effective than a good diet, exercise and not smoking, each of which can lower cancer risk by 20 percent to 30 percent, cancer experts say.

Multivitamins also may have different results in women, younger men or people less healthy than those in this study.

DC Comics retains rights to Superman

DC Comics will retain its rights to Superman after a judge ruled Wednesday that the heirs of one of the superhero’s co-creators signed away their ability to reclaim copyrights to the Man of Steel roughly 20 years ago.

The ruling means that DC Comics and its owner Warner Bros. will retain all rights to continue using the character in books, films, television and other mediums, including the film reboot planned for next year.

DC Comics sued the heirs of artist Joe Shuster in 2010, seeking a ruling that they lost their ability to try to reclaim the superhero’s copyrights in 1992.

U.S. District Court Judge Otis Wright II agreed, stating that Shuster’s sister and brother relinquished any chance to reclaim Superman copyrights in exchange for annual pension payments from DC Comics.

5 found dead after Denver bar fire

Denver police don’t have any suspects in the slayings of five people whose bodies were found at a neighborhood bar after a fire broke out early Wednesday, including one of the bar owners.

Investigators believe they were killed before the fire and that the blaze was set to cover up the slayings.

The fire at Fero’s Bar & Grill was spotted just before 2 a.m., closing time for bars, by a police officer on patrol. Firefighters found four women and one man dead inside.

June trial date set in Trayvon Martin case

A judge has set a tentative trial date next year for a Florida neighborhood watch volunteer charged with fatally shooting unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin.

Judge Debra S. Nelson set June 10 as the start for George Zimmerman’s trial. But his attorney noted there are still several unresolved pretrial matters to address. Another status hearing is set for Dec. 10.

Cheerleaders backed on Bible banners

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Wednesday he will defend high school cheerleaders who want to use Bible verses on banners at football games.

Abbott has filed court papers to intervene in a lawsuit that cheerleaders at Kountze High School filed against the school district complaining that a new policy violated their freedom of speech.

In September, district officials told the cheerleaders to stop using Bible verses at football games after the Freedom From Religion Foundation complained.

The atheist group argued that using banners with phrases such as, “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me,” violates the First Amendment prohibition on the government establishing a religion.

Abbott said that since the cheerleaders create the banners without school funding, they qualify as free speech and should not be banned.