First-time claims for jobless benefits fell more than expected last week, evidence that companies are laying off fewer workers as the economy improves.

Turkish military police say they raided an Istanbul villa and rescued nine women who were tricked into thinking they were reality show contestants.

Trying to shake off a summer of setbacks, President Barack Obama summoned Congress to enact sweeping health-care legislation last night, declaring the “time for bickering is over.“

Hurricane Fred has quickly strengthened to a Category 2 storm but remains far out in the eastern Atlantic with no signs it will threaten land.

Taxpayers face losses on a significant portion of the $81 billion in government aid provided to the auto industry, an oversight panel said in a report to be released Wednesday.

British commandos freed a New York Times reporter early today from Taliban captors who kidnapped him over the weekend in northern Afghanistan, but one of the troops and a Times translator were killed in the rescue.

The United States says it has “serious concerns” that Iran is deliberately trying—at a minimum—to preserve a nuclear weapons option.

Four U.S. soldiers were killed by roadside bombs Tuesday, the deadliest day for American forces in Iraq since combat troops pulled back from urban areas more than two months ago.

When gambling debuts at the historic Greenbrier resort, it will come with more than just dice and chips. New owner Jim Justice envisions stylish touches that will include patrons toasting each other with champagne at 8 p.m. every night.

A piece of orbiting junk was expected to pass near the international space station today, but NASA said it would stay a safe distance away from the station and docked shuttle.

A NATO jet blasted two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, setting off a huge fireball today that killed up to 90 people, Afghan officials said.

A white supremacist charged with killing a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to appear in federal court today.

President Barack Obama and his family are trying again for a little rest and relaxation.

A relentless Southern California wildfire raged Tuesday with 53 homes up in smoke, thousands more threatened and new rounds of evacuations as towering flames crackled close to neighborhoods on the northern and southern flanks.

Federal safety officials are weighing recommendations aimed at preventing emergency medical helicopters from taking lives instead of saving them.

When the CIA revived a plan to kill or capture terrorists in 2004, the agency turned to the well-connected security company then known as Blackwater USA.

A senior Scottish politician says the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber was based on justice rather than commercial considerations.

Firefighters tried to hold back a massive wildfire from consuming thousands of homes and a communications center in Los Angeles County today as they mourned two firefighters killed when their vehicle rolled down a mountain side.

A northern New Jersey mayor said he’s going to court Friday to stop renovation work at the mansion where Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi wants to stay next month when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly.

Consumer spending edged up in July with help from the popular Cash for Clunkers program, but household incomes, the fuel for future spending increases, were flat.

A girl snatched on her way to school was hidden for nearly two decades behind a series of fences, sheds and tents, even giving birth to her suspected abductor’s children in the suburban backyard compound less than 200 miles (322 kilometers) from her childhood home.

NATO says a U.S. service member has been killed in a militant attack involving a roadside bomb and gunfire.

The family of one of the youngest prisoners ever held at Guantanamo plans to sue the U.S. government to compensate him for mistreatment and an adolescence lost to nearly seven years in a cell, his lawyers said Thursday.

Somali pirates holding a hijacked ship off the coast of Somalia fired at a U.S. Navy helicopter as it made a surveillance flight over the vessel, the first such attack by pirates on an American military aircraft, the Navy said Thursday.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the last surviving brother in an enduring political dynasty and one of the most influential senators in history, died Tuesday night at his home on Cape Cod after a yearlong struggle with brain cancer. He was 77.

The jury that convicted a man of murder in the brutal carjacking, rape and murder of a young Tennessee couple will be asked to decide if he should live or die.

The majority of transplanted organs in China come from executed prisoners, state media reported Wednesday in a rare disclosure about an industry often criticized for being opaque and unethical.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the last surviving brother in a political dynasty and one of the most influential senators in U.S. history, died Tuesday night at his home on Cape Cod after a year-long struggle with brain cancer. He was 77.

South Korea’s first rocket launch Tuesday failed to push a satellite into its orbit but the flawed mission may still anger rival North Korea, coming just months the communist nation’s own launch drew international condemnation.

Thunderstorms have forced NASA to call off space shuttle Discovery’s launch.