Bill Chappell

For now, they're known by working names, like ununseptium and ununtrium — two of the four new chemical elements whose discovery has been officially verified. The elements with atomic numbers 113, 115, 117 and 118 will get permanent names soon, according to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.

One day after Saudi Arabia's embassy was set on fire in Tehran by protesters, Saudi ally Bahrain has cut ties with Iran and given Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave the country. It's the latest development in a rift that deepened this weekend, after Saudi Arabia executed a leading ...

China's stock markets stumbled badly on the first day of trading in 2016, with a 7 percent plunge forcing a market shutdown. The trigger mechanism that cut the day short in Shanghai and Shenzhen was created in response to last year's market crash, which brought trillions in losses.

Ripple effects ...

Former Gov. Dale Bumpers, a veteran of the U.S. Senate who rose to national prominence in part because of his passionate defense of President Bill Clinton, has died. The Democrat from Arkansas was 90 years old.

Bumpers died Friday night in Little Rock, according to a family statement published by ...

Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, a psychiatrist whose ideas about racism and society sparked years of debate and controversy, has died at age 80, according to the Washington Informer, which cites confirmation from her relatives.

Welsing had been hospitalized in Washington, D.C., this week after suffering a stroke. Announcing her death ...

Saudi Arabia executed 47 people convicted of terrorism Saturday, including prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr, prompting condemnation throughout the Middle East.

Nimr has been an outspoken advocate for Shiite rights in Saudi Arabia; he also supported opposition protests in the Shiite-majority Eastern Province, reports NPR's Leila Fadel.

Leila tells ...

The topics range from knowing our bodies — exploring the mysteries of "lost posture" and how well your ears can pick up audio quality — to stories of our times, such as same-sex marriage and political paranoia. Along the way, we also looked at the lives of girls around the ...

They chat, they joke, they drive a classic 1963 Corvette. When President Obama appears on Jerry Seinfeld's online show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, their conversation topics range from nothing to the sanity of world leaders and the merits of profanity.

Much of the talk also centers on what it's ...

A series of house raids in Belgium have put six people in custody who are suspected of being involved with a plot to carry out a terrorist attack during New Year's Eve celebrations in Brussels.

The development comes days after police in Brussels arrested two people who were suspected ...

Narrowly beating a statute of limitations deadline to file charges, prosecutors in Pennsylvania announced felony sexual assault charges against comedian Bill Cosby on Wednesday. A former Temple University employee says Cosby drugged and assaulted her in January 2004.

Montgomery County, Pa., prosecutors have charged Cosby with three counts of aggravated ...

A Catholic priest who rode a "hoverboard" scooter during Christmas Eve Mass in the Philippines has fallen afoul of his diocese, which suspended Father Albert San Jose for attempting "to get the attention of the people" in a personal manner. The priest has apologized for the incident, which was recorded.

Turkish authorities say they've stopped a plot to bomb New Year's Eve celebrations in Turkey's capital just one day before two suspected Islamic State members were to set their plan in motion.

The attackers were targeting Ankara, according to the city's chief public prosecutor's office, two months after a pair ...

Four percent more law enforcement officers at the federal state, territorial and local levels died in the line of duty in 2015 than in 2014, according to a preliminary report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

But despite several high-profile shootings of police in 2015, the group also ...

Months after Ramadi was seized by ISIS fighters, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi traveled to the city that's now largely in government control and announced that Iraq's troops will liberate more cities and push ISIS out entirely in 2016.

"ISIS was defeated and hundreds of its criminal terrorists were killed" ...

Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke pleaded not guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder and misconduct in the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in October 2014.

Van Dyke, who is white, entered the plea in court a month after the charges against him were announced in the killing of McDonald, who ...

The fallout from Gov. Susana Martinez's office holiday party at a hotel in downtown Santa Fe has resulted in an apology, a week after she intervened with local police to try to quash a noise complaint made against her hotel room.

Audio recordings of Martinez speaking with police and dispatchers ...

Complaining that an American B-52 bomber flew near disputed islands in the South China Sea, China's defense ministry calls the flight "a serious military provocation" that put Chinese military personnel on high alert.

The plane was flying close to the contested Spratly Islands, parts of which are known as Nansha ...

Kurt Masur, the German conductor whose career spanned from leading an orchestra in East Germany to more than a decade of reshaping the New York Philharmonic, has died at age 88.

A guest conductor who traveled the world to lead elite musicians, Masur announced in 2012 that for several years ...

The team of doctors who recently operated on Spanish musician Carlos Aguilera's brain wanted to be sure they didn't affect his ability to play the saxophone – so they had him play songs during a 12-hour surgery.

A partially sedated Aguilera obliged, playing "Misty" and other songs, in addition to ...

One day after he was arrested on fraud charges, controversial drug executive Martin Shkreli has resigned his post as the leader of Turing Pharmaceuticals. Shkreli is currently free on bail.

Turing announced the change Friday, naming Ron Tilles, its current board chairman, as the interim chief executive officer.

"We wish ...