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A Texas judge ruled the state must tell two death row inmates where it is buying its execution drugs from.

The AP reports that the inmates sued the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for the information. The state has argued that it wants to keep the information secret, because ...

A state senator was arrested on charges of illegal gun trafficking and mail fraud on Wednesday.

As NPR's Richard Gonzales reports, Sen. Leland Yee was also the Democratic candidate for secretary of state in California. Richard filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"Senator Yee's arrest stunned California's political ...

World Vision U.S. changed course on Wednesday, saying it would return to its policy of not hiring Christians in gay marriages.

The Washington-state-based charity caused an uproar among its supporters when it announced on Monday that based on the changes many churches were making, it would allow the hiring of ...

A five-alarm fire created some dramatic moments in Houston on Tuesday.

One video of a construction worker fleeing the apartment complex that was still under construction is just stunning. There's no need to say more. Just watch:

If you want background on the fire, The Houston Chronicle has details. ...

A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Northwestern University athletes are employees of the school and are allowed to form a union.

The Associated Press calls the decision "stunning" because it has the potential to completely upend the way college athletics function. The AP adds:

...

Astronomers studying a 250 kilometer wide asteroid-like object named Chariklo have come to a surprising conclusion: By analyzing dips in the object's brightness, they've found that Chariklo is surrounded by a ring system.

Their findings are published in today's edition of Nature and this is the first time rings have ...

A BP refinery spilled an unknown amount of oil into Lake Michigan on Monday.

NPR member station WBEZ reports that the leak has been stopped and it is contained. The station reports:

"BP just completed a $4 billion modernization to the 100-year-old Whiting Refinery, the largest inland refinery ...

Facebook announced a pretty big purchase on Tuesday: The social media giant said it was acquiring Oculus VR, a company that makes virtual reality goggles, for $2 billion.

The deal includes $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook, which the company values at $1.6 billion.

The same Danish zoo that euthanized a young, healthy giraffe it didn't need for its breeding program has killed a family of lions to make room for a younger, male lion.

If you remember, the Copenhagen Zoo caused an uproar when it put down "Marius," performed a public autopsy ...

In a new rule released on Tuesday, the Internal Revenue Service says it will treat bitcoin and other virtual currencies as property.

The Wall Street Journal reports this means any profits made on the currency will be taxed at the capital-gains rate and that investors will have to ...

This post was updated at 4:47 p.m. ET.

The cleanup of an oil spill near the Houston Ship Channel is continuing today, and authorities say they have opened one of the country's biggest ports in a limited capacity this afternoon.

As we reported, a collision between two vessels spilled ...

Early Monday morning, police moved into the Executive Yuan in Tapei to remove student protesters who had barricaded themselves inside the cabinet offices.

That erupted into a dramatic clash between protesters and police, which resulted in 58 arrests and 137 people injured.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, the ...

A measure imposing sanctions on Russia and giving aid to the Ukraine overcame a procedural hurdle in the Senate with a vote of 78-17.

The lopsided vote signals the Senate will likely pass the measure later this week.

Politico reports, however, that whether the measure makes it to President Obama's ...

With the stroke of Gov. Mike Pence's pen, Indiana became the first state to back off implementing a set of national standards for grade-school education.

The standards, known as Common Core, had been adopted by 45 states, but have lately unleashed a political fight that blurs party lines.

The ...

Five former employees of Bernard Madoff's securities firm were found guilty of conspiracy and securities fraud for helping the now imprisoned financier carry out an elaborate scam.

The Associated Press reports:

"The defendants are all former employees of Madoff's securities firm. They were accused of enriching themselves while ...

As the Coast Guard prepares to open the Houston Ship Channel after an oil spill over the weekend, environmentalists were trying assess the damage to a sensitive ecological system.

The Associated Press reports the Coast Guard is hoping to reopen "one of the nation's busiest seaports Monday."

The AP ...

The NCAA Tournament has produced another stunning upset: This afternoon, the Kansas Jayhawks joined Villanova as the second No. 2 seed to fall in the round of 32.

Kansas lost to Stanford 60-57 on Sunday.

SB Nation reports:

"Once again, Kansas struggled to score points with Joel ...

The West African country of Guinea said on Sunday that 59 people have died during an outbreak of Ebola.

The AP reports this is the first time an outbreak of the virus has been detected among humans in the country.

Reporting from Dakar, Senegal, NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports the ...

Adolfo Suárez, the Spanish president responsible for the country's Democratic transition, died on Sunday.

Suárez, the BBC reports, had suffered from Alzheimer's for about a decade.

He was 81.

In its coverage, El País calls Suárez the "most solitary politician of the democracy."

As Reuters explains, Suárez was ...

While Russia continued to push Ukrainian forces out of Crimea, NATO and Ukraine issued warnings on Sunday about the buildup of Russian troops along Ukraine's eastern border.

The Washington Post reports that NATO's supreme allied commander Europe, U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, said Russia had "assembled a ...