The U.S. Supreme Court justices said Friday they would hear a group of cases brought by religious hospitals, schools, and charities that object to the system devised under Obamacare to spare them from paying for birth control coverage for their employees and students.

NPR's Nina Totenberg reports:

"To accommodate ...

#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and on The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading, using the #NPRreads hashtag. On Fridays, we highlight some of the best stories.

This week, we bring you three ...

President Obama said Thursday "there is a possibility" that a bomb brought down a Russian airliner in Egypt on Saturday, Nov. 1.

"I don't think we know yet. Whenever you've got a plane crash, first of all you've got the tragedy, you've got the making sure that there's an ...

With his fluffy white fur and floppy ears, the five-week-old baby pygmy goat named GusGus at the Arizona State Fair looks like a living stuffed animal. And at less than 5 pounds, he's so little he could easily be tucked away in a jacket or a purse.

Actually, that's precisely ...

Sportswear giant Adidas announced Thursday that it would offer free design resources and financial assistance to any high schools that want to change their logo or mascot from Native American imagery or symbolism.

The company announced the initiative ahead of the Tribal Nations Conference at the White House, which Adidas ...

Picking gum off the bottom of your shoe after you accidentally step in it on the sidewalk can be difficult, not to mention gross.

Now imagine cleaning an estimated 1 million pieces of gum — some of which are 20 years old — off a brick wall. Yikes.

That, ...

Police in California arrested James Tran, 28, on Wednesday in the stabbing of Spencer Stone, 23, who was one of three Americans to help thwart a terrorist attack on a Paris bound train this summer.

Stone, who recently was promoted to Air Force Staff Sergeant, was stabbed early ...

In September, the U.S. Marine Corps released a four-page summary of a yearlong study that found that all-male units were faster, more lethal and able to evacuate casualties in less time than mixed-gender units. The study, which can be viewed in full below, was bashed by critics for being ...

In the U.S. government's first criminal prosecution of the manipulative trading practice known as "spoofing," high-frequency trader Michael Coscia was found guilty on Tuesday. He was also found guilty of commodity fraud.

The practice of placing large orders to stimulate a market reaction, and then cancelling them while profiting off ...

Today Twitter rolled out a a new icon for showing approval for tweets. Instead of clicking on a star to turn it yellow, Twitter users click on a heart to turn it red.

Twitter product manager Akarshan Kumar explained the change on the company blog:

"We are changing ...

The Federal Communications Commission announced an investigation into a California firm after a Reuters report revealed that its radio broadcasts are backed by the Chinese government.

The firm is owned by James Su, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Shanghai, but his company, G&E Studio Inc., "is 60 percent owned ...

TransCanada, the company applying to build the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline that is designed to run from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico, has suspended its U.S. permit application while it works with authorities to gain approval for its preferred route through Nebraska.

TransCanada has asked the State ...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that it has discovered more Volkswagen cars containing software that helped them cheat emissions tests. The most recently discovered batch of 10,000 vehicles that the EPA says are equipped with "defeat device" technology are 3-liter diesel engine cars, including several Volkswagen, Audi and ...

On Monday, the Vatican arrested a monsignor and a public relations employee on charges of leaking confidential information to the media. The arrests preempt the Thursday release of two books, purported to reveal new scandals in the Holy See.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Rome that the PR employee, a ...

As far as sports fans are concerned, late October is a bountiful time: You've got your NFL games, the World Series, the start of the NBA season, college football, weekend European soccer, NHL games and MLS playoffs.

It's an embarrassment of riches. And now, it's even richer because the final ...

Washington wide receiver Pierre Garcon has filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of NFL players against the daily fantasy sports site FanDuel, alleging it misuses players' names and likenesses without proper licensing or permission.

NPR's Nathan Rott reports for the Newscast unit:

"Attorneys for Garcon, say that FanDuel 'knowingly ...

Known for its talented writers and in-depth reporting, ESPN's sports and culture website, Grantland, was suddenly shut down early Friday afternoon.

The sports media giant released a statement, saying Grantland was suspended, "effective immediately." The statement reads, in part:

"After careful consideration, we have decided to direct our ...

In the video, men in jeans and black leather vests duck for cover behind tables, guns drawn, as waitresses can be seen fleeing in the background.

The chaotic scene is from May 17, when rival motorcycle gangs engaged in a shootout in and around a restaurant in Waco, Texas. ...

#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and on The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading, using the #NPRreads hashtag. On Fridays, we highlight some of the best stories.

This week, we bring you four ...

The Senate passed a bill at 3:12 a.m. ET Friday that would raise the debt ceiling and fund the government into 2017. This means that there would be no fiscal standoffs and threats of government shutdown for more than a year.

The measure is now on its way to the ...