Mark Memmott

Update at 6:15 p.m. ET. Chinese Icebreaker Gets Stuck:

The Chinese icebreaker Snow Dragon became stuck in the ice itself as it tried to reach the stranded vessel MV Akademik Shokalskiy.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority tweeted:

"Our rescue boat, the Xue Long, has had to turn back because the ...

An explosion in Beirut on Friday killed at least six people, including a former Lebanese ambassador to the U.S. who was a leader of the Western-backed coalition that opposes the militant group Hezbollah.

More than 70 other people were injured by the car bomb, authorities say.

Hezbollah is allied with ...

Whether or not you like the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, this news may warm your heart:

Jon Kitna, who is coming out of retirement to be the team's emergency quarterback on Sunday, plans to donate his $53,000 paycheck from the game to the Tacoma, Wash., high school where he now teaches ...

If you don't smile after clicking "play" on the box above ... well, then either we're too old or you're too young.

It was 50 years ago today, Kabir Bhatia from member station WKSU in Cleveland reminds our Newscast Desk, that Capitol Records released the Beatles' I Want ...

An American development worker and Peace Corps veteran who was kidnapped more than two years ago from his home in Pakistan by men claiming to be affiliated with al-Qaida, asks President Obama in a newly released video "to instruct your appropriate officials to negotiate my release."

Warren Weinstein, 72, is ...

Just as last week's figures may been distorted by temporary factors related to the holiday season that made things look worse than they really are, the word Thursday that there's been a sharp drop in claims for unemployment insurance needs to be accompanied by the same sort of ...

The next step has been taken in what some observers say is Russian President Vladimir Putin's bid to burnish his country's reputation before February's Winter Olympic Games in Sochi:

"Russian authorities on Thursday issued visas to seven of 30 members of a Greenpeace ship crew that allow them to ...

Update at 8:20 p.m. ET. Amazon, UPS, Offer Refunds:

The Washington Post reports:

"Amazon and UPS said Thursday they would offer refunds to customers who did not receive their Christmas orders on time, after a surge in last-minute online shopping caught the shipping giant off guard."

"Customers who ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe surely knew that his visit Thursday to a Shinto shrine honoring Japan's dead from World War II would be followed by protests from China and South Korea.

It was also not a surprise that the U.S. embassy in Tokyo would say America is "disappointed ...

Here's a sentence we didn't expect to read today:

"Elf advocates have joined forces with environmentalists to urge the Icelandic Road and Coastal Commission and local authorities to abandon a highway project building a direct route from the Alftanes peninsula, where the president has a home, to the Reykjavik ...

Some critics — perhaps others would say Grinches? — don't like the North American Aerospace Defense Command's annual online "Santa Tracker."

At WBUR, author Ethan Gilsdorf writes that "real-time digital imagery of Santa and his route, or calculations of the loot he's delivered, take the imagination out of ...

The already alarming news from South Sudan grew even more worrisome Tuesday with word from the United Nations of mass graves.

In a statement, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said "we have discovered a mass grave in Bentiu, in Unity State, and there are reportedly ...

Good morning.

One early Tuesday headline and two from Monday evening:

-- WATCH LIVE: Space Station Spacewalk

-- Alan Turing, Who Cracked Nazi Code, Gets Posthumous Pardon

-- 150 Marines To Be Sent For Possible Mission In South Sudan

Other stories making headlines:

-- ...

Spacewalking astronauts have successfully replaced a failed coolant pump on the International Space Station.

NPR's Joe Palca reports that American spacewalkers Michael Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio had to bolt the massive pump in place (on the ground, it weighs 780 pounds), connect four ammonia lines and plug in five electrical ...

Our good-news story of the day comes from the Bay Area, where a KRON-TV report earlier this month has led to a homeless man's reunion with a famous former friend — guitarist Carlos Santana.

Percussionist Marcus Malone, who was part of Santana's band before it played Woodstock in ...

Mikhail Kalashnikov, whose name will forever be connected to one of the world's most popular and deadly weapons, has died, according to news reports from Russia.

Officials there tell news outlets including RT and RIA Novosti that the 94-year-old inventor of the AK-47 rifle died Monday ...

Public relations professional Justine Sacco is now an unemployed public relations professional after tweeting Friday that she was:

"Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!"

In case you missed it, Twitter erupted after she posted that message just before boarding a flight from ...

There's nothing like a "who's the best quarterback" debate to get NFL fans going.

So, on this day after Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos broke the single-season record for touchdown passes, we're wondering what Two-Way football fans think about one of the ongoing topics of conversation in ...

Good morning.

Our early Monday headlines and a couple from the weekend include:

-- Her Release Is Just A 'PR Stunt,' Pussy Riot Member Says

-- 'I Am A Lover ... Not A Hater,' Says 'Duck Dynasty' Star

-- Book News: 'It's Kind Of ...

"I love all men and women. I am a lover of humanity, not a hater," Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson told a Bible study group Sunday in his first public comments following his suspension from the A&E reality show because of things he said to GQ ...