Mark Memmott

There were 343,000 first-time claims filed for unemployment insurance last week, the Employment and Training Administration says. That was up from an estimated 336,000 the week before.

The increase is from what had been a 10-week low. But basically, claims have been ranging between the mid-330,000s and mid-370,000s ...

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- 'Scene From Hell' At Site Of Spanish Train Crash.

-- Bo Xilai, Disgraced Chinese Official, Is Indicted.

-- Book News: Jane Austen To Replace Darwin On The 10-Pound Note.

Other stories making headlines:

-- "Closing Arguments Due In ...

Bo Xilai, a rising star among China's political elite until his career collapsed in early 2012 after his wife was connected to the murder of a British businessman, was charged Thursday "with taking bribes, embezzlement and abuse of power," China's Xinhua News writes.

On ...

This post was last updated at 5:45 p.m. ET.

About 80 people died, scores more were wounded and the eyewitness accounts are sobering in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, after Wednesday's crash of a passenger train.

Reuters writes that "in what one local official described as a ...

President Obama on Wednesday launched another effort to lay out his vision for how to strengthen the U.S. economy with a midday speech at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., in which he hit themes familiar to those who followed his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns.

While focusing on issues ...

New home sales rose 8.3 percent in June to an annual rate of 497,000, the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Wednesday.

At that pace, sales were the strongest since the 504,000 rate of May 2008.

The housing sector has been one ...

President Obama is halting the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Egypt for an undetermined period due to the "current situation" on the ground there, the Pentagon said Wednesday. (Via Reuters)

The Associated Press adds that while the delivery of the jets has been delayed, an ...

As New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner was admitting Tuesday that he continued to "sext" after his 2011 resignation from Congress, social media sites were abuzz about the "cubicle guy" whose head kept popping up behind the Democratic politician.

"Who is the white haired guy in the ...

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Weiner's Own Words: Saying One Thing, Doing Another?

-- Russia May Soon Let Snowden Leave Airport.

-- Gas Well On Fire After Blowout In Gulf Of Mexico.

-- Book News: Chuck Palahniuk Working On 'Fight Club' Sequel.

Nothing about where "NSA leaker" Edward Snowden may go next ever seems to be certain. Remember the flurry of excitement about that Aeroflot flight he was supposedly on (but wasn't)?

So it is with a large grain of salt that we pass along these reports:

-- ...

A natural gas well off the coast of Louisiana was on fire Wednesday, one day after a blowout forced 44 workers to evacuate. There were no injuries reported.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement says the mishap at Well A-3 below a "Hercules 265 jack-up rig," about ...

Anthony Weiner, the former congressman who wants to be New York City's next mayor, admitted Tuesday that the same behavior that led to his resignation from Congress in 2011 — trading lewd messages with women — continued into the summer of 2012.

That would be well ...

Is Ryan Braun just the leadoff hitter for a lineup of stars who, like him, will soon be suspended by Major League Baseball for their dealings with a Miami-area clinic that allegedly sold performance enhancing drugs?

On Here & Now Tuesday afternoon, Sports Illustrated writer David Epstein told ...

When a woman slipped between a train and a station platform just north of Tokyo on Monday, about 40 commuters and railroad employees worked together to tilt the 32-ton subway car enough to one side so that she could be pulled to safety.

The Associated Press writes that ...

Divers Shawn Stamback and Francis Antigua had a much closer encounter than they expected off the coast of central California on Saturday when two humpback whales surfaced just a few feet away from where they were swimming.

The original video of their experience — aptly titled "Whales Almost ...

On the heels of another deadly day in Syria — where about 100,000 people have died in the past two years and several million more have been displaced by battles between government forces and those trying to topple President Bashar Assad's regime — we're getting a look at ...

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- James? George? What Will 'Baby Cambridge' Be Named?

-- Hearing Tuesday For Trooper Who Released Tsarnaev Photos.

-- LaGuardia Back Online After Southwest Accident.

-- Book News: Story By 'Catch-22' Author Published For The First Time.

The Massachusetts State Police sergeant who gave photos of Boston bombings defendant Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to Boston Magazine has been placed on restricted duty, The Associated Press reported just after 1 p.m. ET Tuesday.

The AP adds, "Sgt. Sean Murphy leaked the photos last week, saying he wanted to counter a ...

Flights due to arrive at New York City's LaGuardia Airport were experiencing delays that averaged 1 hour and 27 minutes as Tuesday dawned, the Federal Aviation Administration says.

But the issue was weather-related, traffic controllers said, not the aftermath of Monday afternoon's accident, in which a ...

Now that he's been born, the next big moments in little Baby Cambridge's life will be when he's seen in public and when the world hears what his name will be.

On Morning Edition, NPR's Philip Reeves said the first glimpse of the duke and duchess ...