Mark Memmott

Home prices in major cities across the nation were up 10.9 percent in March from March 2012, the biggest year-over-year increase since April 2006, according to the data trackers who put together the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.

Their surveys show that:

-- While prices rose 10.9 percent on ...

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- From Texas To Great Lakes, Severe Weather Due Again.

-- Report: An Angry Russia Will Deliver Missiles To Syria.

-- Rutgers Stands Behind New Athletic Director.

-- Book News: Not Everyone's A Fan Of Amazon's Fan ...

Saying that "Julie's entire record of accomplishment ... is stellar," Rutgers University President Robert Barchi has issued a statement supporting the school's incoming athletic director — who has come under intense scrutiny because of allegations about how she treated players she once coached.

And the incoming athletic director, ...

The European Union's decision to end its embargo on arming the opposition in Syria has been followed by sharp criticism from Russia's foreign ministry and word that Russia will follow through on plans to deliver anti-aircraft missiles to President Bashar Assad's military.

According to the BBC, ...

The warnings aren't as ominous as they were eight days ago in the hours leading up to the tornado that devastated Moore, Okla., but the National Weather Service is predicting "another round of severe weather for the Central United States on Tuesday."

According to ...

Declaring that along 80 percent of his state's shore "you won't notice any difference" if you visit this summer, Gov. Chris Christie used a Friday appearance on NBC-TV's Today show to say New Jersey is ready for its first summer since Superstorm Sandy devastated the coast.

Saying that "those who commit sexual assaults are not only committing a crime, they threaten the trust and discipline that make our military strong," President Obama on Friday urged Naval Academy graduates to help bring an end to a disturbing series of such offenses.

"They've got no place in the ...

Two men were arrested and removed from a Pakistan International Airlines passenger jet Friday. It had been on its way from Lahore, Pakistan, to Manchester, England, when something that happened aboard led authorities to scramble Royal Air Force fighter jets and divert the passenger plane to London Stansted ...

In an emotional statement Friday, the stepfather of the young British soldier who was hacked to death this week on a busy south London street said his son was "our hero."

"Our hearts have been ripped apart from us, everyone is struggling to cope with this tragedy," a ...

(We most recently updated the top of this post at 6:45 p.m. ET.)

An explosion followed by gunfire in Kabul on Friday claimed the lives of at least two attackers and wounded a small number of civilians. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which appeared to have been aimed ...

Representatives of President Bashar Assad's regime have agreed "in principle" to attend an international peace conference aimed at ending more than two years of brutal warfare in Syria, Russia's foreign ministry said Friday.

But NPR's Corey Flintoff reports from Moscow that Russian diplomats also said it's not known ...

As the residents of Moore, Okla., and surrounding communities continue to recover from Monday's devastating tornado that killed at least 24 people and injured more than 375, we're keeping an eye on the news from there:

-- Oklahoma City's KOCO-TV reports that "Moore Police will be ...

(Most recent update: 5:35 p.m. ET.)

Miracle is the word that comes to Dan Sligh's mind after he and his wife, Sally, survived a plunge off a highway bridge in Washington state on Thursday evening.

Sligh tells The Seattle Times that they were driving on Interstate 5 near ...

New government figures add to evidence of a decline in teen pregnancies across the nation and point to a notably large drop in births among Hispanic teens, NPR's Jennifer Ludden tells our Newscast Desk.

She reports that the overall birth rate among teens is now half what it was at ...

Ahead of his much-anticipated speech Thursday afternoon at the National Defense University, there's word that President Obama:

Drones

-- Will announce he's going to "sharply curtail the instances when unmanned aircraft can be used to attack in places that are not overt war zones, countries like Pakistan, Yemen and ...

Charles Ramsey, the neighbor who helped rescue three young women from a Cleveland home where authorities say they had been held captive and brutalized for about a decade, "will enjoy free burgers for life" in honor of his actions, The Plain Dealer reports.

Ramsey

There were 340,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, down 23,000 from the week before, the Employment and Training Administration reports.

The decline follows something of a spike. But in reality, the drop just means that claims continue to run at the pace they've been ...

Ibragim Todashev, the 27-year-old man shot and killed after he allegedly attacked an FBI agent Wednesday in Orlando, may have been involved with Boston bombings suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a 2011 triple murder.

As NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reported on All Things Considered, "it's still under investigation, ...

(Most recent update: 1:30 p.m. ET.)

One day after a British soldier was hacked to death on a busy southeast London street by two men who were heard claiming that they wanted to avenge the deaths of Muslims killed during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Prime Minister David Cameron ...

Funerals began Thursday for the 24 people known to have been killed by the tornado that devastated Moore, Okla., on Monday.

Nine-year-old Antonia Candelaria, one of the 7 children killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School, was being remembered at a local church. Her obituary says that ...