Merrit Kennedy

Global oil and gas price drops have shattered BP's profits.

The British energy giant said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter "underlying replacement cost profits" (or net income) dropped 91 percent. Profits fell to $196 million, compared with $2.2 billion in the year-ago quarter.

The full-year figures were somewhat less dramatic: 2015 ...

Two E. coli outbreaks linked to Chipotle restaurants "appear to be over," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

The first, larger outbreak hit 55 people in 11 states, with Washington having the most cases, the CDC says. The second outbreak, which was caused by a different strain ...

Praying for rain? You'll get (slightly) less when the moon is very high, a new study finds.

Scientists at the University of Washington say the moon's position impacts the amount of rainfall on Earth.

"As far as I know, this is the first study to convincingly connect the tidal force ...

A team of British scientists received approval by U.K.'s fertility regulator to edit genes in human embryos.

"It is the first time a country has considered the DNA-altering technique in embryos and approved it," the BBC reports.

Now that Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has given the ...

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and state Republican leaders have announced a rare bipartisan compromise on gun laws for the state.

McAuliffe, who is a Democrat, tells reporters that "the balance of this deal changes Virginia law permanently in ways that would keep guns away from people who would use ...

The spread of the Zika virus is raising concerns about the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, which are only 189 days away.

NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports that the International Olympic Committee is sending an advisory about the mosquito-borne virus to competitors. Here's more from Lourdes:

"The ...

U.N.-sponsored Syrian peace talks are beginning today in Geneva in an effort to put an end to the nearly 5-year-old conflict.

The main Syrian opposition group says it will attend the talks, after initially refusing to go to Geneva.

The opposition's High Negotiations Committee says its decision to participate "was ...

DeVry University, which has at least 55 locations across the U.S., advertises that 90 percent of its graduates seeking employment found jobs in their field within six months of graduation.

That claim by the for-profit university is coming under fire. The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against ...

On a typical day at the Capitoline Museum in Rome, a visitor might expect to see classical nude statues like this:

But this was the scene before Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani held a news conference this week at the museum:

Out of apparent ...

French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira has resigned amid fallout over proposals to strip French citizenship from dual nationals convicted of terrorism.

The controversial measure was proposed in the wake of the November terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.

"Sometimes to resist is to remain, sometime to resist is ...

Amherst College says it will stop using the controversial "Lord Jeff" as an unofficial mascot following complaints that the character is racist.

The mascot is a caricature of Lord Jeffery Amherst, an English general who proposed giving blankets from smallpox patients to Native Americans.

"Could it not be contrived to ...

A long-lost Beatrix Potter book, The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, is set to be released this fall, 150 years after the beloved author's birth.

The tale about a sharply dressed feline has "all the hallmarks of Potter's best works," editor Jo Hanks, who stumbled upon the story, says in an ...

Authorities are now offering $50,000 for information leading to the apprehension of three men who escaped from a maximum-security jail in Orange County, Calif.

This comes amid a flurry of questions about why it took authorities 16 hours to realize the men were missing.

The men escaped from the Men's ...

The World Health Organization says it expects the Zika virus to spread to every country in the Western Hemisphere except Canada.

It says the virus has already "spread to 21 countries and territories of the Americas."

"Canada is off the list simply because it's too cold for the type ...

On this day five years ago, tens of thousands of Egyptians flooded into Cairo's Tahrir Square.

It was the start of an uprising that would unseat Egypt's longtime dictator, Hosni Mubarak, 18 days later.

Police initially allowed protesters leeway but then cracked down with tear gas and water cannons. Here's ...

High lead levels in Flint, Mich.'s water has led President Obama to declare a state of emergency, as criticism mounts that the problem has not been handled promptly.

"The people weren't put first, the health of the people was not put before profit and money," Flint Mayor Karen Weaver says ...

For nearly 150 years, a bizarre tree frog species in India was believed to be extinct.

Now, scientists have found the elusive Frankixalus jerdonii in India's West Bengal state, in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Last seen in the wild in 1870, the frogs were rediscovered by accident during a ...

As anyone who has lived anywhere chilly can attest, clearing snow off a car can be cold, time-consuming work.

Most of us would agree it's also a necessary step before driving anywhere.

An 80-year old Ontario man appeared to disagree. He was caught driving a car encased in snow, except ...

The largest-ever prime number has been discovered in Central Missouri — and oh, what a number it is.

2^74,207,281-1=The record number

The record number, nicknamed M74207281, has more than 20 million digits. That's nearly 5 million digits longer than the previous record. If you printed each digit 1 mm ...

The village of Madaya, where civilians died of starvation during months of siege by government forces, isn't the only place in Syria where people can't get enough food.

Before aid convoys arrived in Madaya on Jan. 11, at least 23 people in clinics died of starvation, Doctors Without Borders reported.