Scott Neuman

Astronaut Steven Nagel, who flew on four space shuttle missions in the 1980s and 90s, including two as mission commander, has died after a long battle with cancer, NASA confirms.

Nagel, an Air Force pilot who had logged many hours in fighter jets and as a test pilot, joined the ...

Iceland today raised an aviation alert level to reflect growing concern over underground rumblings at its Bardarbunga volcano in the central part of the island nation.

A sub-glacial eruption caused Icelandic authorities to raise the aviation alert level to red, indicating "significant emission of ash into the atmosphere," The ...

Updated at 3:10 p.m. ET

The United Nations is calling for action to prevent what it's describing as a possible massacre in Iraq's northeastern city of Amerli, which has been under siege for two months by Islamic State militants.

The city's population is largely Turkmen Shia, seen as apostates by ...

The Pentagon has released a photo of the Chinese fighter jet it says made a "dangerous intercept" of a U.S. Navy maritime patrol aircraft, flying close passes, performing barrel rolls and flying wingtip-to-wingtip with the American plane in what officials described as an "aggressive and unprofessional" manner.

As we ...

At last Sunday's Creative Arts Emmys, Bob's Burgers won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. Alexander McCall offers this appreciation of its approach to its strange and fascinating women. The Primetime Emmy ceremony airs Monday night, August 25.

The original proof-of-concept for the Fox animated sitcom Bob's ...

Russia's foreign ministry says a convoy that crossed into rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine has delivered its humanitarian cargo and is heading home.

Dozens of white trucks, which had been sitting near the border inside Russian territory for more than a week, suddenly got underway on Friday and moved ...

Rodrigo Amarante has made the year's tenderest record. Cavalo is sonically rich and spare at the same time: Every instrument breathes and every sound blends, yet every moment is distinct. At Cavalo's core are heartfelt songs and Amarante's sweet, smoky voice.

Amarante is from Rio de Janeiro, and these ...

Dozens of Sunnis attending a mosque for Friday prayers have been killed in a suicide attack in Iraq's eastern Diyala province — the latest sectarian violence to hit the deeply divided country.

The Associated Press says at least 64 people were killed in the suicide bombing, which was followed up ...

Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes says the beheading of an American journalist by Islamic State militants this week is tantamount to a terrorist attack on the United States and that it comes as the al-Qaida-inspired extremist group has "gained capacity in the last several months."

In response to a ...

Update at 2:20 p.m. ET

A Chinese fighter jet conducted what is being describing as a "dangerous intercept" of a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon in international waters off the island of Hainan in the South China Sea earlier this week, the Pentagon confirms.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby ...

Attention Venezuelan shoppers: Please proceed to the supermarket checkout for fingerprinting.

That could be a reality if a plan announced earlier this week by the country's president, Nicolas Maduro, goes into effect.

The purpose? Combating shortages caused by rampant smuggling of subsidized food in Venezuela across the border into neighboring ...

Updated at 3:25 p.m. ET

One day after an Israeli airstrike killed three of its senior military leaders, Hamas says it has executed more than a dozen people in the Gaza Strip, after concluding that they had been spying for Israel.

A four-year-old Israeli boy was also reportedly killed in ...

Update at 5:00 p.m. ET

After being halted at the border for more than a week, a Russian aid convoy is rumbling into eastern Ukraine without permission, prompting Kiev to label the move a "direct invasion" of sovereign territory.

Karoun Demirjian, reporting for NPR from Moscow, says 150 Russian ...

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel describes a failed U.S. mission into northern Syria earlier this summer to rescue Americans believed held there — including a journalist who was executed earlier this week — as "flawless" despite not recovering the hostages.

"This was a flawless operation, but the hostages weren't ...

The diseases of the developing world took a toll on Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja (B.K.S) Iyengar. As a boy, he was physically weakened from typhoid, tuberculosis and malaria.

Then his brother-in-law suggested he learn yoga to improve his health.

"Seeing that the general state of my health was so poor, my ...

Don't expect Secretary of State John Kerry to accept the ALS "Ice Bucket Challenge" anytime soon: Lawyers at the State Department have banned high-profile U.S. diplomats from participating in the fundraising phenomenon that has swept social media in recent weeks.

In an unclassified cable issued earlier this week, ...

The man who toppled Thailand's democratically elected government in May has been chosen as the country's interim prime minister.

Not surprisingly, junta leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha's hand-picked legislature voted 191-0 with three abstentions to legitimize the coup leader's role as head of government. He was the only candidate.

Bank of America Corp. has agreed to pay nearly $17 billion in a settlement with federal regulators over allegations that it misled investors into buying risky, mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial meltdown.

The Department of Justice, which announced the $16.65 billion deal today, describes it as ...