Scott Neuman

The bus-sized meteor that slammed into Russia in February, causing a massive shock-wave and injuring hundreds of people, sent a plume of dust into the stratosphere that circled the globe in just four days and lingered for months, NASA says.

The Feb. 15 meteor at Chelyabinsk near Russia's southern ...

More than 30 people died and nearly 175 reportedly remained missing after a ferry collided with a cargo vessel and sank in the central Philippines.

Reuters reports that a gaping hole was left in the bow of the cargo ship after the collision with the ferry, MV Thomas Aquinas, ...

(This post was last updated at 4:20 p.m. ET)

Egyptian security forces have stormed a Cairo mosque where supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi holed up for hours on Saturday.

Al-Jazeera reports that the Fateh mosque has been cleared of protesters opposed to the July 3 coup that ousted ...

A new pipeline between the Central Asian republics of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan was until recently pumping away. Not oil, though — moonshine.

Customs and border officials in Kyrgyzstan uncovered the "makeshift underwater pipeline" on the bed of the Chu River, which divides the two countries. Officials think smugglers have sent ...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie agreed to ease restrictions on medical marijuana for chronically ill children, but he won't go as far as lawmakers would like.

NPR's Joel Rose reports that Christie, a Republican, has rejected part of a bill that would allow young patients access to an ingestible form ...

Wandering eyes at test time is hardly a new problem, but a photo of one classroom's unique solution has proved an embarrassment for Kasetsart University in Thailand, The Bangkok Post reports.

The university says it has decided to discontinue special "anti-cheating" headgear that was designed and constructed by ...

China says it plans to phase out the harvesting of organs from executed prisoners, ending a controversial practice that reportedly supplies most of the country's transplant patients.

Huang Jiefu, a surgeon and former deputy health minister who is in charge of organ transplants, says that beginning in November, China will ...

The Pentagon, hoping to stanch a sharp increase in reported sexual assaults within the ranks, has issued a plan designed to strengthen oversight and increase protections for victims.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel issued a one-page memo ordering enforcement of policies against inappropriate relationships between recruiters, instructors and trainee ...

(Updated 8:40 p.m. ET)

Ford on Thursday backpedaled on the stated fuel economy for its C-Max hybrid after customer complaints and an EPA investigation found that the vehicle wasn't living up to its advertised 47 mpg.

The company issued a statement lowering the vehicle's stated performance for combined city ...

Visitors to a zoo in China got a rude surprise when the lion started barking.

Turns out it was no lion, but just a Tibetan mastiff, a large, hairy breed of dog — which, for what it's worth, more closely resembles the king of the jungle than does perhaps any ...

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope to peer some 11 billion light-years into space and as many years back in time have seen something they didn't expect: fully formed galaxies when the universe was still quite young.

Galaxies come in three broad categories — spirals, such as our ...

Native Americans at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota have voted to overturn a more than century-old ban on alcohol in a decision that critics say will spur an increase in already high rates of domestic abuse, suicide and infant mortality.

Tribe members finalized the vote count Wednesday: ...

Wal-Mart is blaming depressed demand amid a still-shaky economy and a rise in payroll taxes for disappointing earnings in the quarter ending July 31.

The world's largest retailer said Thursday that its net income rose to $4.07 billion, barely above the $4.02 billion it earned in the same quarter ...

India has activated the reactor aboard the INS Arihant, believed to be the first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine designed and built outside the Cold War "nuclear club."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the event a "giant stride in ... our indigenous technological capabilities."

It's the first nuclear-powered submarine built in ...

A leap of faith that sent an Arizona family bound for the South Pacific in a sailboat has returned them in an airplane after a harrowing ordeal at sea that saw them adrift and nearly out of food in one of the remotest stretches of ocean on the planet.

Hannah ...

Israel's housing minister has given the green light to build 1,200 apartments in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, complicating newly revived peace talks with the Palestinians.

The decision comes as the two sides prepare for a second round of talks in Jerusalem after a high-level meeting in Washington, D.C., ...

An intense, week-long search for teenager Hannah Anderson and her alleged abductor ended in the Idaho wilderness when police shot and killed the suspect and rescued the girl.

Suspected kidnapper James DiMaggio, 40, was killed by an FBI agent after his campsite was discovered on Saturday in an aerial search ...

At least 60 people are dead in Iraq after a wave of car bombs in mainly Shi'ite areas of Baghdad as Muslims observe the end of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr. Scores more are reported wounded.

The attacks come amid an especially violent Ramadan for Iraq. The BBC reports that more ...

Six people have been killed by lava and ash from an erupting volcano on a tiny island in Indonesia.

Authorities in Indonesia say that Mount Rokatenda, a volcano that had been rumbling since last year on the island of Palue, finally erupted, spewing ash and rock three miles into the ...

(Updated 8:40 p.m. ET)

Sixteen-year-old Hannah Anderson, the subject of a multistate police search, was rescued alive Saturday, and the suspect in her abduction was killed in rural Idaho, the San Diego County, Calif., sheriff announced Saturday.

"Hannah was successfully rescued, and appears to be in pretty good shape," said ...