The Marine Corps on Thursday once again did damage control after a photograph surfaced of a sniper team in Afghanistan posing in front of a flag with a logo resembling that of the notorious Nazi SS - a special unit that murdered millions of Jews, gypsies and others.

Chicago's city clerk says she will buy a $1,000 savings bond for the boy whose winning design for the 2012-13 vehicle registration sticker was scrapped because some believe it may depict gang signs.

Malaysian police say they have detained a Saudi journalist who apparently fled his country after being accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Twitter.

The story already had people's attention: A multimillionaire polo magnate was accused of causing a drunken-driving wreck that killed a young man. But now, with his criminal trial approaching, a strange twist has raised even more eyebrows: He has adopted his 42-year-old girlfriend.

New orders from the Pentagon: The military on Thursday formally opened thousands of jobs to women in units that are closer to the front lines than ever before, reflecting what's already been going on as female American soldiers fight and die next to their male comrades.

School got off to a rough start Thursday with students returning to class for the first time since their entire elementary school staff was replaced after two longtime teachers were accused of lewd acts on children.

The United States and its allies believe the window to stop Iran from building a bomb is quickly closing, pushing conflict with the Islamic republic to the top of the Obama administration's national security worries in the midst of an election year.

A landmark $25 billion settlement with the nation's top mortgage lenders was hailed by government officials Thursday as long-overdue relief for victims of foreclosure abuses. But consumer advocates countered that far too few people will benefit.

It could be the beginning of the end for No Child Left Behind.

The deal offers help to struggling homeowners, but experts view it more as a moral victory with limited impact on the broader housing market.

Andrej Pejic is the only top-tier fashion model who can walk down the runway as either a man or a woman.

Before Josh Powell was going to try to win back custody of his children last week, Washington state authorities received materials from Utah police that had been discovered on a computer in Powell's home two years ago. Authorities say the images depicted "incestuous" sex and were disconcerting enough that they prompted a psychologist to recommend that Powell undergo an intensive psychosexual evaluation.

Chinese security forces shot dead two Tibetan brothers who had been on the run since taking part in anti-government protests two weeks ago in southwest China, a U.S.-funded broadcaster reported Friday.

The chief prosecutor's office obtained an arrest warrant Thursday for ex-President Alvaro Uribe's longtime peace commissioner for allegedly choreographing the bogus surrender of a column of leftist guerrillas.

The judge in a case involving a Houston woman reasoned that lactation was not pregnancy-related and, as a result, "firing someone because of lactation or breast-pumping is not sex discrimination."

A military jury on Thursday found a Marine sergeant not guilty after authorities charged him with hazing a lance corporal who later committed suicide in Afghanistan.

A central Pennsylvania couple say they've captured a purple squirrel in their backyard.

Beijing says a celebrity policeman linked to one of country's rising political stars spent a day in a U.S. consulate in southwestern China amid speculation that he sought political asylum.

Opposition presidential contender Pablo Perez finished off his campaign Thursday urging public employees to join his supporters and vote in a primary election choosing a single challenger to face President Hugo Chavez.

A man who state and local officials say is running a massive illegal gold-mining operation in California's Sierra Nevada surrendered Thursday to face 14 criminal charges of operating without permits and polluting a creek.

A plot to bomb an MLK Day parade route in Spokane and evidence of anti-government stirrings in northwestern Montana prompt fears of a resurgence of white-supremacist and militia groups in the region.

Rio state police officers voted at a rally Thursday night to begin a strike that could prompt violence during the globe's biggest Carnival bash in spite of government approval of a pay raise earlier in the day.

Some questioned if schools would be getting a pass on aggressively helping poor and minority children, those the No Child Left Behind law was primarily designed to help.

The family of one of four people killed in a New York pharmacy holdup filed a $20 million lawsuit Thursday, alleging that a drug company that manufactures painkillers, a physician accused of improperly distributing the drugs, police officials and others were responsible for the victim's death.

A suspect in the shooting of a customs agent was romantically obsessed with the victim's wife, whom he met last year while he was an instructor and she was a student at a Bay Area school for aspiring opticians, court documents filed Thursday alleged.

Eight South Korean lawmakers made a high-profile visit Friday to a modern factory park that sits just across the world's most heavily armed border and represents the last major cooperative initiative between the two rival Koreas.

Democrats said House Republican leaders weakened the bill by stripping out a provision that would regulate firms that collect "political intelligence" for hedge funds, private equity firms and other investors.

Ken Webber still proudly flies his Confederate battle flag with the word "Redneck" emblazed across it from the CB antenna on his pickup truck. He hopes that his lawsuit in federal court will get his job back driving a school bus.

The Mexican army says it has found 73 Central American migrants in three houses near the U.S. border and troops arrested four men suspected of planning to smuggle the people into Texas.

Philanthropist Raymond Perelman says he has been "excluded" from the sale of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News days after former Gov. Ed Rendell and others announced a play for the company that owns them.

An Uzbekistan national charged with threatening the life of President Barack Obama was also charged Thursday with providing material aid to terrorism.

Just hours after Greece gave in to painful new job and spending cuts, European ministers declared Thursday that Athens didn't go far enough and demanded more within a week in exchange for a euro130 billion ($170 billion) bailout to stave off bankruptcy.

Doctors have long worried about how to balance treating a pregnant woman with cancer and the need to protect her fetus from cancer drugs and radiation.

Acrid smoke from a fire at a sprawling trash dump blanketed swaths of Jamaica's capital Thursday, and officials warned people to stay indoors to avoid exposure to potentially dangerous pollutants.

The size of the meth bust in Mexico state suggests involvement of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel.

Medical authorities in Panama say former dictator Manuel Noriega has left a hospital four days after fainting in the prison where he is serving time for murder, embezzlement and corruption.

He had smoked pot and dropped LSD. He could be a pain to work with. He twisted the truth at times. Yet according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) background file released Thursday, former Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs would still have made a fine presidential appointee.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that two claims could move forward against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for alleged sexual abuse by clergy, laying the groundwork for about 570 claims to follow.

Chile has settled its criminal case against an Israeli hiker accused of negligently causing a fire that destroyed much of the Torres del Paine national park.

Ron Barber was always the behind-the-scenes man for his boss, Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Attorneys who accuse Greg Mortenson of defrauding readers in his best-selling "Three Cups of Tea" say his case is no different from that of James Frey, who admitted on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" that he lied in his memoir "A Million Little Pieces."

Bolivian authorities say they've seized 17 properties from a provincial clan ostensibly in the gravel business that it suspects of laundering drug money through real estate.

A state worker is facing disciplinary action after sending an official email to hundreds of people Thursday that contained an off-color term for breasts, the Oklahoma Insurance Department said.

A British armored car guard suspected of driving off with a fortune worth $1.5 million back in 1993 has been captured in rural Missouri, where he had been working as a cable guy and raising a son who apparently knew nothing of his father's past.

A prosecutor in a case against a North Carolina woman accused of snatching a newborn from a New York City hospital more than two decades ago says she will plead guilty Friday to criminal charges.

Authorities in the Dominican Republic have recovered 10 more bodies from the weekend sinking of a boat carrying illegal migrants. That raises the confirmed death toll to 51.

The new, more detailed warning comes in response to concerns expressed by Mexico tourism officials, who worried that previous travel warnings scared off U.S. tourists.

A court in the Maldives issued an arrest warrant Thursday for former President Mohamed Nasheed, a day after his supporters rampaged in the capital and his claim of being ousted in a coup left unclear the stability of the fledging Indian Ocean democracy.

The adoption was revealed in recently filed court papers, dumbfounding the Florida judge who will preside over the wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the victim's family.

A federal judge's ruling against a Houston mother who says she was fired after asking for a place to pump breast milk has highlighted a question left unanswered by higher courts: Is firing a woman because she wants to pump at work sexual discrimination?

Ecuador's foreign minister says police in Italy found nearly 90 pounds (40 kilos) of cocaine in diplomatic mail sent to the Mediterranean country and two suspects have been arrested.

Hold the mystery meat: Military mess halls soon will be serving more fruits, vegetables and low-fat dishes under the first program in 20 years to improve nutrition standards across the armed services.

A lawyer for a Guantanamo prisoner charged in the Sept. 11 attack has filed suit against the prison commander, arguing a new rule subjecting legal mail to a security review is unconstitutional and amounts to illegal "intelligence monitoring" of a U.S. citizen.

Michigan's governor said Thursday that the state should capitalize on its brightest economic outlook in a decade by opening its checkbook to school districts - but only those that can show their students actually are learning from year to year.

If Mitt Romney needs some good news in an otherwise lousy week, he might find it in an improbable place: the packed hallways of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Venezuela turned over a prominent Colombian paramilitary warlord to Colombian authorities on Thursday.

Some examples of changes for women in the military:

The nation's first new nuclear power plant in a generation won approval Thursday as federal regulators voted to grant a license for two new reactors at a site in eastern Georgia.

A request for an injunction to stop Twitter users from alerting drivers to police roadblocks, radar traps and drunk-driving checkpoints could make Brazil the first country to take Twitter up on its plan to censor content at governments' requests.

Feuding attorneys asked the Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday to determine the validity of pardons that Haley Barbour gave to convicted killers and other convicts during his final days as governor.

Some of the nation's largest states are questioning whether the Obama administration's offer to let them escape certain mandates of the No Child Left Behind law is a helping hand to improve education or a means to impose more federal control.

Supporters of a war memorial cross deemed unconstitutional last year by a federal court rallied at the landmark on Thursday as lawyers asked the Supreme Court to reverse the decision, amid a growing fight nationwide over the use of religious symbols to honor fallen troops.

The House on Thursday joined the Senate in voting to explicitly prohibit members of Congress and other top officials from making investments on insider information. But an effort to bridle purveyors of Capitol Hill political intelligence could delay the bill's enactment.

EU's economy chief: 'Seriously considering' separate account for Greek bailouy to repay debt.

A man accused of brandishing a gun in a North Dakota courtroom was convicted Thursday of two counts of attempted murder involving the prosecutor and sheriff, but was acquitted on 12 other counts related to jurors.

A long-sought safety feature that Congress required after a deadly 2008 rail crash would be delayed for five years under legislation that the House is expected to take up next week.

A federal judge who was vilified by Republican presidential hopefuls for banning prayer at a Texas high school graduation delivered a scathing and unusually personal response Thursday, saying those who used the case to further political goals "should be ashamed."

The historic seizure of 15 tons of pure methamphetamine in western Mexico, equal to half of all meth seizures worldwide in 2009, feeds growing speculation that the country could become a world platform for meth production, not just a supplier to the United States.

A Connecticut hedge fund adviser carried out a $500 million fraud scheme with help from people in Venezuela, including a manager at the state-owned oil company, according to lawsuits seeking the return of tens of millions of dollars in what they say are bribes and kickbacks.

Algeria's president has announced on state television that elections will be held May 10.

Egypt's ruling generals have a new enemy: the legions of angry soccer fans who have injected fervor into recent protests demanding the military step down and battled police for days in the streets of Cairo.

Authorities have formally charged five suspects in the killing of a couple in the wealthy Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley.

The Mexican army's highest official concedes the military has committed errors in the fight against organized crime and drug traffickers but says those responsible have been punished.

One of three fugitive siblings who were the focus of a nationwide search last summer will have to serve at least nine years in prison after pleading guilty to reduced charges.

FBI background interviews of some people who knew Apple co-founder Steve Jobs reveal a man driven by power and alienating some of the people who worked with him.

Lynette Johnson has repeatedly said in court that death is the only sentence befitting three inmates charged in the slaying of her prison guard husband during a botched prison escape at the South Dakota State Penitentiary.

The Virginia state Senate passed legislation Thursday allowing private adoption agencies to deny placements that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs, including opposition to homosexuality.

Prosecutors in Rhode Island are asking a judge to reject a request for leniency from an Illinois man who admitted shipping unwanted penis enlargers to diabetes patients as part of a Medicare fraud scheme.

An American Indian tribe sued some of the world's largest beer makers Thursday, claiming they knowingly contributed to devastating alcohol-related problems on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The superstar Spanish judge who won global fame for aggressively taking on international human rights cases was convicted Thursday of overstepping his jurisdiction in a domestic corruption probe and barred from the bench for 11 years, marking a spectacular fall from grace for one of the nation's most prominent citizens.

Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, the U.S. Postal Service's quarterly loss ballooned to $3.3 billion amid declining mail volume and the soaring costs of health benefits for future retirees.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin issued a 30-day stay of execution Thursday for a death-row inmate who had been scheduled to die next week for the 1986 murder of the mother of his two children.

Legislators in Panama have agreed to reconsider a law on dams and mining that set off disruptive protests by Indians and their supporters.

The smallest cattle herd since the 1950s likely will mean higher beef prices at the supermarket for the next two years.

High winds. Lightning. Hail. A severe thunderstorm warning. A huge crowd waits for country duo Sugarland to take the stage.

The number of people claiming they were injected with the parasite causing malaria at a Vienna psychiatric ward while teenagers grew to seven Thursday, with the lawyer representing six of them saying their accounts, given separately, are credible because they are similar.

Top officials at the government agency rebuilding the World Trade Center promised Thursday to make reforms after an audit called the organization "dysfunctional" and wasteful.

An attorney for the man who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan told a judge Thursday that his client has shown he is not dangerous and should therefore be allowed more time away from a Washington mental hospital.

After two hours' grueling drive southeast from the center of Mexico City, through paralyzing traffic jams and clouds of throat-burning smog, the bleached-white haze of air pollution gives way to pale-blue sky.

Iran's official news agency reported Thursday that the navy has added two more domestically built light submarines to its fleet.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood called Thursday on the ruling generals to sack the military-appointed government, saying it has failed to manage the deteriorating security and economic situation in the country.

In a story Feb. 7 about a lack of progress by a commission established to right the wrongs of Chicago's police torture scandal, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the commission hasn't met since August and cancelled an October meeting. The commission postponed, but didn't cancel, an October meeting, and met later that month. It did cancel its meetings in December and February, as reported.

Between blasts of rockets and mortar fire, Syrians used loudspeakers to call for blood donations and medical supplies Thursday in the stricken city of Homs, where a weeklong government offensive has created a deepening humanitarian crisis.

Hamas appears to be drifting away from its longtime patron Iran - part of a shift that began with last year's Arab Spring and accelerated over Tehran's backing of the pariah regime in Syria.

Candy company executive Nello Ferrara lived a sweet life.

The U.N. is honoring two 16-year-old Girl Scouts for their work aimed at saving orangutans from extinction.

Greenland was in mourning Thursday after an 8-year-old girl and two women were bludgeoned to death and two men seriously injured in a remote Inuit village.

An Iranian opposition website reported Thursday that authorities have banned one of the daughters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi from her teaching job.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday claimed that an airstrike carried out by the international coalition killed eight children in eastern Afghanistan.

The driver of a stolen car abandoned the vehicle early Thursday during a short police chase and took refuge on rooftops in Westwood, taunting officers during a continuing standoff that has lasted for hours, police said.

An attempt to protect a rhinoceros from poachers in South Africa by sedating it to treat its horn ended with the animal's death Thursday in front of journalists and others who had been invited to learn more about anti-poaching efforts, conservationists said.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has fined a gas driller more than $500,000 for three separate violations.

Romania's Parliament approved a new government led by a former spy chief on Thursday, and he promised to keep up the austerity measures the country imposed to win international loans but to raise public-sector salaries as soon as he can.

A culture of silence across Asia may be keeping many victims of clergy sex abuse there from coming forward, a top Asian church official told a Vatican-backed conference on Thursday.

In a Feb. 3 story and some previous reports about the case of Gigi Jordan, a former pharmaceuticals executive charged in the death of her 8-year-old son, The Associated Press erroneously reported where she is from. She is a native of New York City, not Belgium.

A man shown on video being kicked and punched by four New York City police officers says he's suffered from constant headaches and nightmares since then.

A British judge on Thursday sent nine men to prison for al-Qaida inspired plots to bomb the London Stock Exchange and set up a terrorist training camp.

Facing domestic political pressures, the Bush and Obama administrations released or transferred 600 terror suspects deemed an acceptable threat from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, only to find that 27 percent re-engaged in terrorist or insurgent activities, according to a report by Republicans on the investigations panel of the House Armed Services Committee.

A surgical kit advertised as belonging to a Nazi concentration camp commandant has been withdrawn from sale, and questions have been raised about its origins.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and Jordan's King Abdullah II on Thursday agreed to cooperate over thus-far unsuccessful attempts to deport extremist cleric Abu Qatada from London to Amman, the U.K. leader's office said.

A judge says a German-born man charged with killing his 91-year-old wife in Washington cannot continue to represent himself.

Serbia was struggling to keep its power system going, officials warned Thursday, after weeks of record low temperatures in Europe that have snarled traffic, frozen rivers and challenged officials to step up outreach to the vulnerable homeless.

The Somali militant group al-Shabab has formally joined al-Qaida, according to a video translation released Thursday of a message from al-Qaida's leader.

Three conservative clerics whose arrests nine years ago heralded the beginning of Morocco's crackdown on Islamists called on Thursday for a new investigation into their country's worst terrorist attack.

An Army private accused of leaking classified material to the anti-secrecy website Wikileaks will be back in a military courtroom for an arraignment later this month.

In a high-stakes gamble, an imprisoned member of a Palestinian militant group has waged a hunger strike for almost two months, trying to draw attention to Israel's military justice system and its treatment of detainees who can be held without charge for lengthy periods.

Police say an Ohio man who stuck his 3-year-old son in a clothes dryer as punishment and then turned it on is facing child endangerment charges.

As Mali's army confronts attacks from ethnic Tuareg separatists, the country's president is battling some tough critics: the wives of military personnel who grilled him for nearly two hours on state television about the government's failure to put down the rebellion.

For two centuries it rested a mile from shore, shrouded by a treacherous reef from the pleasure boaters and beachgoers who haunt New England's southern coast.

Investigators say a 6-year-old Pittsburgh boy set fire to a piece of paper that caught a couch on fire, sparking a blaze that killed a couple who lived in an upstairs apartment.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has "exhausted" his potential as Russia's leader, Mikhail Gorbachev declared Thursday, saying Putin's inability to change the Kremlin's political system might prompt more massive anti-government protests.

A funeral held for Nobel-winning poet Wislawa Szymborska drew more than 1,000 people to a snowy cemetery on Thursday, and Poland's president praised her for producing verse that allowed readers to see the "tiniest particles of beauty" in everyday life.

The U.S. State Department's top human rights envoy is urging Bahrain's Sunni monarchy and Shiite-led opposition to resume talks aimed at ending yearlong unrest in the strategic Gulf nation.

Officials say a police shooting in Nigeria's southeast caused Muslims living in the Christian area to flee in panic amid concerns about retaliatory violence.

Authorities in northeastern Alabama say a man dove into the Tennessee River after seeing his girlfriend's car sinking and drowned in the fast-moving water. But authorities say he may not have realized the girlfriend had already escaped from the car and was helped to shore by a fisherman.

Police say a pregnant teenager was held captive nine days in a California home, where she was bound with tape and beaten by a jealous boyfriend.

A federal grand jury has indicted a Romanian citizen on charges he hacked into 25 climate-research computers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

An Indonesian accused of making the explosives used in the 2002 Bali bombings is scheduled to go on trial next week on terrorism and murder charges, a court official said Thursday.

A Jordanian prosecutor says he has ordered a powerful former intelligence chief to be detained for 14 days pending a probe on charges of embezzlement of public funds, money laundering and abuse of office.

The daughter of jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Thursday accused prison authorities of subjecting her mother to "horrendous" pain by denying her painkillers.

Emergency call logs show that nearly eight minutes elapsed between when a social worker called 911 to report that Josh Powell's children were in danger and when sheriff's deputies were dispatched. By the time officers were on their way, the home was exploding in a gas-fueled inferno, with Powell and his two young boys inside.

A U.S. drone fired two missiles at a house in Pakistan's northwest tribal region Thursday, killing five suspected militants, intelligence officials said. The Taliban identified one of them as a prominent commander who has served as a key link to al-Qaida.

Another Tibetan has set himself on fire in western China to protest government policies while thousands marched in another part of China to show support for their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, a report said.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has "exhausted himself" as Russia's leader and his inability to change the Kremlin's political system might prompt more massive protests.

A Maldives court issued an arrest warrant Thursday for former President Mohamed Nasheed, who resigned this week but later insisted he had been ousted by coup plotters in a political dispute that sparked rioting.

The president of energy-rich Turkmenistan is an avid horseman, but he is unlikely ever to win a race as easily as this Sunday's election.

Germany orders expulsion of 4 Syrian diplomats following arrest of suspected spies.

U.S. outrage over Beijing's veto of a U.N. Syria resolution won't affect cooperation on other international issues, a top Chinese diplomat said Thursday, as Beijing announced it had recently hosted a leading Syrian opposition figure.

Uganda's government does not support a parliamentarian's decision to reintroduce a bill that originally proposed the death penalty for some homosexual acts, the government said in responding to renewed criticism by rights activists who oppose the bill.

Weather Underground Forecast for Thursday, February 09, 2012.

The U.S. Embassy in China is promising to streamline visa requests and hire more people to process applicants as part of President Barack Obama's push to boost tourism to the United States.

A six-story building that collapsed and killed 115 people in last year's New Zealand earthquake was made of weak columns and concrete and did not meet standards when it was built, the government said Thursday.

In a high-stakes gamble, an imprisoned member of a Palestinian militant group has waged a hunger strike for almost two months, trying to draw attention to Israel's military justice system and its treatment of detainees who can be held without charge for lengthy periods.

Iraqi authorities executed at least 65 people in the first 40 days of 2012 for various offenses, including 14 on a single day, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

A trial on terrorism charges has been scheduled to start Monday for an Indonesian man accused of making the explosives used in the 2002 Bali bombings.

Aid officials say at least 30,000 people are now displaced within Mali, where Tuareg rebels are fighting government forces.

Romania's Parliament is to vote to approve the country's new government, which the ruling coalition hopes will improve its popularity ahead of parliamentary elections this year.

Thailand's ruling party has proposed a controversial plan to amend the country's constitution, which was drafted after a 2006 coup that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra from power.

Sinister allegations of abuse by at least two teachers in a Los Angeles school have forced awkward discussions as parents warn youngsters that people they trust - pastors, teachers, even relatives - might do things that could hurt them.

Nearly eight minutes elapsed between when a social worker called 911 to report that Josh Powell's children were in danger and when sheriff's deputies were dispatched, emergency call logs show. The home was a gas-fueled inferno - with Powell and his two young boys inside - by the time officers were on their way.

Supporters of a war memorial cross deemed unconstitutional last year by a federal court plan to ask the Supreme Court to reverse the decision, amid a growing fight nationwide over the use of religious symbols to honor fallen troops.

A reality televison producer arrived in Mexico escorted by nearly a dozen agents on Thursday after being extradited from the United States so he can face trial in his wife's killing.

Bret Baker welcomes customers aboard a Boeing 757 wearing a three-piece suit and a sparkling smile. His manner is all Friendly Skies but his pocket patch bears the seal of the Vice President of the United States, signaling that this is government business.

The last time same-sex marriage was debated in the state Capitol, the Legislature's sole gay lawmaker watched as his colleagues passed the state's version of the Defense of Marriage Act in 1998 banning gay marriage. Fourteen years after that "lonely moment," Sen. Ed Murray stood in the wings as lawmakers approved his bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.

China's Foreign Ministry says that a Syrian opposition delegation visited Beijing and met Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun.

Consumers should expect higher beef prices for the next two years due to the smallest cattle herd in 60 years, and it's unclear whether costs will drop in later years because growing demand could keep supplies tight even as ranchers breed more animals.

The celebrity top cop relieved of his duties in a major Chinese city met officials at a U.S. consulate amid unconfirmed reports of an asylum bid, but then left the building, the U.S. State Department said. His whereabouts were unclear Thursday.

If scientists find microbes in a frigid lake two miles beneath the thick ice of Antarctica, it will illustrate once again that somehow life finds a way to survive in the strangest and harshest places.

India has decided to buy 126 fighter jets from France, taken delivery of a nuclear-powered submarine from Russia and prepared for its first aircraft carrier in recent weeks as it modernizes its military to match China's.

Mexican troops have made an historic seizure of 15 tons of pure methamphetamine in the western state of Jalisco, the Mexican army said in a statement released late Wednesday.

Stanford University's latest five-year fundraising drive netted $6.2 billion, the largest amount ever raised in a higher education campaign, school officials said Wednesday.

The health-care law taking effect this year requires most private insurers to pay for birth control. Religious groups have been given an extra year to comply.

It is hard to fathom what Matt Rutherford is attempting to do: sailing 25,000 miles, through some of Earth's most treacherous ocean, on a 36-year-old boat best suited to weekend sailors.