CAIRO (AP) — Egypt has banned the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and a number of other Americans from leaving the country as tensions rise over moves by Egyptian authorities to restrict the work of international rights organizations. The State Department’s top human rights official, Michael Posner, told reporters in Cairo that the […]

SEATTLE (AP) — A group of conservationists and American Indian tribes are suing over the Navy’s expanded use of sonar in training exercises off the Washington, Oregon and California coasts, saying the noise can harass and kill whales and other marine life. In a lawsuit being filed today, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice and […]

BUCHAREST, Romania ( AP) — The Balkans and parts of eastern and central Europe were hit hard by heavy snow today, forcing Romania’s prime minister to call in army tanks to clear roads and leaving a hundred communities in Bulgaria without power. For two days, blizzards have covered the area with as much as 10 […]

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran is ready to revive talks with the world powers, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today, as toughening sanctions aim at forcing Tehran to sharply scale back its nuclear program. Even so, he insisted that the pressures will not force Iran to give up its demands, including to continue enriching uranium, that […]

BEIRUT ( AP) — Syrian troops stormed a flashpoint suburb of Damascus today, rounding people up in houseto house raids, while tens of thousands of backers of President Bashar Assad poured into the streets of several cities in a show of support for his embattled regime. Just days after pulling out of the suburb of […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking unemployment benefits rose last week to a seasonally adjusted 377,000, after a nearly four-year low the previous week. The Labor Department said today that weekly applications increased 21,000. Applications had plummeted two weeks ago to their lowest level since April 2008. The four- week average, a less […]

WASHINGTON ( AP) — Orders to U.S. factories for long- lasting manufactured goods increased in December, lifted by solid business spending on machinery and equipment. The second straight monthly gain in durable goods offered more evidence that the economy started the year with momentum. Orders for durable goods rose 3 percent last month, the Commerce […]

LAS VEGAS ( AP) — President Barack Obama is announcing the sale of oil and gas drilling leases for nearly 38 million acres in the Gulf Coast and promoting the completion of a highway corridor for vehicles that run on liquefied natural gas, a response to critics who say his policies have stifled domestic energy […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is preparing to tighten its belt, but with an election-year battle looming in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wants to stress the positive: Parts of the budget devoted to reshaping the military to fit a new global strategy will actually get fatter, he says. […]

The jobless rate is dipping, but millions of people are still out of work. And that could have implications when they file their income tax returns. Collecting unemployment insurance benefits? All that you received in 2011 is taxed as income. Unless you requested that federal taxes be withheld, you could be in for a big […]