The Union Navy, intent on further tightening the blockade on the South and seizing Confederate outposts all along its coast, dispatches the USS Hatteras to Cedar Key, Fla., during this week 150 years ago in the Civil War. The warship destroys seven small ships suspected of blockade running that are loaded with cotton and other […]

The rolling hills and scenic bluffs of western Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota hide a valuable resource that has sparked what’s been called a modern-day gold rush. The object of desire is not gold but a soft sandstone needed by drilling companies to unlock underground natural gas and oil supplies in a controversial practice called hydraulic […]

British scientists have found scores of fossils the great evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin and his peers collected but that had been lost for more than 150 years. Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang, a paleontologist at Royal Holloway, University of London, said Tuesday that he stumbled upon the glass slides containing the fossils in an old wooden cabinet […]

Under duress two days before the pivotal South Carolina primary, Republican front- runner Mitt Romney acknowledges he has part of his millions invested in the Cayman Islands, although his aides say he never used the location as a tax haven. Neither Romney nor his campaign are providing details, including how much he has invested there, […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer prices were unchanged last month, the latest sign that inflation remains tame. Lower gas prices offset rising costs for food, medical care and housing. The Labor Department says the consumer price index was flat in December for the second straight month. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called “core” prices rose […]

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister today called for the immediate resumption of talks between Iran and major world powers to end the standoff over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program. Ahmet Davutoglu said at a joint news conference with Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi that Turkey was ready to host and “make any other […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking unemployment benefits plummeted last week to 352,000, the fewest since April 2008. The decline added to evidence that the job market is strengthening. Weekly applications fell 50,000, the biggest drop in the seasonally adjusted figure in more than six years, the Labor Department said today. The four-week […]

ROME (AP) — Divers resumed the search today for 21 people still missing after a cruise ship capsized off the Tuscan coast, but rough seas forecast for later in the day added an element of uncertainty to the operation and plans to begin pumping fuel from the stranded vessel. The $450 million Costa Concordia was […]

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry is abandoning his presidential bid and endorsing Newt Gingrich. That’s according to Republican officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the Republican presidential candidate’s announcement. Perry planned a news conference at 11 a.m. in South Carolina, where he will announce his decision. He […]

LONDON (AP) — Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper company today agreed to pay damages to 36 high-profile victims of tabloid phone-hacking, including actor Jude Law, soccer player Ashley Cole and former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. In settlements whose financial terms were made public, amounts generally ran into the tens of thousands of pounds (dollars) […]