SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - After 14 years of painstaking labor, North Korea finally has a rocket that can put a satellite in orbit. But that doesn't mean Pyongyang is close to having an intercontinental ballistic missile.
HAVANA (AP) - President Raul Castro declared Thursday that Cuba's two-year experiment with market reforms is working and has the wind at its back, but said much work remains to breathe life into the sputtering economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Susan Rice, the embattled U.N. ambassador, abruptly withdrew from consideration to be the next secretary of state on Thursday after a bitter, weekslong standoff with Republican senators who declared they would fight to defeat her nomination.
RICHLAND HILLS, Texas (AP) - A 6-year-old Texas boy whose father allegedly carved a pentagram on the child's back is out of the hospital and doing well given the circumstances, police said Thursday.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Jack Roland Murphy, the famed jewel thief and surfer known as "Murph the Surf," has spent the last quarter-century going into prisons and telling inmates that they could still turn their lives around.
NEW YORK (AP) - To millions of people, the Christmas tree is a cheerful sight. To scientists who decipher the DNA codes of plants and animals, it's a monster.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Dennis O'Brien rubs his head as he details ailments triggered by the fungal meningitis he developed after a series of steroid shots in his neck: nausea, vomiting, dizziness, drowsiness, blurred vision, exhaustion and trouble with his speech and attention.
HUNTINGTON BEACH (AP) - Seawater spread into several low-lying communities along the California coast Thursday morning as unusually high "king tides" pulled the Pacific Ocean farther ashore than normal.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The "fiscal cliff" debate is splitting the business community over taxes, driving a wedge between two natural Republican allies: the nation's corporate leaders who are helping strengthen President Barack Obama's bargaining position and the small business advocates bristling over the prospect of higher taxes.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Before police say Jacob Tyler Roberts walked into a mall wearing a hockey-style mask, shooting numerous rounds that killed two and injured a teenage girl, he visited the brother of his roommate, hugged him and told him he was going "somewhere south, somewhere warm."
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) - Eleven people aboard a marijuana-laden panga smuggler boat have been arrested on a remote Santa Barbara County beach.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - For a pair of Golden Globe nominees, Superstorm Sandy was still on their minds and probably ringing in their ears.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - After nearly a year circling the moon, NASA's Ebb and Flow will meet their demise when they crash - on purpose - into the lunar surface.
NEW YORK (AP) - The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is known for what you could call a certain quirkiness in its selection process. Any group that would see fit to nominate "Patch Adams" and "The Tourist" for best picture certainly marches to its own beat.
VENTURA, Calif. (AP) - The driver of a Hummer that struck down and killed a Southern California bicyclist has been sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
SANTA MONICA (AP) - Aleksandra Duliba of Belarus won the 28th Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday in her marathon debut, and Erick Mose of Kenya won the men's race with a personal best.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court will struggle this week with the validity of an Arizona law that tries to keep illegal immigrants from voting by demanding all state residents show documents proving their U.S. citizenship before registering to vote in national elections.
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (AP) - Two members of the high school football team that is the pride of Steubenville were found guilty Sunday of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl in a case that bitterly divided the Rust Belt city and led to accusations of a cover-up to protect the community's athletes.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Rapper Tone Loc has collapsed on stage while performing in Iowa.
MARYSVILLE, Calif. (AP) - A teenage race car driver taking warm-up laps at a California raceway careened off the track and into pit row, killing a 14-year-old boy and 68-year-old man, officials said.
NEW YORK (AP) - Crowds cheered and bagpipes bellowed during New York City's annual St. Patrick's Day parade Saturday, and people with a fondness for anything Irish began a weekend of festivities from the Louisiana bayou to Dublin.
SACRAMENTO (AP) - California teachers are seeing a steep drop in pink slips, thanks to a strengthening economy and new revenue from voter-approved taxes.
CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) - A road trip by a college women's lacrosse team came to a horrifying end Saturday when the team bus veered off the Pennsylvania Turnpike and crashed into a tree, killing a pregnant coach, her unborn child and the driver and injuring numerous others.
MONTEBELLO, Calif. (AP) - Los Angeles County sheriff's officials are seeking a suspect who they say shot his estranged wife outside the restaurant where she works.
BAGHDAD (AP) - It's been more than six years since a bomb ripped away the eyes from Shams Karim, killed her mother and left the little girl, now 7, blind and disfigured for life. Psychiatric drugs help control her outbursts of crying and screaming.
DENVER (AP) - A landmark expansion of background checks on firearm purchases was approved Friday by lawmakers in Colorado, a politically moderate state that was the site of last year's mass shooting at a suburban Denver movie theater.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Maryland lawmakers approved a measure abolishing the death penalty on Friday and sent the bill to Gov. Martin O'Malley, who has long supported banning capital punishment.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - The charity-run businesses under investigation in a Florida gambling probe started popping up in strip malls about six years ago and rapidly spread as the unregulated stores became a billion-dollar enterprise.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota on Friday moved closer to adopting what would be the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, with lawmakers sending the Republican governor measures that could set the state up for a costly legal battle over the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized the procedure.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - California homes sales dipped slightly last month and so did prices but the state still seems on the road to recovery after a five-year housing slump.