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A unmanned rocket carrying 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station exploded shortly after blastoff on Tuesday at NASA's facility on Wallops Island, Va.

The rocket was made by Orbital Sciences, which was contracted by NASA to ship supplies up to the International Space Station.

On ...

The United States is beefing up security at some federal installations across the country, the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday.

In a statement, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said it would not detail the changes because they were "law-enforcement sensitive." But, he said, the new measures will enhance Federal ...

Despite being in one of the most dangerous regions in the world, Nicaragua remains relatively peaceful. Analysts credit its style of policing, which has rejected the iron fist policies of neighbors.

U.S. polices on Ebola should be driven by science and should avoid discouraging American health care workers from going overseas to help curb Ebola outbreaks, President Obama said on Tuesday.

"We don't want to discourage our health care workers from going to the front lines," Obama said. When workers come ...

Bernard Mayes, the first chairman of the NPR board, died on Thursday in California.

Mayes was a true Renaissance man: He was born in England, studied at Cambridge University and became a high school teacher. Eventually, he went back to school and became an ordained Anglican priest. In 1958, he ...

The U.S. Army announced Monday that troops returning from West African nations facing outbreaks of Ebola will be placed under "controlled monitoring."

"The Army Chief of Staff [Raymond Odierno] has directed a 21-day controlled monitoring period for all redeploying soldiers returning from Operation United Assistance," the Army said in a ...

Monday morning, the last of American and British troops left Camps Leatherneck and Bastion in Afghanistan's Helmand province. As we've reported, this is a big deal symbolically, because Helmand saw some of the bloodiest fighting of the 13-year American-led war.

Over at Parallels, NPR's Sean Carberry takes a ...

According to reports this morning, armed militants with the extremist group Boko Haram have continued to abduct young girls in Nigeria.

Remember, earlier this month there was hope that the abductions would stop when the government announced a truce with the group. The deal was supposed to culminate in ...

Back in the day, the city of Bluefields inspired poets. In truth, it should be paradise, because it sits in an enviable position along Nicaragua's Caribbean coast.

But as history unfolded, Bluefields became a forgotten city, cut off from the rest of the country by a vast jungle and different ...

(This post was last updated at 10:20 p.m. ET.)

Two police deputies were killed and another deputy and a civilian were shot by a gunman at two different locations in California on Friday.

After a more than four-hour-long hunt for a suspect they described as "heavily armed and dangerous," police ...

A body found near Charlottesville, Va., is that of missing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, authorities in Albermarle County said on Friday.

Albermarle County police tweeted:

The AP has some background:

"Graham disappeared Sept. 13 after a night out with friends.

"The remains were found about 12 miles ...

A student entered the cafeteria of a Marysville, Wash., high school and opened fire, killing one and injuring four before turning the gun on himself, police said Friday.

Television images showed students running out of Marysville-Pilchuck High School with their hands up, while police moved room to room with guns ...

A patient at a New York City hospital has tested positive for Ebola, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference Thursday.

According to a statement from Doctors Without Borders, a doctor returned to the United States Oct. 12 after working with Ebola patients in Guinea.

...

European Union leaders announced on Thursday that they had agreed to cut emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, made the announcement on Twitter, saying the agreement marked the "world's most ambitious, cost effective, fair climate ...

The man who jumped the White House fence on Wednesday night has been charged with unlawful entry of the White House grounds and harming animals used in law enforcement.

According to officials, Dominic Adesanya kicked and punched two Secret Service dogs. NPR's Tamara Keith filed this report for our Newscast ...

U.S.-led strikes in Syria have killed 553 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Thursday.

The Observatory, which relies on reports from activists on the ground, has been providing death-toll estimates since the protests in the country spiraled into civil war beginning in the spring of 2011.

A gunman opened fire at Canada's National War Memorial on Wednesday, killing one soldier, Ottawa police said in a statement.

Witnesses in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, say the gunman then ran into the main Parliament building, where dozens of shots were fired.

Ottawa Police say "a male suspect has ...

Ben Bradlee, the legendary Washington Post editor who ushered in the paper's golden era, overseeing its coverage of the Watergate scandal, has died.

The newspaper reported his death on its website, saying he died of natural causes on Tuesday at his home in Washington.

He was 93.

NPR's David ...

A photojournalist for NBC News is now Ebola free, the Nebraska hospital treating him said on Tuesday.

The Nebraska Medical Center said the CDC had cleared Ashoka Mukpo and he would be discharged on Wednesday.

If you remember, the 33-year-old Mukpo contracted the virus while working for the TV ...

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced on Tuesday that he's forming a panel that will study the social and economic conditions that fueled violent protests in Ferguson, Mo., over the killing of an unarmed 18-year-old this summer.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

" 'Legitimate issues have been raised by ...