Scott Neuman

Earth is in the line of fire of a powerful solar flare that has already begun hitting us, but most of the energy from the Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME, will skirt safely by, scientists say, with major disruptions to the electric grid, satellites and communications unlikely.

But if ...

Ian Paisley, the hard-line Protestant cleric who led the Democrat Unionist Party in its opposition to the IRA and independence for Northern Ireland, has died. He was 88.

Rich Preston, reporting for NPR from London, says Paisley had been ill for some time.

Although Paisley staunchly opposed ...

The U.S. Navy says two of its carrier-based fighter/attack jets have crashed in the western Pacific Ocean. One pilot has been rescued and search efforts were continuing for the second.

The cause of the incident, which occurred early Friday and involved F/A-18 Hornets from Carrier Air Wing 17 aboard ...

Update at 8:45 a.m. ET

Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatists conducted a 3 a.m. prisoner swap, exchanging dozens of captured fighters as part of a shaky cease-fire that is now entering its second week.

It comes as new European Union sanctions go into effect against Moscow for its role in ...

Update at 7:05 a.m. ET

A judge in South Africa handed down a verdict of culpable homicide against double-amputee Olympic and Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius in the shooting death of his girlfriend. The conviction carries a maximum of 15 years in prison.

In ruling for culpable homicide, which is roughly ...

Like a fog horn over dark waters, the opening brass sets the tone for this alluring song from Mirah. "No Direction Home" is probably the darkest song on her 2014 album Changing Light and this video plays with that darkness, using a lighthouse as its centerpiece. ...

Al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front rebels in Syria released 45 U.N. peacekeepers from Fiji today two weeks after they were captured.

"We can confirm they have been released" and would cross at Quneitra and be moved to the Israeli-controlled part of the Golan Heights, U.N. Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq said Thursday.

The ...

Remember the giant hole in the Earth's ozone layer? Scientists say it's shrinking a little, thanks in part to the elimination of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, beginning in the 1980s.

For the first time in 35 years, scientists have confirmed a statistically significant increase in the amount of ozone, which shields ...

Update at 10:40 a.m. ET

On the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, President Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden gathered on the White House lawn to observe a moment of silence.

The solemn commemoration of the attacks that killed some 3,000 people came

Oscar Pistorius, the South African double-amputee Olympian accused in the shooting death of his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, has been acquitted of the most serious charge of premeditated murder.

But South African Judge Thokozile Masipa has yet to announce her final verdict in the jury-less trial, although she has hinted ...

President Obama's prime-time speech outlining his plan to broaden a U.S.-led offensive against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria prompted generally cautious support from the editorial pages of major newspapers across the country this morning.

As we reported last night, Obama told the nation: "Our objective is clear: ...

Vladmir Putin, whose annexation of Crimea and involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine have drawn plenty of comparisons in the West to his Cold War predecessors, is not going to calm any nerves with his latest pronouncement: Russia has begun development of new nuclear weapons.

Speaking at a Kremlin ...

British Prime Minister David Cameron says he'd be "heartbroken" if Scotland voted to separate from the United Kingdom in an upcoming referendum, calling on independence-minded Scots to look at the future consequences of separation.

"I would be heartbroken ... if this family of nations is torn apart," Cameron told an ...

Update at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Office of Personnel Management is severing its ties with a private contractor that provides many of the security background checks for the U.S. government after the company was hit by a cyberattack last month that compromised the files of thousands of federal workers.

The ...

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko is offering greater autonomy to parts of the country's rebellious east in a bid to quell a months-long conflict with pro-Russia separatists, but he reiterated that there would be no concessions on sovereignty.

Amid a shaky cease-fire with rebels and what Kiev has said is an ...

As President Obama prepares to address the nation to outline his plan for combating the spread of the Islamic State militant group, Secretary of State John Kerry is in Iraq for talks on the crisis with the newly installed government in Baghdad.

The president will deliver his televised speech at ...

A federal court in Miami has added four years to a sentence handed down in 2007 on Jose Padilla, who was convicted on charges of conspiracy and supporting al-Qaida.

The Associated Press says: "The new sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, who originally gave Padilla more than ...

One of two ships lost more than 160 years ago in an ill-fated expedition to the Northwest Passage led by British Capt. Sir John Franklin has been found by Canadian archaeologists, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced today.

It could be the HMS Erebus or the HMS Terror — researchers aren't ...

We reported on Monday that a meteor, thought possibly to be a chunk of an Earth-passing asteroid, was the cause of a 40-foot crater outside the international airport in the Nicaraguan capital.

But astronomers and NASA scientists are now casting doubt on that possibility. The biggest mystery is that ...

Updated at 10:20 a.m. ET

President Obama is set to meet congressional leaders this afternoon to outline his strategy for confronting the Islamic State insurgency in Iraq and Syria. He is scheduled to address the nation on Wednesday to make that strategy public. It comes as a new poll by ...