Bill Chappell

American 15-year-olds continue to turn in flat results in a test that measures students' proficiency in reading, math and science worldwide, failing to crack the global top 20.

The Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, collects test results from 65 countries for its rankings, which come out every three ...

Six same-sex couples got married in Hawaii shortly after midnight Monday morning, taking advantage of a new law in the first hours of the first day it took effect. The state's Legislature approved the Hawaii Marriage Equality Act in a recent special session.

The six couples who were reportedly the ...

Amazon is looking at drastically reducing its delivery times — to 30 minutes or less — as it plans a new service called Prime Air that it says could debut in a few years. In an interview on CBS' 60 Minutes, CEO Jeff Bezos said the giant online retailer plans ...

Update at 6:50 p.m. ET. Speeding Into Curve; A Mile Or More To Safely Stop:

A commuter train headed into New York City was traveling at 82 mph Sunday morning when it entered a curve where the speed limit was supposed to be 30 mph and derailed, National Transportation Safety ...

"You know when you put something in the bin, and in your head, say to yourself 'that's a bad idea'? I really did have that," James Howells says. And boy, was his intuition right: Howells tossed a hard drive that held millions of dollars' worth of Bitcoins, the currency whose ...

The Obama administration announced it is delaying until November 2014 a requirement that small businesses shop for health insurance via the troubled federal HealthCare.gov site, which has been blamed for many problems since its launch last month. The shift applies to businesses with fewer than 50 full-time workers.

"For ...

A large portion of a nearly completed soccer stadium has collapsed in Sao Paulo, Brazil, killing at least two people and injuring others. A crane that was installing a large metal structure apparently buckled at the Corinthians Arena, which is slated to host the opening game of the 2014 World ...

The Christmas decorating season is in full bloom in Australia, where a family's use of more than half a million lights has set a new world record. The Richards family's yard in Forrest, a suburb of Canberra, features a canopy of lights fanning out beneath a large tree whose trunk ...

Investigators say they haven't determined why Adam Lanza killed 26 students and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last December. But they know he acted alone in that attack and his mother's murder, according to a summary report released weeks before the one-year anniversary of the shooting ...

Florida officials have dropped the charges against two girls who had been accused of bullying Rebecca Sedwick, a 12-year-old who jumped to her death after being taunted and bullied online. Police say the girls will receive counseling.

The legal case began in September, when Sedwick, a seventh-grader in Lakeland, killed ...

International students who come to the U.S. for college contribute more than $24 billion to the economy, according to an analysis that came out Monday. A record number of international students — nearly 820,000 — came to U.S. colleges in the 2012/2013 school year, says the Institute of International Education.

In a move that took many fans by surprise, the Atlanta Braves announced Monday that the team will move to the city's suburbs, where it will build a new stadium. The team's lease on Turner Field, the Braves' home since 1997, will expire in 2016.

The new stadium will be ...

Americans are marking Veterans Day in a variety of ways Monday, from public ceremonies to proud notes on social media and quiet remembrances in homes and offices. Photos of husbands and grandfathers, mothers and sisters popped up on Facebook as a way to honor military veterans; on Twitter, the

More than a ton of advanced electronics, including an ion engine and sensors that help detect variations in gravity, crashed into Earth's atmosphere Sunday night, when the European GOCE satellite ended its four-year mission. Most of the 2,425-pound craft disintegrated when it re-entered the atmosphere over the South Atlantic Ocean; ...

There comes a time, it seems, when even parodies must face reality. And for The Onion, that time will come in December, when the satirical news source will stop publishing print editions and shift to being all-digital.

That's the news from Milwaukee Public Radio, which calls today "a sad ...

Many health insurers must treat coverage of mental health and substance abuse in the same way they handle treatments for physical illness, according to a new rule issued Friday by the Obama administration.

The rule "breaks down barriers that stand in the way of treatment and recovery services for millions ...

After winning an election on a platform of pragmatism and compromise, Robert "Heshy" Bucholz, 39, is set to become what many believe will be the first Whig to hold elected office in Philadelphia since before the Civil War. A member of the upstart Modern Whig Party, Bucholz won the post ...

It was prostate cancer, not an assassin's poison, that killed poet Pablo Neruda, officials in Chile announced Friday. The Nobel laureate's body was exhumed for testing this spring, due to claims from an employee and Neruda's family that the Chilean poet had been murdered at age 69.

From The ...

Some of the classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden were acquired using the credentials of other NSA workers — including people who had higher security clearance than the former spy agency contractor, according to Reuters. As many as 25 people may have been duped, the news agency says, citing people ...

"I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," President Obama said Thursday, speaking about Americans who will lose their current health insurance plans.

In speeches before parts of the Affordable Care Act took effect, the president promised that people who ...