Eyder Peralta

An amendment that would have limited a phone records collection program run by the National Security Agency failed in the House of Representatives, this afternoon.

The vote was close — 217 to 205 — but more importantly it cobbled together a rare bipartisan coalition. The amendment was opposed by ...

In a very sweet gesture, President George H.W. Bush shaved his head to show solidarity for Patrick, the two-year-old son of one of the members of his Secret Service detail.

Patrick, Bush's spokesman Jim McGrath said on Twitter, is undergoing treatment for leukemia, so he lost his hair.

McGrath ...

Update at 3:20 a.m. Thursday: Death Toll Rises

The Associated Press reports that 77 people were killed when a train derailed in northwestern Spain, according to Maria Pardo Rios, spokeswoman for the Galicia region's main court. Four died at hospitals, while 73 were found dead at the scene, she said.

President Obama has nominated Caroline Kennedy to serve as the United States' ambassador to Japan.

NPR's Mara Liasson filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"The daughter of President John F. Kennedy and an early and significant supporter of President Obama's, Kennedy is also an attorney and the author ...

Pope Francis continued a whirlwind tour of Brazil today, delivering his first public mass in the town of Aparecida.

As Reuters reports, Francis was given another rapturous welcome during his first trip abroad on the occasion of World Youth Day. The wire service reports he warned young people of ...

More than a week after 23 children in India died after eating an insecticide-laced lunch, the principal in charge of the school's mid-day meal program has been arrested.

The New York Times reports that Meena Kumari, who fled when the children started getting sick, had become one of ...

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have now named their new baby boy: The third in line for the British throne was given the name George Alexander Louis.

"The baby will be known as His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge," the crown said in a press release.

By ...

Tuesday was another bloody day in Cairo: Clashes between the supporters and opponents of ousted President Mohammed Morsi left 11 dead, according to the country's Health Ministry, and a blast at a security building northeast of Cairo wounded at least 12 policemen.

From Cairo, NPR's Leila Fadel filed this report ...

Over the past weeks, we have learned the National Security Agency has the capability to collect and sift through massive amounts of electronic data produced throughout the world.

Today, ProPublica reports that when it comes to parsing email sent by its own employees, the United States' spy agency does ...

Back in 2006, when many municipalities across the country took Arizona's lead passing stringent laws against illegal immigrants, the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch became a kind of poster boy.

With much controversy, the city passed legislation that among other things barred anyone from renting property to undocumented immigrants.

Yesterday, ...

We'll get back to the real news in a little bit. But we would be downright irresponsible, if we didn't point you to the latest from Disco, the parakeet.

His owners just posted a video that shows Disco trying to learn the famous line from Monty Python, "Nobody expects ...

New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner says he did, indeed, trade lewd messages with a woman after his departure from Congress.

Weiner, if you remember, resigned from his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2011 due to an extramarital sexting scandal and the lies he told ...

With the streets flooded with spectators and media, Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge emerged from the hospital with their bundle of joy on Tuesday.

The doors at the Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital swung open revealing the former Kate Middleton gently holding the third in line for ...

Cassini — the NASA spacecraft orbiting Saturn — has beamed back a picture of what Earth looks like from its perspective.

Earth and all its trillions of creatures are seen as a speck of light — lower right — in the vastness of space. What's more, Cassini captures Earth while ...

A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 made a dramatic landing at New York's La Guardia Airport this afternoon. There are differing reports as to what exactly happened: The Wall Street Journal says the plane's landing gear collapsed as it was taxiing, while CNN's take is that the front landing ...

Ryan Braun, the National League's 2011 Most Valuable Player, has been suspended without pay for the rest of the season for "violations of [the] Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program," Major League Baseball said on Twitter today.

As we reported back in 2012, Braun became the first major ...

Detroit's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, defended his decision to take the city into bankruptcy. The most contentious issue regarding the city is what bankruptcy protection could mean for the pensions of some retired city workers.

In a blunt interview with All Things Considered's Robert Siegel, Orr said that saying ...

Dennis Farina, the real-life Chicago Police Department cop turned actor, has died, his publicist says.

Farina was best known for portraying Det. Joe Fontana on the TV show Law and Order. His publicist Lori De Waal says Farina died Monday morning after suffering a blod clot in his lung.

He ...

The Duchess of Cambridge, better known to most of the world as the former Kate Middleton, has given birth to a baby boy, the crown announced in a press release.

The baby was born at 4:24 p.m., London time on Monday, and weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces. The baby, whose ...

In Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust marvels at how the taste of "plump little cakes called 'petites madeleines'" brought forth memories of Sunday mornings at Combray when he walked into to his aunt Léonie's bedroom to say good morning.

Proust describes what scientists came to term an autobiographical ...