Scott Neuman

China said Wednesday that it plans to increase defense outlays by more than 12 percent, to nearly $132 billion, this year in the face of what a top military official described as increasingly severe security challenges for Beijing.

The proposed 12.2 percent boost exceeds last year's 10.7 percent increase. It ...

Pope Francis, fresh from getting his picture on the cover of Rolling Stone, now graces the pages of a new Italian fan magazine devoted to His Holiness.

But the pontiff tells an Italian newspaper that he views all the attention as "offensive."

The magazine, titled Il Mio Papa (or My ...

This post was updated at 5:10 p.m. ET.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said all sides agree that the crisis on the Crimean Peninsula must be resolved through dialogue, but he acknowledged there has yet to be one-on-one discussions between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart.

RadioShack said Tuesday it will close 1,100 retail stores across the country amid a disappointing fourth quarter, in a sign that the electronics retailer is ceding ever-more market share to big box stores and online providers, such as Amazon.

CEO Joseph Magnacca said the closings would leave the company with ...

The Kremlin-backed Russia Today television channel says a program host who delivered a show-closing commentary denouncing Moscow's intervention in Ukraine will be sent to Crimea to "make up her own mind." But the anchor herself begs to differ.

Washington, D.C.-based, Abby Martin, an American who works for English-language

Dave Anderson, who runs whale-watching charters out of Dana Point, Calif., used a small camera-equipped drone to capture video of a "mega-pod" of hundreds of common dolphins as well as three gray whale migrating off the coast of San Clemente. In a separate sortie, the drone returned footage of a ...

Scientists at a laboratory in France have thawed out and revived an ancient virus found in the Siberian permafrost, making it infectious again for the first time in 30,000 years.

The giant virus known as Pithovirus sibericum was discovered about 100 feet deep in coastal tundra. The pathogen infects tiny ...

As Everest climbing season gets started this week, Nepal is enforcing a rule for scaling the world's tallest mountain that might sound like it came from your mother: Pick up after yourself.

While it's technically not a new rule, it has rarely if ever been enforced.

Some 4,000 people have ...

This post was updated at 2:10 p.m. ET.

A bizarre mass stabbing at a southern China rail station on Saturday that killed at least 29 people and wounded 143 others is being blamed on Muslim separatists.

As we reported on Saturday, the 10 knife-wielding assailants randomly stabbed people at ...

This post was updated at 4:30 p.m. ET.

It already has an ominous-sounding name: Winter Storm Titan. And it has much of the nation's mid-section in its sights.

The storm is the same system that that caused flash-flooding in California on Saturday and is now heading the Midwest and the ...

This post was updated at 1:20 p.m. ET.

Russian forces appear to be digging in after seizing key assets in the Ukrainian republic of Crimea, and despite tough talk from Kiev's new leaders, the former Soviet satellite's under-manned and under-equipped military is no match for Moscow's battle-tested troops, experts ...

This post was updated at 8:00 p.m. ET.

Secretary of State John Kerry, who has described Moscow's military intervention in the Crimea an "incredible act of aggression," will travel to Ukraine's capital on Tuesday to meet with the country's embattled government.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said in a ...

This post was updated at 9:20 p.m. ET.

A gang of 10 knife-wielding men killed at least 29 people and wounded 130 others at a train station in southern China in what the government is describing as a "violent terror attack," Xinhua News Agency reports.

Four of the assailants were ...

Ken Ham, the founder of the Creation Museum who last month debated TV personality Bill Nye "The Science Guy" pitting his Biblical literalism against Darwinian evolution, says the highly publicized showdown has been like manna from heaven for a foundering $73 million Noah's Ark theme park.

"It was a ...

Thailand's anti-government protesters have temporarily abandoned their street barricades and quit mass demonstrations aimed at shutting down the capital and ousting the country's premier.

But the protesters vowed to regroup at a central location in Bangkok and continue their efforts to force the resignation of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who ...

The Pakistani Taliban said Saturday it will observe a month-long cease-fire to revive failed peace talks with Islamabad.

"The senior leadership of the Taliban advises all subgroups to respect the Taliban's call for a ceasefire and abide by it and completely refrain from all jihadi activities in this time period," ...

This post was updated at 4:50 p.m. ET.

Russia's parliament has unanimously approved a request by President Vladimir Putin to authorize the intervention of Moscow's forces in Ukraine until "the normalization of the political situation" there. In response, Ukraine put its own forces on alert and warned that a Russian ...

Samuel Sheinbein, an American who fled to Israel after murdering a Maryland teenager 17 years ago, was killed in a prison shootout on Sunday during an apparent escape attempt near Tel Aviv.

The Associated Press reports:

"Police special forces rushed to [Sharon] prison in central Israel after Sheinbein stole ...

The Afghan Taliban said it was cutting off talks with Washington to trade long-time captive U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five of the prisoners held at Guantanamo.

The Associated Press says it's received via email "a terse Pashto language statement" from Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid blaming the "current complex ...

Ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has been accused of passing state secrets to Iran's Revolutionary Guard at a hearing at the jailed leader's trial in Cairo.

A prosecutor at the hearing said Morsi, who stands accused of numerous charges, was involved along with 35 others in a plot to destabilize ...