Scott Neuman

This post was last updated at 1:40 p.m. ET.

The torch has officially been passed. The 22nd Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, are over with all the drama in the competition and not over safety and security during the 17 days of the events, as many had feared.

Outdoor ...

An apparent grenade attack on an anti-government protest in Thailand's capital has killed at least two people and wounded nearly two dozen others, as unrest in the country continues amid a push by opposition forces to topple the elected prime minister.

NPR's Michael Sullivan reports:

"The blast occurred near ...

Russian's four-man bobsled team took gold on the final day of the Olympics hosted by their nation, with the U.S. pulling a bronze at the event and Canada's team escaping unscathed from a harrowing crackup.

USAToday says:

"In the third heat, [Russian bobsled pilot Alexander] Zubkov separated himself ...

Maria von Trapp, the last surviving member of the seven original Trapp Family Singers — the Austrian family that inspired the 1965 film The Sound of Music -- has died at 99 at her home in Vermont.

Von Trapp, whose family escaped Nazi Germany, died on Tuesday of natural causes, ...

This post was updated at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's opponents are moving quickly to take government power, although no one is certain how permanent those moves will be.

The Ukrainian legislature has voted to give the president's powers temporarily to the Parliament speaker, Oleksandr Turchinov.

On Sunday, ...

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously called on Syria to immediately allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to millions of needy people in the war-torn country.

Veto-wielding Russia and China, which have been strong supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the past, joined other members on the ...

This story was updated at 4:20 p.m. ET.

The head of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was captured overnight by U.S. and Mexican officials in the Pacific coastal town of Mazatlan.

The Associated Press first broke the story, quoting an unnamed "senior U.S. law enforcement ...

Pope Francis and his predecessor, Benedict XVI, appeared together at a ceremony anointing 19 new cardinals in what The Associated Press described as "an unprecedented blending of papacies past, present and future."

In the solemn event, known as a consistory, Francis on Saturday bestowed red hats on his first ...

This post was updated at 3:10 p.m. ET.

Ukraine's parliament has voted to push President Viktor Yanukovych out of office hours after he fled the capital and denounced events in the country as "a coup d'etat" in a television interview.

The legislature also voted to release Yanukovych's jailed arch-rival, former ...

January will go down in the weather history books as the fourth-warmest on record.

That's right.

No matter how brutal the winter was in North America, especially the Eastern half, it was balanced by warm temperatures elsewhere on the planet.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climate Data ...

If there's a merit badge for business savvy, 13-year-old Girl Scout Danielle Lei might well deserve one.

Danielle, who set up her table of Girl Scout cookies outside The Green Cross medical marijuana dispensary in San Francisco earlier this week, sold a whopping 117 boxes in a single day. She ...

China is stepping up war games in preparation for a possible conflict with Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, a tiny island chain in the East China Sea claimed by both Beijing and Tokyo, a senior U.S. Navy official says.

Captain James Fanell, deputy chief of staff intelligence and information operations ...

Apple founder Steve Jobs, a man who probably did as much as anyone to set in motion the slow but steady demise of snail mail, will be featured on a U.S. postage stamp, according to a document from the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee.

The Jobs collectible stamp is slated ...

A federal judge has ruled that New York City Police did not violate the rights of Muslims by putting New Jersey mosques under routine surveillance in an effort to prevent terrorism.

U.S. District Judge William Martini in Newark threw out a suit brought against the city's police department by ...

Two self-styled amateur archeologists from Germany, who filmed themselves scraping off pieces of Egypt's Great Pyramid in hopes of proving that the ancient wonder was built by people from the legendary city of Atlantis, are now facing possible criminal charges in their home country.

During a trip to Egypt in ...

The crew of a United Parcel Service Airbus A300 freighter that crashed during an early morning landing at Birmingham, Ala. were forced to make a "non-precision approach" when a computerized landing system became overloaded, investigators told the NTSB on Thursday.

The plane crashed short of Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, ...

Three journalists working for Qatar-based network Al-Jazeera English who are on trial in Egypt for their alleged links to the Muslim Brotherhood have pleaded not guilty on Thursday. The trio were denied bail and their trial was adjourned until March 5.

Australian Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed, wearing ...

The company in charge of the Keystone XL extension said Thursday that it is considering its next move now that a Nebraska judge has struck down a law that allowed the pipeline to be routed through that state.

"We are disappointed and disagree with the decision of the Nebraska district ...

Some 80 elderly South Koreans, long cut off from family members by the Korean War, arrived in North Korea on Thursday for a brief reunion with loved ones they have not seen in decades.

About 180 North Koreans were meeting with 82 elderly South Koreans and 58 of their family ...

Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, serving a 21-year sentence for a 2011 shooting and bombing rampage that killed 77 people, is threatening to go on a hunger strike unless a list of demands, including access to "adult" video games and a better game console, is met by ...