US News

With a quick handshake, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro whipped up a frenzy Tuesday that led many to wonder whether a shift is coming between the former Cold War nations.

Congressional negotiators reached a modest budget agreement Tuesday to restore about $63 billion in automatic spending cuts from programs ranging from parks to the Pentagon, with votes expected in both houses in the next several days.

A $100 million lawsuit has been filed against a Florida billionaire over a 2012 helicopter crash in the Bahamas that killed a prominent tax attorney.

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Singer Mariah Carey holds hands with Santa Claus as she performs at the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, attended by President Barack Obama and his family, at the Ellipse in Washington, Friday, Dec. 6, 2013.

In this image from TV, US President Barack Obama speaks to the assembled crowds at the FNB Stadium in Soweto, South Africa, in the rain for a memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela, Tuesday Dec. 10, 2013.

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The candidates seeking to fill Edward Markey's old seat in the U.S. House are making their final appeals to voters in the Massachusetts' 5th Congressional District.

When it comes to climate change, local officials have a message for Washington: Lead or get out of the way.

In this Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, file photo, Center for American Progress Action Fund President & CEO John Podesta speaks at the National Clean Energy Summit 2.0, at The Cox Pavillion in Las Vegas.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is ordering the U.S. military to transport troops from Burundi into the Central African Republic to help quell the latest upsurge in violence there.

A Senate vote to renew an expiring ban on plastic firearms capable of evading metal detectors and X-ray machines is shaping up as a bittersweet moment for gun control supporters, days before the anniversary of the... Congress has approved a 10-year extension of a ban on plastic firearms that can evade metal detectors and X-ray machines.

In this Aug. 19, 2013 file photo, Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill. speaks in Chicago. Senator Kirk underwent surgery Monday, Dec. 9, 2013 to have his gallbladder removed in Chicago.

Obama was Time's 2012 "Person of the Year." But Cyrus, whose bizarre "twerking" at the MTV Video Music Awards in September made the former "Hannah Montana" star a water-cooler staple, is being tabbed as an unlikely favorite for the honor, which will be There are other strange bedfellows among the finalists, too.

Major technology companies, stung by poor publicity for having helped the U.S. government access personal data, on Monday issued an open letter to President Barack Obama asking for tighter controls on surveillance.

As world leaders, including President Barack Obama, begin to arrive for a service in Johannesburg on Tuesday, the civil-rights campaigner's life is being memorialized across the country and world.

Bob Filner has almost vanished from public view since a defiant resignation speech as San Diego mayor amid widespread allegations that he sexually harassed women.

The second-ranking Senate Democrat said Sunday that extending unemployment benefits won't necessarily be a sticking point for his party in budget negotiations, though he hopes they are included.

A day after arriving home to California, the 85-year-old U.S. veteran detained for weeks by North Korea said Sunday that he was well-fed and kept comfortable in a hotel room, not a jail cell.

Corporate support for gay and transgender rights is reaching workers in new corners of the country and economy six months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, according to a new report card from the nation's largest LGBT advocacy group.