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A fire on an oil and gas production platform in the Gulf of Mexico is out and there is no indication of an oil sheen, the Coast Guard said. There were no serious injuries.

Thad Allen, the government's point man on the oil disaster, said crews are expected to begin efforts Thursday to remove the blowout preventer on BP's ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Direct peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians will start Thursday as President Barack Obama urged both sides to come up with a peaceful solution to the long running Mideast conflict.

An Ohio death row inmate who has repeatedly claimed his innocence was spared execution, after the state's governor Thursday noted "legitimate questions" about evidence used to convict the man.

Even as Hurricane Earl weakened Thursday afternoon, East Coast residents scrambled to ready themselves ahead of its arrival. Earl is now barely a Category 3.

Chris Meek put his motorcycle in storage in Wilmington, North Carolina, to protect it from Hurricane Earl as the Category 4 hurricane headed toward the North Carolina coast.

State budgets are being squeezed by unprecedented amounts for the third year in a row as legislators are forced to close gaps of up to 50 percent of state spending.

God did not create the universe, world-famous physicist Stephen Hawking argues in a new book that aims to banish a divine creator from physics.

Justice Department civil rights lawyers filed suit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona on Thursday after talks collapsed on a deal to provide federal investigators with requested documents.

Political discussions about Iran's nuclear aspirations were benched Thursday when the United States' and Iran's national basketball teams went head-to-head at the FIBA World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey.

With Wednesday's announcement that it will be revamping its web TV offerings, Apple has made its most serious push into an emerging, and increasingly crowded, field.

Mexican authorities have had significant successes against drug traffickers, President Felipe Calderon said in his fourth annual state-of-the-nation speech Thursday, noting that three major kingpins have been captured or killed in the past year.

I come from a small-ish town in Oklahoma where we've never met a vegetable we couldn't fry and the only things more super-sized than our portions are the huge church complexes that alternate with fast-food restaurants along our roads.

Has Queen Amidala turned to the dark side?

Three people died after Typhoon Kompasu hit central South Korea Thursday morning, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

Police arrested rapper T.I. and his wife in California after they were allegedly found in possession of a controlled substance.

Authorities gave an "all clear" early Thursday after sweeping the headquarters of the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring, Maryland, where police shot and killed a man who was holding three hostages.

Greece has imposed a nationwide ban on smoking in enclosed public and private workplaces under a new slogan "cut smoking, gain life."

In the first two days back from his Martha's Vineyard family vacation, President Obama gave two speeches on two important subjects.

An extra in "Transformers 3" was seriously injured in Indiana on Wednesday evening during the filming of a scene for the upcoming movie, authorities said