BEIJING — China's government pledged to repair the country's ravaged environment and boost public services under its new leadership, an acknowledgment that quality of life was sidelined during the … more

WASHINGTON — The U.S.-led military command in Afghanistan will no longer count and publish the number of Taliban attacks, a statistical measure that it once touted as the measure of U.S. and allied … more

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A recently discovered comet is closer than it's ever been to Earth, and stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere finally get to see it.Called Pan-STARRS, the comet passed … more

OBERLIN, Ohio — Scrawls of racially offensive graffiti and, more recently, a report of someone wearing what looked like a Ku Klux Klan-type hooded robe on campus have shaken students at … more

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Members of Congress are asking federal officials not to revoke protections for the gray wolf in sections of the lower 48 states where the predator remains on the endangered … more

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Four federal agencies and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation have come up with a plan for improving the protection of sites held sacred by American Indians and Alaska … more

RAWLINS, Wyo. — Searchers found a missing plane and the body of its pilot on a mountainside in south-central Wyoming.Carbon County Sheriff Jerry Colson identified the pilot of the Cessna 172 as … more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An elderly woman who died after a nurse at her elder home refused to provide CPR had chosen to live in a facility without medical staff and wanted to pass away without … more

CARACAS, Venezuela — Vice President Nicolas Maduro is taking over leadership of Hugo Chavez's political movement after the socialist leader died Tuesday at age 58 following a nearly two-year bout … more

HAVANA, Cuba — Reactions to the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez were as mixed, polemical and outsized as the leader was in life, with some saying his passing was a tragic loss and others … more