UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls the flooding in Pakistan the worst natural disaster he's ever seen. The UN chief spent the day flying over the hardest-hit areas. As many as 20 million people are affected. From the city of Multan in the souther...
The First Family is in Florida for a 27-hour-visit that combines a vacation with a sales pitch. The president said he wants everyone to know that Gulf Coast beaches are clean and open for business following the BP oil spill. The president also wanted...
After sharp declines on Wall Street in recent days, stocks are ending the week relatively calm, apparently unaffected by today's economic data. Overall, retail sales rose 0.4% in July, not as much as analysts had hoped, but take up autos and gasoline...
It appears same-sex marriages in California will remain on hold for at least another week. A Federal judge issued the ruling just a short time ago. NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates is at NPR West, monitoring development. Karen, how long are same-sex marriag...
The major indexes on Wall Street are down more than 2% with fresh concerns over the US economy. Last check, Dow was down 263 points at 10,381. The drop started in Asia, where stocks fell 2.7%, led to heavy selling in Europe and then (in) the US. Art...
Five people including former Republican Senator Ted Stevens are confirmed dead following a plane crash in southern Alaska last night. NPR's Martin Costi with the latest. Ted Stevens was on board a single-engine plane that was flying in the southern p...
A House ethics panel releases new details on charges against California Congresswoman Maxine Waters. We've got the latest from NPR's Audie Cornish. In its reports, ethics committee investigators alleged the congresswomen's chief of staff, who is also...
The official in charge of the Gulf oil spill-up says that the blown-out well will be further sealed this week. But as NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports, he is promising that won't be the end of relief efforts. The well has already been sealed from the to...
You can now call her Justice Elena Kagan. She was sworn in this afternoon as the 112th justice for the US Supreme Court. NPR's Allison Keyes tells us Kagan is the fourth woman to serve on the high court. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts first...
The unemployment rate holds steady at 9.5%, with job growth lagging in July. But President Obama says things are looking up in the private sector. (But the) fact is, we've now added private sector jobs every month this year. Mark Zandi, chief economi...
Senate lawmakers have confirmed US Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court. NPR's Audie Cornish reports the vote was 63-37. Elena Kagan is the first female solicitor general, and now she'll be one of three women sitting on the United St...
Opponents of California's ban on gay marriage are celebrating a federal judge's decision to overturn the law. Mary Bernardo is an attorney with Massachusetts-based Gay Lesbian Advocates Defenders who says the argument against same-sex marriage is wea...
Workers are grieving the deaths of eight colleagues killed in a mass shooting at a beer distribution company in Manchester, Connecticut this morning. Police say the gunman, also an employee of Hartford Distributors, opened fire before he killed himse...
President Obama is reaffirming a pledge to end US combat operations in Iraq by the end of the month, but he told a gathering of disabled veterans in Atlanta today about the military's huge shift to the other hot zoneAfghanistan. We will continue to f...
The Netherlands officially ended its combat mission in Afghanistan today, the first NATO country to bring troops home from an increasingly unpopular war. Brigadier General Josef Blotz is a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force. He...
