Hurricane Earl weakened to a Category 1 storm Friday with winds of 85 mph, but the Northeast was still preparing to feel its fury.

Six job recruiters have been indicted in federal court in what the FBI has called the largest human-trafficking operation ever to result in charges in the United States.

President Obama promised to lay out a broad package of ideas for job creation next week and slamming Senate Republicans for blocking his small business aid legislation.

Business hiring is picking up, but not enough to make up for the massive losses of temporary government jobs.

European scientists say they've figured out the recipe for water in space: Just add starlight.

A suicide bomber blew himself up outside an Ahmadi worship place in northwestern Pakistan Friday, killing a pedestrian, police said.

Bomb squad investigators were at Miami International Airport on Friday after a suspicious item was spotted in a baggage screening area, authorities said.

A shootout between soldiers and suspected drug dealers in northeast Mexico left 25 of the suspects dead, the regional military said Thursday.

Watching the Israeli and Palestinian leaders trudge to Washington for one more peace summit, one might wonder why President Obama invited them. Why should the president invest his prestige in an effort that looks so unpromising?

Hyundai-Kia Motors is recalling more than 35,000 cars with fire-prone electrical wiring systems, said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

After a week mostly focused on Iraq and Mideast diplomacy, it's back to the economy for President Barack Obama, who will deliver remarks Friday on the August unemployment numbers.

The gunman who held three people hostage at the Discovery Channel headquarters was once convicted of smuggling an illegal immigrant into the country from Mexico.

First there was the discovery of dozens of bottles of 200-year-old champagne, but now salvage divers have recovered what they believe to be the world's oldest beer, taking advertisers' notion of 'drinkability' to another level.

Toshiba has announced the voluntary recall of about 41,000 notebook computers worldwide at risk of overheating and burning users.

The sham marriage trial of actress Fernanda Romero, which the judge has likened to a soap opera, appeared threatened with a mistrial Friday after a dramatic turn a day earlier.

Hurricane Earl has been downgraded to Category 2, but forecasters warn it is still "large and strong." Rain bands have moved onto the coast of North Carolina.

Cammie King Conlon, who played the ill-fated Bonnie Blue Butler in "Gone With the Wind," used to joke "that I peaked at age 5."

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.

A survivor of a massacre in Mexico that left 72 dead advised other would-be migrants to stay at home to avoid a fate like the one he and his companions met.