NASA is tracking a regional dust storm on Mars, but says it has not affected the operations of its two rovers on the surface.

The Navy says it will temporarily shrink its aircraft carrier presence in the Persian Gulf area from two to one this winter because of a mechanical problem with the USS Nimitz, a carrier based in Bremerton, Wash.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner says he has received letter of resignation from Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

President Barack Obama is hailing a ceasefire agreement to end a week of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Budgets may be tight, but for a lot of Americans, Thanksgiving travel is what they want to pay for with their limited resources.

From California to Maine, unions used their political muscle in the recent elections to help install Democratic governors, build labor-friendly majorities in state legislatures and defeat ballot initiatives against them.

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply to a seasonally adjusted 410,000 last week, though the figure was elevated for the second straight week by Superstorm Sandy.

There is an official proclamation from President Obama for the Thanksgiving holiday.

President Obama will continue an annual tradition Wednesday and pardon two Thanksgiving turkeys.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has issued a conditional pardon ordering the release of a man who was convicted of a sexual assault his accuser now says never occurred.

A New York man has been convicted of illegally gaining access to AT&T's servers and stealing more than 120,000 email addresses of iPad users including film mogul Harvey Weinstein.

One person is dead and nine others injured after authorities say a pickup truck going the wrong way on an Arizona freeway struck a charter bus head-on.

A southwest Missouri man accused of plotting to open fire inside a theater during the "Twilight" movie underwent a mental evaluation in 2009 after following around a Walmart store clerk.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is warning parents to be careful with those little single-load liquid laundry packets.

Miami-Dade police say a 13-year-old girl has died after she was shot by another student on a school bus.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is warning Congress and the Obama administration to strike a budget deal to avert tax increases and spending cuts that could trigger a recession next year.

A Texas woman has been sentenced to 80 years in prison after being convicted of felony murder in the death of a child killed in a fire at her Houston home day care.

President Barack Obama is sending Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East in hopes that she can help mediate an end to bloody conflict in the region.

Authorities have launched a criminal homicide investigation into the house explosion that killed two people and damaged numerous homes in an Indianapolis neighborhood.

Newly declassified documents show the FBI kept close tabs on Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's only daughter after her high profile defection to the United States in 1967.

A Kansas appeals court attorney has been fired after using offensive language in a tweet about the state's former attorney general.

Dolphins are washing ashore along the northern Gulf Coast with bullet wounds, missing jaws and hacked off fins and federal officials are looking into the mysterious deaths.

Michelle Obama cited the "transformative power of the arts" Monday as she presented national arts and humanities awards to 12 community-based, after-school programs that reach underserved youth.

Federal authorities have blamed two rig supervisors for the deaths of 11 workers killed when the Deepwater Horizon exploded and spawned BP's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, even though a string of investigations spread fault among a host of people and companies.

Two men accused of stealing the identities of terminally ill people and using them to reap $30 million from insurance companies and brokerage houses have pleaded guilty with their trial already under way.