White House

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a town hall meeting at the University of the West Indies, Thursday, April 9, 2015 in Kingston, Jamaica. The president said that he will soon decide whether to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism now that the State Department has finished a review on the question as part of the move to reopen diplomatic relations with the island nation.

Obama says decision nears on Cuba terror designation

President Barack Obama said Thursday that the State Department has made its long-awaited recommendation on whether to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, but he gave no hint of what had been recommended or on when a decision...

Congress

Rep. Lois Capps of California

Democrat Lois Capps will retire from Congress after 2016

Veteran Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., on Wednesday announced her retirement from Congress at the end of 2016, signaling the end of an unexpected political career and opening up a potentially competitive race along California’s Central Coast.

Elections

Republican Presidential candidate, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., spoke, April 8, 2015, in Milford, N.H.

Rand Paul unveils foreign policy doctrine in South Carolina

With the formidable U.S.S. Yorktown as a backdrop, Kentucky junior U.S. Sen. Rand Paul declared Thursday that he would "never take the country to war without just cause and without constitutional approval of Congress."

World

Xiao Qiang is chief editor of China Digital Times, a Berkeley, Calif.-based website that tracks China’s Internet, publishes censored Chinese web postings and reports censorship instructions issued to Chinese state media. Foreign Policy magazine recently included Xiao in its “Pacific Power Index” as one of the 50 people most influential in shaping the U.S.-China relationship.

Website chronicles China’s massive effort to control Internet content

The Chinese Communist Party operates out of a vast walled-off compound, known as Zhongnanhai, near Beijing’s Forbidden City. It is here that party leaders oversee the Great Firewall – China’s 24-hour control of the Internet.

National Security & Defense

Tech. Sgt. Fernando Betancourt, left, and Tech. Sgt. Vincent Hawkins sit in the cockpit of a C-130J on Wednesday. The airmen had to take apart the plane's pressurization system after crew members were reporting feeling sick after flight missions.

Mystery solved: Keesler Air Force Base team solves riddle of illness aboard C-130s

For years, a strange problem with the U.S. Air Force's C-130 aircraft had pilots and crews reporting sickness, discomfort and, in some cases, excruciating pain after routine flight missions. The phenomenon remained a mystery until February, when ... 3 hours ago

Economy, Business & Consumer

A subway train pulls out of L.A.'s Hollywood and Vine Station.

Transit proposals in Congress threaten projects, jobs, critics say

Rail and bus systems across the country could lose nearly half their funding under two proposals in Congress to end federal grants for transit projects.

Courts & Crime

The Justice Department has succeeded in blocking a settlement totaling $600,000 that Floyd Landis, left, reached with Lance Armstrong’s business associates.

U.S. blocks settlement between Lance Armstrong associates and ex-teammate

Uncle Sam has now further complicated the high-stakes grudge match between disgraced bicyclist Lance Armstrong and his former teammate, Floyd Landis.