LOS ANGELES (AP) — NASA’s Curiosity rover hasn’t discovered any signs of methane in the atmosphere of Mars, a finding that does not bode well for the possibility that microbes capable of producing the gas could be living below the planet’s surface, scientists said Thursday. Since landing in Gale Crater last year, the car-size rover […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said Thursday his agency is in “the midst of a financial disaster” and may need an emergency increase in postage rates to keep operating. “The Postal Service as it exists today is financially unsustainable,” he told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. It’s a message that […]

MADRID (AP) — A Spanish official says a 5-month-old baby has died in an accident after being placed on a baggage conveyor belt at the Alicante airport in southeast Spain. A spokeswoman for airport management company Aena said the baby and its American mother arrived at the airport late Wednesday on a flight from London. […]

LONDON (AP) — It’s the next best thing to parking that costs peanuts: parking that costs chestnuts. A company that runs parking lots in the English cities of Leeds and Manchester is temporarily letting drivers pay with the dark brown seeds that fall from horse chestnut trees each autumn. Town Centre Car Parks is accepting […]

VALDAI, Russia (AP) — President Vladimir Putin denied Thursday that gays face discrimination in Russia, saying that a new law that has drawn protests worldwide does not infringe on their rights. Putin on Thursday maintained that the law bans only “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations among minors.” He argued that it is “no infringement on […]

LONDON (AP) — The organizers of the Rhodes Scholarships say a Canadian philanthropist is giving 75 million pounds ($120 million) to the prestigious program, the largest single donation since it was founded more than a century ago. The Rhodes Trust said Thursday that the McCall MacBain Foundation’s grant will help fund the current 83 Rhodes […]

BEIJING (AP) — Divers have found the body of a missing U.S. stunt pilot whose plane crashed into a lake in northeast China while attempting a tricky maneuver in the rain, the head of the team searching for him said today. David Riggs, whose U.S. pilot’s license had been suspended, had been missing since Tuesday’s […]

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A Yemeni military official says coordinated attacks by al- Qaida militants in a southern province have killed at least 38 soldiers and wounded dozens. Maj. Raed Mohammed Nasser says the attacks took place at dawn today in Shabwa province. He says the militants, taking advantage of heavy fog, surprised the troops […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — A New Jersey college student wants Congress to stand strong against tougher gun laws. A Colorado software executive thinks the federal government goes too far in protecting gun rights. A childcare worker in Wisconsin just wants the shootings in her city to stop. Even as the debate over tightening national gun control […]

CHICAGO (AP) — Thirteen people have been shot late at a park on Chicago’s southwest side, including a 3-year-old boy who was in critical condition. Officer Amina Greer said the shooting occurred shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday. A witness, Julian Harris, told the Chicago Sun-Times that dreadlocked men fired at him from a gray sedan […]