UNITED STATES

Apple Inc. announced that its App Store reached 25 billion application downloads Saturday. A billion thanks. 25 times over, said an announcement on the company's Web site. The App Store has reached 25 billion downloads. Thanks for getting us there.

China will increase its defense spending by 11.2 percent this year, a government representative said on Sunday when the country disclosed its military budget. It will spend 670 billion yuan ($106.4 billion) on defense in 2012, which represents an increase of $14.4 billion over the $92 billion spent on the military in 2011.

U.S. President Barack Obama will be making a speech at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference on Sunday, a day before a critical meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Iran.

The estimated $7.8 billion deal struck by BP Plc with businesses and individuals suing over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill could speed up payments to thousands of claimants and offers lawyers a potential windfall in legal fees.

Annie George, the owner of a lavish 34-room mansion in upstate Rexford, N.Y., stands accused of keeping an Indian woman, V.M., in forced labor as a domestic worker in her home. V.M.'s circumstances, and the unanswered questions surrounding her time in the U.S., combine human trafficking and modern-day slavery laws with a tangled web of immigration laws, compounding the suffering that result from the modern-day struggles that plague domestic workers, regardless of citizenship, as they ...

Even as a national debate rages over contraception insurance, tens of thousands of low-income women and teenagers across the United States have lost access to subsidized birth control as states slash and restructure family planning funds.

Rush Limbaugh on Saturday issued an apology to Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student he called slut and prostitute on his talk show, after she expressed her support of women's access to birth control.

As gasoline prices rise around the country, topping $4 per gallon in many cities, President Barack Obama faces increasing pressure about his long-term energy policy. In his weekly radio address, Obama said that stronger auto mileage standards set under his administration, and better-built cars made in the U.S., will help Americans save money in the long term.

Brad Pitt and George Clooney will be featured in the star-studded play 8 on Saturday, which examines the overturning of the controversial Proposition 8 law in California.

The foreign ministry in Moscow even asserted it will not move to protect Assad and his regime in the event that the west and other Arab powers intervene militarily in Syria.

BP and three other energy companies late Friday reached a settlement with thousands of individuals and businesses affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill that killed 11 workers and fouled the Gulf of Mexico with millions of gallons of oil.

Less than a year after a series of tornadoes caused some of the worse insured losses in U.S. history, the insurance industry is likely facing substantial costs again after storms killed at least 33 people on Friday.

Less than a year after a series of tornadoes caused some of the worse insured losses in U.S. history, the insurance industry is likely facing substantial costs again after storms killed at least 33 people on Friday.

On Sat, March 3, Twitter users took to the social media Web site to express their opinions on Chris Brown and Rihanna, under the banner “If Chris Brown was our teacher …” While the bulk of the posts criticized Brown for his notorious temper and history of domestic abuse, some Twitter users took the opportunity to praise the singer-rapper-dancer.

The town of Marysville, Indiana, is completely gone after tornadoes left widespread damage and swept across a great portion of the Midwest and South on Friday, leaving dozens dead across four states.

Stocks have proven the naysayers wrong so far in 2012. And the February employment situation summary on Friday could be just the ticket to keep the bulls going next week. Besides the jobs report on Friday, next week brings an ADP private-sector employment report on Wednesday.

New initiatives don't always succeed first time. The government's auction of 5 percent of Oil and Natural Gas Corp, the energy group, could have flopped had it not been for last-minute intervention from state-owned Life Insurance Company of India. But if Delhi learns the right lessons, the auction route could yet be an effective way of selling stakes in state-run firms.

Even as a national debate rages over contraception insurance, tens of thousands of low-income women and teenagers across the United States have lost access to subsidized birth control as states slash and restructure family-planning funds.

In the light of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the U.S. to discuss strategies regarding Iran's allegedly clandestine nuclear weapons program, President Obama has made it clear that the U.S. will strive to protect its ally Israel, though he would persuade the Jewish state to postpone its war plans.

Iran will likely be the most-discussed issue at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in the next few days, where three of the four remaining candidates for the Republican presidential nomination will give prominent speeches the morning of Super Tuesday.

Powerful tornadoes ripped through the nation's midsection on Friday, killing at least 27 people in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio as they splintered homes, damaged a prison, and tossed around vehicles. At least 13 people were killed in Indiana, another 12 in Kentucky, and two more in Ohio.