FLORIDA

Freddie Mac, the U.S. mortgage finance giant, said on Monday it is seeking $595 million in loan payments and other funds hung up after the bankruptcy of lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker.

The world's largest cruise ship Oasis of the Seas has arrived in Florida, in the south eastern United States, to prepare for its first cruise ever scheduled for early December.

A Florida jury on Thursday ordered cigarette maker Philip Morris USA to pay $300 million in damages to a 61-year-old ex-smoker named Cindy Naugle who is wheelchair-bound by emphysema.

Royal Caribbean has released the world's largest cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas, which is five times bigger than the titanic arrived at its home port, Port Everglades in Florida today.

Democrats in the U.S. Congress are seeking government investigations into recent price increases of brand-name prescription drugs, as lawmakers finalize an overhaul of the healthcare system.

Cuba's Raul Castro has kept the system his brother Fidel used to repress critics, refusing to free scores of people imprisoned years ago and jailing others for dangerousness, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued on Wednesday.

Lowe's Cos Inc , the second-largest U.S. home improvement chain, posted a 30 percent drop in quarterly profit on Monday as consumers put off big renovations while the U.S. housing market remained sluggish.

The shuttle Atlantis successfully blasted off into orbit Monday towards the International Space Station, carrying 15 tons of critical spare parts and equipment. Atlantis and its six-man crew launched as scheduled at 2:28 p.m. ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission trip's purpose is to deliver equipment, including two gyroscopes, to the International Space Station.

Lowe's Cos Inc , the second-largest U.S. home improvement chain, posted a 30 percent drop in quarterly profit on Monday as consumers put off big renovations while the U.S. housing market remained sluggish.

The Atlantis space shuttle has been fueled and is ready for blast off later on Monday for its 11-day mission trip. The Atlantis is scheduled to lift off at 2:28 p.m. ET from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla to the International Space Station.

Lowe's Cos Inc, the second-largest U.S. home improvement chain, posted a 30 percent drop in quarterly profit as consumers put off big renovations as the U.S. housing market remains sluggish, sending shares down 2.1 percent in premarket trading.

NASA said Sunday that the weather is expected to be conducive for the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis to launch toward the International Space Station on Monday on a delivery mission.

U.S. home foreclosure filings slowed in October for a third straight month, but rising unemployment will spur another record year of failing mortgages in 2010, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

A new technology to prevent lithium-ion batteries from catching fire or exploding in laptops and mobile phones may be on the market as soon as the first quarter of 2010, its inventor said on Wednesday.

It's still not cheap, but Livin' La Vida Madoff may now cost a bit less. Asking prices for homes once occupied by now imprisoned Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff in Manhattan's Upper East Side and in Palm Beach, Florida, have been cut, after about two months on the market.

Get ready, America. Like her or not, Sarah Palin is coming to a city near you.

About 20 percent of struggling U.S. homeowners eligible for loan workouts have entered into a trial modification, but it is unclear how many of them will be able to keep the lower payments permanently, the Treasury Department said on Tuesday.

A weakened Tropical Storm Ida drenched the U.S. Gulf Coast and oil installations on Monday, shutting down nearly 30 percent of Gulf energy production.

Ida weakened to a tropical storm as it churned toward oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and was forecast to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast early on Tuesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Monday.

'Twilight' here! We got your red hot 'Twilight' angle heah!

Arab and Muslim Americans on Friday braced for the possibility of verbal or physical attacks after an Army psychiatrist of Arab descent allegedly killed 13 during a shooting rampage at a military base in Texas.