NEW YORK

Hurricane Irene, now lingering in the Bahamas and expected to hit the East Coast, is strengthening with time and could become a Category 4 by Thursday, say forecasters.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center has issued an advisory that Hurricane Irene could grow to Category 4 from its current Category 3 stage as it moves across the Bahamas.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Allergan's Botox injection for treating patients who have bladder control problems arising from spinal cord injury or multiple sclerosis (MS).

In the annals of natural disasters, it doesn't get much worse than a major hurricane directly striking New York City and Long Island.

The Washington Monument will be closed indefinitely to the public as engineers have found additional cracks in the stones at the top of the structure.

North Carolina's Dare County on Wednesday told all visitors to evacuate Carolina as of 8 a.m. on Thursday to get out of the way of Hurricane Irene.

New York City officials have begun preparations to evacuate residents from low-lying areas of New York City, if necessary, as the rapidly strengthening Hurricane Irene could reach the New York area by midday Saturday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel topped the Forbes list of the world's most powerful women, which is dominated by politicians, businesswomen and leaders in media and entertainment.

The latest predictions show Hurricane Irene cutting a path up the East Coast of the United States from the Carolinas up through New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine.

It seems many of the animals at the Smithsonian National Zoo saw the earthquake coming before it hit the metro region.

Hurricane Irene battered parts of the Bahamas on Wednesday, leaving some southeastern islands without electricity, debris-blocked roads, and damaged homes. The Category 3 hurricane is now taking aim at the New York area and the rest of the East Coast of the United States. Irene could become a Category 4 storm by Thursday as it approaches the U.S.

Steve Jobs co-founder of Apple (AAPL), a visionary, and the driving force behind one of the United States' premiere and most trail-blazing companies in the modern/postmodern era, has had several medical leaves.

Hurricane Irene is heading right for Northeast. It remains unclear when and where the storm will break.

Even if Irene reaches New York as a weakened Category 1 or Category 2 hurricane, it could still wreak havoc because the city is simply not prepared to handle such storms the way Florida or the Gulf Coast are. In a worst-case scenario, here are the top five threats New York City would face from a major hurricane.

Hurricane and tropical storm watches were issued for the Carolinas early Thursday as Hurricane Irene moved over the northwestern Bahamas, the National Hurricane Center said.

In the wake of Sept. 11, 2011, the New York Police Department has seen an unprecedented expansion of its surveillance and intelligence activities that includes actively spying on Muslim New Yorkers.

The historic earthquake caused a historic damage as it shook the nation's capital.While the mess around Washington, D.C. is being cleaned up on Wednesday, the Washington Monument in the heart of the city remained encircled within a black fence - due to a crack caused by Tuesday's 5.8-magnitude earthquake centered in Virginia.

Despite the entire hullabaloo surrounding the historic East Coast earthquake, the 5.8 magnitude quake didn't create that much economic damage.

Hurricane Irene's projected path is expected impact almost the entire East Coast.

Rick Perry surged ahead of Mitt Romney in a Gallup poll released Wednesday, underscoring how conservative the Republican presidential primary race has become.

Gold fell Wednesday in electronic trading as investors took profits, economists heralded a positive indicator and Wall Street held its collective breath that the chairman of the U.S. central bank would signal support in a key speech later this week.