In tearful farewell, Obama awards Biden the Medal of Freedom

At the dusk of both of their political careers, surrounded by teary friends and family, President Barack Obama on Thursday bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Joe Biden, the man he called "the finest vice president we have ever seen."

The vice president winced in shock as Obama announced he was conferring the nation's highest civil honor on his right-hand-man for eight years. Biden turned away from the cameras, wiped away some tears, then stood stoically as Obama draped the blue-and-white ribbon around his neck.

It's Trump! Stunning outsider victory for 45th president

Donald Trump claimed his place Wednesday as America's 45th president, an astonishing victory for the celebrity businessman and political novice who capitalized on voters' economic anxieties, took advantage of racial tensions and overcame a string of sexual assault allegations on his way to the White House.

Trump's triumph over Hillary Clinton, not declared until well after midnight, will end eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House. He'll govern with Congress fully under Republican control and lead a country deeply divided by his rancorous campaign against Clinton. He faces fractures within his own party, too, given the numerous Republicans who either tepidly supported his nomination or never backed him at all.

Worst mass shooting in US history: 50 slain at gay nightclub

It had been an evening of drinking, dancing and drag shows. After hours of revelry, the party-goers crowding the gay nightclub known as the Pulse took their last sips before the place closed.

That's when authorities say Omar Mateen emerged, carrying an AR-15 and spraying the helpless crowd with bullets. Witnesses said he fired relentlessly — 20 rounds, 40, then 50 and more. In such tight quarters, the bullets could hardly miss. He shot at police. He took hostages.

Obama nominates Garland to high court, challenging GOP

President Barack Obama nominated appeals court judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, thrusting a respected moderate jurist and former prosecutor into the center of an election-year clash over the future of the nation's highest court.

Obama cast the 63-year-old Garland as "a serious man and an exemplary judge" deserving of a full hearing and a Senate confirmation vote, despite Republican vows to deny him both. Standing in the White House Rose Garden with Garland, Obama argued the integrity of the court was at stake and appealed to the Senate to "play it straight" in filling the seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

New Yorkers, others on public transit strip to underwear

Thousands of New Yorkers thought it was a hot thing Sunday to strip to their underwear during winter and ride on public transportation, along with pantless crowds in about 60 countries.

"I'm a no-pant virgin," declared a grinning Miguel Ramos amid New York's No Pants Subway Ride. It was the Mexican-born restaurant worker's first foray into the "international celebration of silliness," as organizers billed it.

All the winter's a weird weather stage; Here are the players

Get ready for weather whiplash as powerful climatic forces elbow each other for starring roles in a weird winter show.

The spine-chilling polar vortex is taking center stage in Europe and bringing persistent cold to much of North America — except in Hollywood, where soggy El Nino won't give up the spotlight.

US rate hike ends wait, but not uncertainty for Asia

The Federal Reserve's rate hike was welcomed in Asia as a sign of strength in the U.S., one of the region's biggest export markets. But it could complicate Chinese efforts to avoid a sharper economic slowdown and keep the yuan steady.

The U.S. central bank on Wednesday raised the Federal Funds Rate by a quarter percentage point, the first such increase in nearly a decade. The decision ended a long period of uncertainty about when the Fed would begin winding down the easy money deployed to help heal the economic damage of the 2008 financial crisis.

Sikhs feel vulnerable, join with Muslims to combat backlash

Pardeep Kaleka spent several days after 9/11 at his father's South Milwaukee gas station, fearing that his family would be targeted by people who assumed they were Muslim. No, Kaleka explained on behalf of his father, who wore a turban and beard and spoke only in broken English, the family was Sikh, a southeast Asian religion based on equality and unrelated to Islam.

But amid a new wave of anti-Islamic sentiment since the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Kaleka is vowing to take an entirely different approach.

US, India end impasse that threatened WTO pact

The United States and India said Thursday they had resolved a dispute over stockpiling of food by the Indian government, clearing a major stumbling block to a deal to boost world trade.

India had insisted on its right to subsidize grains under a national policy to support hundreds of millions of impoverished farmers and provide food security amid high inflation.

Scientists: US-China pact won't slow warming much

Don't expect the landmark U.S.-China climate change agreement to nudge the world's rising thermostat downward much on its own, scientists say.

While they hail it as a start, experts who study heat-trapping carbon dioxide don't see the deal, announced Wednesday in Beijing, making significant progress without other countries joining in.

The math shows that even with the agreement, the globe is still rushing toward another 2-degree temperature rise — a level that world leaders have pledged to avoid as too dangerous.

John Kerry

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry turns to wave as he boards a plane to New Delhi, India, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Tuesday, July 29, 2014.  

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