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The militant group that calls itself the Islamic State have begun a new round of fighting with the Syrian regime, surrounding a base outside its stronghold in Raqqa and launching offensives in Aleppo province and Kurdish regions. The death toll in Syria this week reportedly has reached 1,700, most of whom are combatants of one sort or another.

Fifteen years after a landmark report called attention to the deaths and injuries caused by medical errors, safety experts told a Senate panel that more needs to be done to protect patients.

The studio announced it would continue the Star Wars movie franchise with a seventh film due to be released in 2015, and others to follow. Disney also owns Marvel, which it bought for $4 billion in 2009.

Bitcoin, the digital currency that trades outside the control of central banks and international borders, reached new heights Tuesday, surpassing the $200 mark for the first time. That level comes just five days after bitcoin approached $150, a development that Mt.Gox, the largest exchange service for the currency, deemed to be "epic."

Before her death in 1973, Pearl S. Buck wrote one final novel. ButThe Eternal Wonder languished in a Texas storage unit for decades until its discovery last fall.

The fast food giant said this week that some of its burgers in Britain and Ireland were found to contain horsemeat. That's prompted a Twitter campaign and threats of a boycott.

The Syrian rebels have long been pleading for more powerful weapons in their fight against the Syrian regime. Now, sources say they are being trained to shoot down Syrian military aircraft.

Researchers from the University of Florida, National Geographic and other groups say Burmese pythons may not be as likely to spread across the Southeast U.S. as previous researchers have warned. Cold weather may beat them back.

As U.S. and European sanctions cause unrest in Iran, the ruling clerics may want to ditch the country's flamboyant president.

Documents show that chronic electrical problems at the NSA's mammoth new data center in Utah destroyed equipment and delayed the center's opening, according to reports.

A NASA mission to the moon has completed the first high-bandwidth space-to-ground communication using a laser. This is a big upgrade from the radio systems now in use and could potentially revolutionize deep-space communication.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani is trying to use charm to ease international pressure without scaling back its nuclear efforts, Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu says. "Rouhani thinks he can have his yellowcake and eat it too," Netanyahu told the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday.

A stream of fiction and stories written by reclusive author J.D. Salinger will be published between 2015 and 2020, according to a new biography about the writer of The Catcher in the Rye, who died in 2010. Some of the books will reportedly revisit beloved Salinger characters such as Holden Caulfield.

The Washington Post reports that the agency is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world. One official told the newspaper the NSA is getting vast volumes of location data by tapping into the cables that connect mobile networks globally.

During the Great Recession, whole neighborhoods in Phoenix were left half-built or mostly vacant. But now developers are buying these lots to keep up with the high demand for housing. The market isn't where it should be, but it's better than it was two years ago, one real estate agent says.

The Russian economy took a big hit in 2014. The U.S. and other countries imposed economic sanctions after Russia annexed Crimea, but it was falling oil prices that really hurt the country.

As the Israeli prime minister attacked a nuclear deal with Iran in a speech ti Congress, Secretary of State Kerry sat with his Iranian counterpart in Switzerland, trying to reach a framework deal.

Investigators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture say they cannot figure out how genetically modified wheat got into an Oregon field. Now GM wheat has been found growing in Montana, too.

A ruling against J. Jayalalithaa in India's highest-profile corruption case has stunned a political class that is widely seen as permeated with graft. She's been sentenced to four years in prison.

Business and consumer groups say Congress needs to reform taxes, but few expect change soon. In fact, Treasury's tweaks to tax law may diminish the political will to address broader tax reform.