NEW YORK (Reuters) - Single-family home prices rose in November, building on a string of gains that point to a housing market that is on the mend, data from a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday. The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 0.6 percent in November on a seasonally adjusted basis, in line with economists' forecasts. Prices in the 20 cities rose 5.5 percent year over year. It was the strongest year-over-year price increase since August 2006. ...

Observers fear the fate of priceless 13th century documents.

Ten Borneo pygmy elephants have been found dead in a Malaysian forest under mysterious circumstances, and wildlife officials said Tuesday that they probably were poisoned.

"We're all entitled to our own opinions and I respect their opinions and their thoughts," Neil Heslin said. "But I wish they'd respect mine and give it a little bit of thought."

This week marks a somber time for NASA, with the anniversaries of three U.S. spaceflight disasters.

Politics Confidential Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., defied the odds in November when she won the closest senate race in the country, and now that she's arrived in Washington, she's defiant as ever. But now, instead of defying the pollsters, she's defying the Democratic caucus by taking divergent opinions on issues central to the President Obama's [...]

The difference between the Senate plan and the president's could be border security.

A brain that helped science figure out the mysteries of speech has finally been linked to its owner.

At least 3,500 families in New York and New Jersey are still living in hotels and motels on the dime of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Airlines cancel flights and Beijing shuts down factories.

Egypt's army chief warned Tuesday of the "the collapse of the state" if the political crisis roiling the nation for nearly a week continues.

So far, no one is suggesting checkpoints or fences to keep Washington state's legal pot within its borders. But Gov. Jay Inslee insists there are ways to prevent the bulk smuggling of the state's newest cash crop.

VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) — The Coast Guard says nearly four dozen vessels are stacked up on the Mississippi River near Vicksburg, awaiting clearance as crews work around the clock to clean up an oil spill.

A humble 5-cent coin with a storied past is headed to auction and bidding expected to top $2 million a century after it was mysteriously minted.

A decade after a raging fire swept through Southern California's San Bernardino foothills, an arsonist was sentenced to death for causing the deaths of five men who died of heart attacks.

A doctor was fatally shot in an examination room of an Orange County medical office, and the man who police believe shot him was taken into custody without a struggle, authorities said.