A major fire tore through a building under construction near AT&T Park in San Francisco. (Brant Ward/San Francisco Chronicle)
 

Huge fire threatens San Francisco neighborhood

A five-alarm blaze engulfs a multistory apartment building in the city’s Mission Bay district.  Worries about exploding windows »

More stories

  • CIA-Senate dispute: Who's spying on whom?

    Complex story starts with waterboarding and ends in a secret CIA facility in northern Virginia.

    Christian Science Monitor

  • Work until you die: Lifelong labor becomes the new normal

    There’s an interesting paradox happening in the U.S. labor market: Today there are more incentives than ever for a healthy, prosperous retirement. Yet over the same time period since investment options like 401(k)’s become available, people have been choosing to work further into their golden years.

  • Malaysian relative 'praying for divine intervention'

    Two suspect men who flew on a missing Malaysian airliner appear to have been Iranian illegal immigrants, officials said Tuesday, lessening fears of terrorism but shedding no light on the fate of the plane's 239 passengers and crew. On the fourth day of a multinational search at sea and on land, relatives desperate for news of loved ones aboard Malaysia Airlines MH370 said their hopes for a miracle were ebbing away. Authorities have doubled the search radius to 100 nautical miles (equivalent to 185 kilometres) around the point where the Boeing 777 disappeared from radar over the South China Sea early Saturday, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The 34-year-old son of Malaysian security guard Subramaniam Gurusamy was on the flight to do business in Beijing for an oil company.

    AFP

  • Anti-fracking activist barred from visiting friends, grocery store

    By David DeKok HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - A court injunction obtained by Texas-based Cabot Oil & Gas is preventing Pennsylvania resident Vera Scroggins from going to her local grocery store, her friends' homes, schools, or even the hospital. That's because those properties sit atop the more than 200,000 acres in Susquehanna County that the energy producer owns and leases for gas extraction - land on which Scroggins, a determined anti-fracking activist, is not allowed to tread. A judge in October granted Cabot's request to bar Scroggins from the land - more than 40 percent of Susquehanna County, where she lives - after her repeated trespassing, court documents show. Her offending actions included giving a tour last year to anti-drilling celebrities Susan Sarandon, Yoko Ono, and Sean Lennon, the documents said.

    Reuters

  • $600K taken from safe at Osteen's Houston megachurch

    HOUSTON (AP) — Authorities are investigating after $600,000 in checks and cash was stolen from a safe at Pastor Joel Osteen's Houston megachurch, which has one of the largest congregations in the country.

    Associated Press

  • Interpol tests giving airlines access to its passports database

    LYON, France (AP) — Interpol is allowing two airlines to check passenger passports against its vast database of lost and stolen travel documents — in a test project aimed to let private sector companies help authorities crack down on criminals who travel with fake documents, the police organization's leader said Tuesday.

    Associated Press

  • NSA nominee defends bulk data collection

    Obama's pick to head agency also says he's open to third-party storage of phone records.

    AFP

  • Black Hawk helicopter rescues man off NC cliff

  • Live from SXSW: Twitter co-founder Biz Stone

  • Is Japan building an irresistible terror target?

    Center for Public Integrity investigates Japan's new Rokkasho plutonium production plant.

  • CIA chief denies agency hacked Senate staff computers

    A public row erupted Tuesday between the CIA and the US lawmakers who oversee its intelligence work, with the agency's director angrily denying claims it spied on Senate staff. Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein launched an attack on the Central Intelligence Agency, accusing it of searching computers used by staffers investigating CIA interrogation methods. "I have grave concerns that the CIA's search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution," Feinstein declared on the Senate floor. She alleged that the CIA may have violated federal law as well as an executive order that bars it from domestic spying, but the agency's director John Brennan quickly denied the allegations.

    AFP

  • Obama sits 'Between Two Ferns' with Zach Galifianakis

    In a bid to get young people to sign up for health care, President Barack Obama became the first sitting president in U.S. history to appear on "Between Two Ferns," Funny or Die's intentionally awkward interview show hosted by comedian Zach Galifianakis.

  • Fukushima children face invisible enemy

    Fear of radiation has kept kids indoors for much of their short lives.

    Reuters

  • Ex-Christie aides want judge revoke subpoenas

    TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Lawyers for two key figures in a political payback scandal ensnaring Gov. Chris Christie's administration are trying to persuade a judge not to force them to turn over text messages and other private communications to New Jersey legislators investigating the matter.

    Associated Press

  • Missing jet traced hundreds of miles off-course

    Radar evidence shows the Boeing 777 was last detected off Malaysia's west coast.

    Associated Press

  • Feinstein accuses CIA of improperly searching Senate computers

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee accused the CIA Tuesday of criminal activity in improperly searching a computer network set up for lawmakers investigating allegations that the agency used torture in terror investigations during the Bush administration.

    Associated Press

  • Malaysia military tracks plane to west coast

    Radar indicates the airliner was far from where it last made contact.

    Reuters

  • Japan marks third anniversary of quake-tsunami disaster

    Namie (Japan) (AFP) - Japan observed a moment of silence Tuesday to mark the third anniversary of the quake-tsunami disaster which swept away thousands of victims, destroyed coastal communities, and sparked the nuclear emergency that forced a re-think on atomic power. Survivors bowed deeply and joined hands at remembrance ceremonies in towns and cities around the disaster zone and in Tokyo, where Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko led tributes to those who died in Japan's worst peace-time disaster. Giant waves also crashed into the Fukushima nuclear plant, sparking reactor meltdowns and explosions, and setting off the worst atomic crisis in a generation. As night fell, an event in a Fukushima park saw about 2,000 lit candles arranged to read "Fukushima 3/11".

    AFP

  • Army general's defense seeks new plea deal in sex case

    FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — A military judge on Tuesday dismissed the jury in the midst of an Army general's court martial on sexual assault charges to give prosecutors and defense lawyers time to hammer out a plea deal in the closely watched case.

    Associated Press

  • Russia preparing counterproposals over Ukraine

    KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia said Monday it is drafting counterproposals to a U.S. plan for a negotiated solution to the Ukraine crisis, denouncing the new Western-backed government as an unacceptable "fait accompli" and claiming that Russian-leaning parts of the country have been plunged into lawlessness.

    Associated Press