MEXICO

When Sean McGowan signed a contract to buy a New Jersey home in November, he didn't expect he'd still be living with his parents nearly a year later.

Before Joe Biden left China this week, the last thing Vice President Xi Jinping told him over dinner was simple: he wants to be friends.

It sounds like a latter-day version of The Odd Couple -- petite, American actress Katie Holmes (Mrs. Tom Cruise) paired with portly Mexican writer/director Guillermo del Toro, a gothic horror film devotee known for Hellboy and Blade franchises.

Hurricane Irene strengthened to a major Category 3 hurricane over the Bahamas on Wednesday as it roared up from the Caribbean on a path expected to swipe the East Coast from the Carolinas upward at the weekend.

A strong earthquake rattled the East Coast on Tuesday, sending tremors as far as Canada, damaging well-known buildings in the nation's capital and sending scared office workers into the streets.

The United States put its eastern seaboard on alert for Hurricane Irene on Tuesday as the powerful storm barreled up from the Caribbean on a path that could hit the U.S. coast on the weekend.

Most of the damage and loss of life occurred in New England (particularly Rhode Island); however Long Island and New York City were not completely spared.

When Sean McGowan signed a contract to buy a New Jersey home in November, he didn't expect he'd still be living with his parents nearly a year later.

China vowed on Wednesday to appeal a recent World Trade Organization ruling against its raw materials export policy, a case that could threaten Beijing's stance on rare earths, which it contends is in line with the trade body's rules.

A strong earthquake rattled the U.S. East Coast on Tuesday, sending tremors as far as Canada, shaking the nation's capital and scaring thousands of office workers who fled onto the streets.

The astronauts at the International Space Station have got a new company, a humanoid robot, which was activated on Monday, six months after it got delivered to the space station.

New York and New Jersey politicians are demanding that any new government in Tripoli extradite to the United States a Libyan official convicted in Britain for the December 1988 bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner.

A strong earthquake rattled the East Coast on Tuesday, sending tremors as far as Canada, shaking the nation's capital and scaring thousands of office workers who fled onto the streets.

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., shook much of Washington, D.C., and was felt as far north as Rhode Island and New York City.

A strengthening Hurricane Irene churned on a northwest track toward the Southeast United States on Tuesday, threatening the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas with battering winds and rain and dangerous surf.

Colorado was jolted by a 5.3 magnitude earthquake on Monday. The earthquake, which struck at 11.46 p.m. local time, is the largest since 1973 when the state was struck by a 5.7-magnitude quake.

Brent crude neared $109 Tuesday as fighting in Libya continued and in anticipation of a fall in U.S. crude stockpiles.

Six bodies have been added to the ever-increasing death toll of Mexico's drug war. In Acapulco, a number of headless bodies where found just days after gunmen shot and killed five people on the street.

NASA has activated Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot that may eventually be used as a helper to astronauts in the International Space Station.

The bad news is that Hurricane Irene will probably strike the Florida and or the Southeast Atlantic coast. The good news is, for U.S. motorists - - the Gulf of Mexico and its important oil refinery infrastructure will be spared.

Genna Saucedo supervises cashiers at a Wal-Mart in Pico Rivera, California, but her wages aren't enough to feed herself and her 12-year-old son.