More Americans signed contracts to buy homes in January as lower mortgage rates appeared to give the real estate market a boost. The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday its pending home sales index rose 4.6 percent last month to 103.2. The rebound has come as average 30-year mortgage rates… Read More

Groups and clubs in Germany are putting the final touches on their elaborate floats with outrageous caricatures depicting political themes for this year’s Carnival celebrations. In a workshop in Mainz on Tuesday, an artist worked studiously on a float featuring a bull with “USA” emblazoned on the side, with a… Read More

The United Methodist Church, America’s second-largest Protestant denomination, faces a likely surge in defections and acts of defiance after delegates at a crucial conference voted Tuesday to strengthen the faith’s divisive bans on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT clergy. Emotions were high throughout the third and final day of… Read More

Dallas Cowboys defensive end Randy Gregory was suspended indefinitely Tuesday for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy, the fourth time the troubled player has been banned by the league. The suspension comes about seven months after Gregory was reinstated by Commissioner Roger Goodell following a lengthy process aimed at reviving his career. Gregory… Read More

Eight University of Mississippi basketball players kneeled during the national anthem Saturday before a victory over Georgia in response to a Confederacy rally near the arena. With the teams lined up across the court at the free throw lines, six players took a knee and bowed at the start of… Read More

R&B star R. Kelly signed autographs and waved at a fan who yelled “I love you!” when he stopped at McDonald’s in downtown Chicago after being released from jail in his sexual abuse case. Kelly posted $100,000 bail late Monday after spending the weekend in Chicago’s 7,000-inmate jail. He was arrested Friday on charges of sexually… Read More

A mystery man is being hailed as a hero for buying all the cookies some Girl Scouts had for sale, saying he did it so they wouldn’t have to stand outside anymore. South Carolina mother Kayla Dillard said on Facebook that the man paid $540 in cash for all the girls’ cookies,… Read More

Officials say a woman hiking in Yosemite National Park in California was killed after being struck by falling rock and ice on a dangerous trail that was closed to the public. Park officials said Monday 56-year-old Xuan Wang, of Cupertino, California, was killed Sunday while hiking on the Mist Trail…. Read More

A large pile of dead coyotes was discovered behind a subdivision in a North Carolina city, and a wildlife officer thinks they were brought from a different location after a hunt. North Carolina wildlife enforcement officer Sampson Parker said Monday that 73 carcasses were piled in a heap on the… Read More