An Iranian attack aircraft fired at least twice at an unarmed U.S. drone conducting routine surveillance in international airspace over the Gulf, the Pentagon said Thursday. The aircraft missed and the drone returned to base unharmed.The shooting in the Gulf, which occurred just before 5 a.m. on Nov. 1, was unprecedented, Pentagon press secretary George Little said. The incident was not disclosed sooner because the military does not discuss classified surveillance missions, but agreed to answer

Puerto Ricans have supported U.S. statehood in a vote that jubilant members of the pro-statehood party say is the strongest sign yet that the Caribbean island territory is on the road to losing its second-class status.But Tuesday's vote comes with an asterisk and an imposing political reality: The island remains bitterly divided over its relationship to the United States and many question the validity of this week's referendum.Nearly a half million voters chose to leave a portion of the ballot b

While world attention is focused on climate change and extreme weather, U.S. researchers say another global change underway must be addressed: acidification.The combustion of fossil fuels, smelting of ores, mining of coal and metal ores and the application of nitrogen fertilizer to soils are all driving down the pH of the Earth's air, water and the soil at rates faster than Earth's natural systems can buffer, posing threats to both land and sea life, they said.Janet Herman of the Department of E

Republicans lost a seat in the Senate in Tuesday's elections, boosting Democratic prospects for keeping control of the upper chamber even as they had little hope of capturing the House of Representatives.Democrats were counting on the victory in Maine by independent Angus King as they looked to protect their 53-47 advantage in the Senate, where 33 of the 100 Senate seats were at stake in Tuesday's vote. Only a dozen Senate votes _ including Maine _ were seen as competitive.All 435 House seats we

A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives detonated the vehicle near an Iraqi military base as soldiers changed shifts north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 33 people and wounding 56, according to authorities. The blast struck around midday as troops were leaving the base in Taji, 20 kilometers north of the capital, police said. Twenty-two soldiers were among the dead, and several vehicles were damaged, they said. The casualty toll was high because the attacker blew up the ca

The Air Force’s plan to purchase advanced air-to-surface missiles faces hurdles due to design and price problems, officials said Monday. The Air Force is trying to decide between Lockheed Martin’s JASSM and TAURUS Systems’ Taurus for the country’s fleet of F-15K strike fighters. However, defense officials said that JASSM missiles, which have the capability to penetrate North Korea’s underground bunkers, are not compatible with Boeing’s F-15Ks.On the other hand, the German-Swedish Taurus is highl

For those familiar with director Jo Sung-hee’s previous work, his first commercial film, “A Werewolf Boy,” will come as a surprise.This is mostly because of the tone of the movie. The star-studded film, featuring Song Joong-ki and Park Bo-young, is a fantasy romance between a teenage girl and a feral “wolf” boy who can neither read nor speak. Taking place in a rural Korean town in the 1960s, the film feels very much like a children’s story, filled with innocence, curiosity, humor and moving dram

The U.N. Security Council on Monday ordered global sanctions against the Haqqani militant group in Afghanistan and its suicide attack mastermind.The network, which has been widely linked to Pakistan, is accused of carrying out a string of murderous attacks in Afghanistan including against the U.S. embassy and a major hotel in Kabul.Haqqani and its chief suicide attack organizer, Qari Zakir, were added to the U.N.'s Afghanistan-Taliban sanctions list. This means nations must apply an assets freez