China announced it plans to secure over 1.67 billion mu (275 million acres) of land for grain farming this year. Agriculture Minister Han Changfu said different regions in the country will take advantage of their agricultural features to increase the acreage of high-yield crops, the Xinhua...

Venezuelan Finance Minister Jorge Giordani said the country will devalue its currency 32 percent as part of an attempt to close a budget deficit. The devaluation, set for Feb. 13, will increase the amount of currency in circulation. Election-year spending that supported President Hugo...

Boeing Co. Chief Executive Officer Jim McNerney says he is confident the U.S. company can soon return the grounded 787 Dreamliner to service. The Federal Aviation Administration took the rare step this week of grounding the entire fleet of the new jet after a series of incidents in which...

A British bushiness group said it rejected the concept of raising a passenger tax at specific airports to persuade travelers to take alternative routes. The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday the British Treasury asked HM Revenue and Customs to explore raising the Air Passenger Duty at Heathrow...

South Korea and Thailand have entered discussions on a possible free trade agreement to “strengthen economic links between the two countries,” officials said. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra held preliminary talks on the deal at a...

Palestinian officials Saturday denied Israeli reports President Mahmoud Abbas was considering delaying Palestine's bid to upgrade its U.N. status until 2013. Abbas was considering asking for a United Nations vote to change Palestine's status to that of non-member state on Nov. 15...

Talks toward an international agreement on establishing protected marine zones in Antarctica are inconclusive and may not make any headway until next July. Last month's round of negotiations in Hobart, Australia, snagged on competing positions and proposals for protecting marine...

As part of California's cap-and-trade program to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the state is gearing up for its first auction, set for next Wednesday, for carbon allowances. Under the cap-and-trade scheme, California will distribute annual allowances to industrial entities such as power...

Iraq's strategic effort to become the world's leading oil producer has taken some bad knocks, with the defection of Exxon Mobil and other majors to independence-minded Kurdistan, and Wednesday's expulsion of Turkey's state oil outfit from an exploration deal. But Russia...

Green is more than a team color for the Philadelphia Eagles. By the end of the year the team's stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, will generate enough energy from 14 wind turbines and 11,000 solar panels to power every home game. “One of the uses of such a high-profile enterprise is...

Australia has issued its energy white paper considered to be the centerpiece of Australia's future energy policy. The white paper “faces up to major challenges such as rising energy prices, pressures in Australia's gas markets, remaining competitive in the development of our...

Strategic oil reserves will be needed if Iran seeks to close the choke point Strait of Hormuz because overland pipelines can only carry one-third of the oil supplies that move through the waterway, an Arab energy group has warned. The Tehran regime has threatened to block the 112-mile strait,...

Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage says he didn”t meet his co-stars in the animated caveman comedy “The Croods,” until after the movie had wrapped. “This is the very first day I have ever met Ryan [Reynolds,]” Cage told United Press International at a press...

U.S. chef and TV personality Alex Guarnaschelli has been declared the winner of the Food Network's “The Next Iron Chef: Redemption.” Guarnaschelli, who cooks at the Butter and The Darby eateries in New York, beat out fellow finalists Amanda Freitag and Nate Appleman to win...

Gil Friesen, longtime president of A&M Records, has died in Los Angeles, friends say. He was 75. Jann Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone magazine, said Friesen was battling leukemia when he died at his home Thursday. A&M records was a leading independent record label from the 1960s...

Thirty years ago, Michael Jackson was on his way to becoming the “King of Pop” with the release of the best-selling studio album in U.S. history, “Thriller.” “Thirty years ago the greatest album ever made was released and it still stands the test of...

George Entwistle, dogged by a false broadcast that a Conservative Party politician had molested boys, resigned Saturday as director-general of the BBC. Entwistle, a 23-year veteran of the British national broadcaster, was thought to be a safe choice when he got the job in September, the...

Comedian Katt Williams' former assistant is suing him for allegedly hitting her with a closed fist, a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court said. The former assistant, Melissa Ishage, said in the complaint Williams became angry Tuesday and threatened to strike her, raising an...

People who use some lower-wattage microwaves may not be cooking food long enough, a U.S. official warns. Kathy Bernard, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service, said it is important to know the wattage of your microwave oven. “To find it, look on the...

Women with larger social networks are more likely than women who are socially isolated to survive breast cancer, U.S. researchers say. Lead author Candyce H. Kroenke, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, said the study involved 2,264 women...

The Los Angeles City Council has declared Meatless Mondays, joining other cities in urging residents to go vegetarian once a week. The resolution adopted this week makes Los Angles the largest city so far to join the Meatless Monday campaign, NBC News reported. The effort was launched in 2003...

Squash is mostly starchy carbohydrates but studies show it has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic properties, a U.S. food expert says. “Squash includes both winter and summer varieties, some examples include, zucchini from the summer and butternut, buttercup, acorn, pumpkin...

Forty-five percent of deployed U.S. service members drank at least one energy drink daily, with 14 percent drinking three or more a day, health officials say. A report published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report determined the...

U.S. government officials said they finalized out-patient Medicare hospital payment increases, which go into effect Jan. 1. The Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Center updates Medicare payment policies and rates for hospital out-patient and Ambulatory...

A medical sensor attached to the skin like a temporary tattoo could help doctors detect metabolic problems, University of California, San Diego researchers say. The sensor that comes in a thin, flexible package shaped like a smiley face could also help coaches fine-tune athlete's...

When a NASA official said last week data from an instrument on the Mars Curiosity rover suggested something “for the history books,” many people thought an announcement was imminent of the possible discovery of life on the Red Planet — until the space agency began to...

The United Nations, observing international World Science Day for Peace and Development Saturday, called for a greater global focus on scientific development. The day's theme this year is ‘Science for Global Sustainability Interconnectedness, Collaboration, Transformation,”...

China is set to launch a manned spacecraft in June 2013, a space program official said Saturday. The spacecraft, Shenzhou-10, will likely have a crew of two male astronauts and one female astronaut, China's official Xinhua news agency reported. “They will stay in space for 15 days,...

The giant pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus may have sported a 34-foot wingspan, but it needed to taxi down a slope to take off, U.S. researchers say. With that huge wingspan and a weight of 155 pounds the ancient flying reptile is the largest flying animal ever discovered — any larger, and it...

The Nokia Lumia 920 smartphone entered the U.S. market Friday, giving Microsoft another chance to garner some elusive smartphone market share, analysts say. The Nokia device is the first phone to be available with the Windows Phone 8 operating system on which Microsoft has spent hundreds of...

Ramon Galloway made a layup to finish off an end-to-end drive with 3 seconds remaining Wednesday, giving La Salle a 54-53 upset victory over No. 9 Butler. The Bulldogs had won 13 games in a row since Nov. 21, but let a five-point halftime lead slip away and fell for the first time in Atlantic...

Second-seeded Janko Tipsarevic got by Roberto Bautista Agut in three sets Sunday in winning the championship at the Aircel Chennai Open in India. Tipsarevic, who was the tournament runner-up a year ago, rallied for a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 win over Bautista Agut. It was the fourth ATP title for...

Serena Williams turned in another dominant performance Saturday in a 6-2, 6-1 romp over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the Brisbane International title match. Williams, third in the world rankings and the No. 3 seed in Brisbane, was on the court just 51 minutes, winning 10 of the last 11...

Second-seeded Marion Bartoli dropped just one game Monday in a first-round victory over Chan Wing-Yau at the Shenzhen Gemdale Open in China. Bartoli, No. 11 in the world rankings, won 60 percent of the points on serve and 65 percent when receiving serve. She did drop one service game but...

Jelani Jenkins ran in a blocked punt for a score with 2 seconds left Saturday, enabling No. 7 Florida to escape with a 27-20 win over Louisiana-Lafayette. Backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett tied the score with 1:42 remaining with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Quinton Dunbar and Florida's...

(All times Eastern) -0- Football NFL Oakland at Baltimore, 1 p.m. Denver at Carolina, 1 p.m. N.Y. Giants at Cincinnati, 1 p.m. Tennessee at Miami, 1 p.m. Detroit at Minnesota, 1 p.m. Buffalo at New England, 1 p.m. Atlanta at New Orleans, 1 p.m. San Diego at Tampa Bay, 1 p.m. N.Y. Jets at...