American world-record holders and pretenders to the crown of hot-dog chomper of the year weighed in for the hugely popular annual July 4 Coney Island competition set to draw thousands.
A group of 46 Indian nurses trapped in Iraq are to be freed, one of them told AFP Friday, in a rare piece of positive news in a crisis threatening "Syria-like chaos".
The United States military is grounding its entire fleet of F-35 fighter jets as it completes additional engine inspections following a fire aboard an aircraft in Florida last week.
A US man has been charged with murdering his nearly two-year-old son by leaving him in a hot car for seven hours and could face the death penalty if convicted.
More than 70,000 people have already asked Google to delete links about them under Europe's "right to be forgotten" ruling, with some of the world biggest news sites the first to be hit.
Hurricane Arthur made landfall on the North Carolina shore late Thursday, as millions of Americans braced for its impact along the East Coast on the eve of the Independence Day holiday.
Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson won damages against a French author whose novel features a character resembling the starlet who is treated as a sex object.
Oil extended losses in Asia Thursday on prospects that Libya will begin exporting more crude into a global market flush with supplies, while easing concerns about the Iraqi crisis also weighed on prices.
The US National Security Agency's electronic snooping led to "well over 100 arrests" and helped smash numerous terrorist plots, a privacy review panel said.
It's tough being Hillary Clinton. Her book's a flop, she's angered ordinary Americans with crass remarks about money and now her husband's sex life is a New York musical.
A US-based Japanese scientist said he has succeeded in engineering a version of the so-called swine flu virus that would be able to evade the human immune system.
Toshiba's US unit is nearing a deal estimated at almost $5 billion to build a nuclear reactor in Bulgaria, a report said Thursday, as Japanese firms eye atomic contracts overseas after the Fukushima crisis erased demand at home.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker and writer Paul Mazursky, whose credits include "An Unmarried Woman" and "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," has died at age 84, his agent said.
Former world leaders Bill Clinton and Tony Blair attended a special summit in Colombia in support of the country's bid to forge peace with FARC rebels.
Twitter announced that it has cut a deal to buy mobile ad firm Tap Commerce to bolster money-making tools at the popular one-to-many messaging service.
Japan loosened the bonds on its powerful military, proclaiming the right to go into battle in defence of allies, in a highly controversial shift in the nation's pacifist stance.
The US space agency is to launch on Tuesday a satellite that tracks atmospheric carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.
President Barack Obama has deployed 200 more troops to Baghdad to protect the US embassy as Iraq's parliament was set to convene Tuesday to seek a solution to the country's sectarian crisis.
Facebook secretly manipulated the feelings of 700,000 users to understand "emotional contagion" in a study that prompted anger and forced the social network giant on the defensive.