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Newt Gingrich, the 67-year-old former Republican House speaker, in an announcement on Twitter, said he intends to run for president of the United States.No surprise: Gingrich's spokesman two days earlier had announced that his boss was going to make it official, becoming only the third among a slew

Tank shells crashed into residential neighborhoods in the Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday. The country's third-largest city has been a hub of anti-government protests in recent weeks.Abu Omar recently fled Homs to Lebanon. Before the trouble in Syria started, he was a housepainter.

Toyota, which has been suffering from ongoing parts shortages and production delays following the March earthquake and tsunami, announced Wednesday that its most recent quarterly profit fell by more than 75 percent.The automaker has had a lot of problems lately, and they aren't just tied to the disa

Japan is reassessing how it produces electricity after March's earthquake and tsunami sparked a crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.Prime Minister Naoto Kan this week persuaded the operators of another nuclear plant west of Tokyo to temporarily close it to make safety improvements.

Michigan is increasingly using what some consider a drastic method for dealing with cash-strapped cities. New laws give emergency financial managers the authority to fire local government officials.Residents of Benton Harbor, Mich., know this option well. A year ago, former Gov.

In the past two years, Detroit has closed 59 schools and cut 30 percent of the school system's workforce. But the district is still staring at a deficit of more than $300 million, and thousands of students continue to flee every year."

California is cracking down on invasive species, and that could have a big impact on national regulations due out later this year. The state has passed the strictest rules in the country to prevent cargo ships from bringing foreign plants and animals to San Francisco Bay.