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MIAMI -- Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the U.S. Army fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can't answer basic math, science and reading questions, according to a new study released Tuesday.The report by The Education Trust bolsters a growing worry among military and education leaders that the pool of young people qualified for military service will grow too small

TOKYO -- A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 has struck in the Pacific Ocean, triggering a tsunami warning off the southern coast of Japan.Japan's Meteorological Agency said the quake occurred about 130 kilometers (80.6 miles) off the southern coast of Chichi Island in the Pacific Ocean. The offshore quake struck at around 2:20 a.m. (1720 GMT) at the depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).

GIMPO, South Korea -- As troops stood guard and a choir sang carols Tuesday, South Koreans lit a massive steel Christmas tree that overlooks the world's most heavily armed border and is within sight of atheist North KoreaPyongyang has used a combination of aggression and reconciliation before to extract concessions from the international community, and the resurrection of the tree lighting at Aegibong is a signal that the South is ready to play hardball until it sees real change from the North..

LOS ANGELES -- A series of winter storms bearing down on California could be the largest system the region has seen in the last decade, the National Weather Service said Saturday."This is one big mother and it's going to have a lot of waves in it," said Bill Hoffer, a spokesman for the agency's forecast office in Oxnard.The National Weather Service said a low pressure system off Oregon has created a band moisture that starts in Hawaii and points directly at Central California

DUBLIN -- The Vatican tried to stop Dublin church leaders from defrocking a particularly dangerous pedophile priest and relented an investigation reported Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid accepted the findings in Ireland's investigation into child abuse by Dublin priests who were shielded from the law by Catholic leadersMartin called Tony Walsh an "extremely devious man" who should never have been ordained a priest, and said the church had grown too powerful and arrogant in 20th century Ireland..

SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) -- North Korea said on Friday it would strike again at the South if a live-fire drill by Seoul on a disputed island went ahead, with an even stronger response than last month's shelling that killed four peopleNorth Korean official news agency KCNA issued the threat as South Korea prepared for firing drills on Yeonpyeong island near a disputed maritime border with the North for the first time since November's exchange of artillery fire.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- Al Qaeda is planning attacks in the United States, Britain and Europe around Christmas, one year after a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound passenger plane, a senior Iraqi official said Thursday.Major General Dhiya Hussein, the interior ministry's counter-terrorism chief, said a captured militant from the Iraqi wing of al Qaeda revealed the plot during interrogations.

MOSCOW -- Fearing more clashes between racist hooligans and mostly Muslim ethnic minorities, police detained more than 1,000 people in Moscow and several other Russian cities Wednesday, after weekend rioting in the capital left dozens injuredmostly young men and teenagers who were shouting racist slogans and raising their hands in Nazi salutes.

When the name in question is synonymous with the ancient culture and heritage.The U.S.Navy shifted its official policy and began referring to the Persian Gulf as the "Arabian Gulf." The name change provoked outrage from the easily provoked government of Iran -- which was known as Persia from around the sixth century BC until 1935. The move also drew fire from Iranian advocacy groups. Many outraged partisans of the old name took to the Navy's Facebook page to slam the American government.

KIEV, Ukraine -- Want a better understanding of the world's worst nuclear disaster? Come tour the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Beginning next year, Ukraine plans to open up the sealed zone around the Chernobyl reactor to visitors who wish to learn more about the tragedy that occurred nearly a quarter of a century ago, the Emergency Situations Ministry said Monday.Chernobyl's reactor No. 4 exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing radiation over a large swath of northern Europe.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Hoods were up and heads were down as a storm that plagued the Midwest for days plodded eastward Tuesday with knifing winds and blowing snow, stranding dozens of motorists on a southern Ontario highway and giving much of the northeastern U.S. its first real taste of winterin parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. The frigid air stretched into the deep South, where hard freeze warnings were in effect overnight in much of Florida. Hundreds of schools were closed or opening late.

A saintly woman named Ismeria was grandmother to the Virgin Mary, and great-grandmother to Jesus, according to a medieval legendNow, an examination of two manuscripts from 14th- and 15th-century Florence, Italy, reveals who exactly the legendary great-grandmother was, telling the story of the woman who gave birth to St. Anne, who became Mary's mother. The story of her life reflects expectations among Florentines according to the University of Limerick in Ireland..

JERUSALEM -- Israel's leader on Sunday dismissed a call from a key government partner to share the holy city of Jerusalem with the Palestinians, a reminder of the obstacles facing already troubled peacemaking efforts.Conflicting claims to east Jerusalem lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The dispute over the area, home to sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, has derailed past peace talks and spilled into violence.

CHICAGO -- A powerful winter storm roared across the upper Midwest on Sunday with high winds and mounds of snow closing roads in several states and canceling more than 1,400 flights in Chicago.At least one weather-related death was reported Sunday as the storm system that dumped nearly 2 feet of snow in parts of Minnesota and caused the Metrodome's inflatable, Teflon roof to collapse moved east. The Minnesota Vikings-New York Giants game was pushed to Monday night at Detroit's Ford Field.

STOCKHOLM -- No one died except for the suspected bomber, but two explosions in Sweden's capital tore at the fabric of this tolerant and open nation — a society that hadn't seen a terrorist attack in more than three decades.Two people were wounded in central Stockholm in what appeared to be the first suicide bombing in the history of Sweden, which has been spared the major terrorist strikes seen in several other European countries.

Lost Civilization Existed Beneath the Persian Gulf ;Veiled beneath the Persian Gulf, a once-fertile landmass may have supported some of the earliest humans outside Africa some 75,000 to 100,000 years ago, a new review of research suggestsAt its peak, the floodplain now below the Gulf would have been about the size of Great Britain, and then shrank as water began to flood the area. Then, about 8,000 years ago, the land would have been swallowed up by the Indian Ocean, the review scientist said.

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. -- A Catholic nun who ran a suburban New York City college's finances embezzled more than $850,000 and spent it on herself, federal prosecutors said Friday. The U.S. attorney in Manhattan said Sister Marie Thornton used Iona College funds for her personal expenses from 1999 to 2009. As vice president of finance, she submitted false invoices and had Iona pay her credit card bills, the complaint said. It did not detail her expenses

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) -- NASA failed to delete sensitive data on computers and hard drives before selling the equipment as part of its plan to end the Space Shuttle program, an audit releasedNASA is getting rid of thousands of surplus items as it prepares to end the space shuttle program next year."Our review found serious breaches in NASA's IT security practices that could lead to the improper release of sensitive information related to the Space Shuttle and other NASA programs

MINNEAPOLIS -- A powerful snowstorm socked the upper Midwest on Saturday with as much as 20 inches of snow, forcing authorities to close state roads across five states as heavy winds made for treacherous driving conditionsThe snowstorm was expected to be followed by dangerous cold. North Dakota experienced wind chills of 20 degrees below zero, and the arctic air was expected to drop temperatures below zero by Sunday

Sunspots have all but vanished. Solar flares are nonexistent. The sun is utterly quiet.Like the quiet before a storm.This week researchers announced that a storm is coming--the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the(NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.

WASHINGTON -- Lately, a handful of new discoveries make it seem more likely that we are not alone — that there is life somewhere else in the universe"The evidence is just getting stronger and stronger," said Carl Pilcher, director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, which studies the origins, evolution and possibilities of life in the universe. "I think anybody looking at this evidence is going to say, 'There's got to be life out there

LONDON -- Furious student protesters attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, vandalized buildings and battled riot police Thursday as a controversial hike in university fees triggered Britain's worst political violence in years.In a major security breach, demonstrators set upon the heir to the throne's Rolls Royce as it drove through London's busy West End on its way to a theater.