Space, Astronomy, Astronaut, NASA News from Kepea

A US Army Apache helicopter accidentally dropped an inactive missile over central Texas, forcing dozens of homes to be evacuated, officials said Wednesday.

House Republicans set up a showdown Wednesday with the Senate and President Barack Obama over legislation to protect women from domestic violence, a fight that's become as much about female voters this election year as cracking down on abuse.

Hours after police found Estrella Carrera stabbed to death in her bathtub, still clad in her silver-sequined wedding dress, her family received a haunting phone call from the groom's family.

Cuban President Raul Castro's daughter is scheduled to visit California next week to speak at a conference of experts on Latin America during a rare U.S. trip by a member of Cuba's ruling family. Sexologist Mariela Castro, 50, will discuss Cuba's policies on sexual issues on May 24 at a Latin American Studies Association (LASA) conference in San Francisco, an association spokesman said on Wednesday. Mariela Castro heads the communist island nation's National Center for Sex Education and is an outspoken advocate for gay rights. ...

One of life's simple pleasures just got a little sweeter. After years of waffling research on coffee and health, even some fear that java might raise the risk of heart disease, a big study finds the opposite: Coffee drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. Regular or decaf doesn't matter.

President Barack Obama's administration has repeatedly said over the past few months that it won't ship arms to Syria's outgunned opposition, warning that doing so will only escalate the bloody conflict there. But the Washington Post reported Wednesday that the U.S. has been helping to coordinate shipments [...]

J.C. Penney shares tumbled Wednesday after the retailer reported a much wider-than-expected first-quarter loss, suspended its dividend and saw weakness across all core metrics.

A Georgia graduate student fighting a rare flesh-eating infection has been looking at her ravaged hands and asking about the damage, all without tears, her father said Wednesday.

Former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, whose war crimes trial began on Wednesday, made a "throat-slitting" gesture at a widow of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre who was in the court, she told AFP.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two U.S. Navy ships collided off the coast of California on Wednesday due to a steering malfunction during a refueling operation, damaging both vessels but causing no injuries, the Navy said in a statement. The Navy identified the ships involved as the USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship, and the USNS Yukon, a Military Sealift Command fleet replenishment oiler based in San Diego. "While both ships reported some damage, no one was injured, there was no fuel spilled and the ships' fuel tanks and systems were not compromised," the Navy statement said. ...