NEW YORK – Industrial and technology stocks pulled the market sharply higher Tuesday after Boeing Co. said it was boosting production and an industry group forecast that demand for computers would increase.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 213 points to its highest close since May 19 and had their third advance in four days. Major stock indexes rose more than 2 percent.

The advance was broad, but came on light trading volume. That's a sign that many traders are staying out of the… Continue

MEXICO CITY – It started with a burst of gas through the drilling well. Workers scrambled to close the safety valves but within moments, the platform caught fire and collapsed. Tens of millions of gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico. Numerous attempts to stanch the spill failed.

Three decades later, the 1979 Ixtoc disaster remains the Gulf's — and the world's — worst oil spill.

The parallels between that disaster and the current BP oil spill offer sobering lessons. There… Continue

NEW YORK – Terror can come cheap.

Confessed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad appears to have financed his failed plot with a wad of $100 bills, but the amount of money needed to execute the scheme was fairly modest.

There was his plane ticket to the U.S. from Pakistan, as well as a return flight to the United Arab Emirates, at a cost of less than $800 each way. Add to that his living expenses, including three months rent for a Connecticut apartment at a little less than $1,200 per… Continue

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Sir Isaac Newton's famous apple tree is about to leave gravity behind.

Flying aboard space shuttle Atlantis next week will be a 4-inch sliver of the tree from which an apple fell nearly 350 years ago and inspired Newton to discover the law of gravity.

British-born astronaut Piers Sellers is flying the piece of wood for The Royal Society of London.

"I'll take it up into orbit and let it float around a bit, which will confuse Isaac," Sellers said in an… Continue

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – An Alabama truck driver was on his cell phone sending and receiving calls leading up to a crash that killed him and 10 other people in Kentucky in March, Kentucky State Police said in a report on the wreck.

The 28-page report also says that 45-year-old Kenneth Laymon of Jasper, Ala., was driving in excess of the 70 mph speed limit and did not have his tractor-trailer under control when he crossed the median on March 26 and struck a van carrying Mennonites to a wedding in… Continue

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said Wednesday he disagrees with senators trying to determine judicial nominees' positions during confirmation.

"It's often true you don't know until how (a) case is argued ... how you'll come out," Stevens said, speaking at a judicial conference.

"It's quite unfortunate to be trying to pin down judges on particular issues," Stevens said. "What they've said in published opinions is one thing, but speculating about… Continue

WASHINGTON – The suspect in the failed Times Square bombing told authorities he trained at a terrorism camp in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday as they worked to unravel the events leading up to the nearly catastrophic attack.

Faisal Shahzad was arrested late Monday and charged with trying to blow up an SUV in crowded Times Square on Saturday evening. Attorney General Eric Holder said Shahzad was cooperating with authorities and would face terrorism and weapons of mass destruction… Continue

NEW YORK – Researchers are reporting the first scientific evidence that a hormone banned in sports can boost athletic performance.

The improvement from human growth hormone was modest, and only in sprinting. It didn't increase strength or fitness. Athletes likely to benefit are those in sprint events like running or swimming that require a burst of energy, and where a split second can decide the winner, the Australian researchers said.

Human growth hormone, or HGH, is one of many… Continue

ATLANTA – Fears of swine flu helped boost vaccination for ordinary seasonal flu last year, with a record 40 percent of adults and children getting the vaccine, federal health officials said Thursday.

The jump was most dramatic in children, but vaccinations also increased in healthy adults under 50, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers.

For all ages, the highest seasonal flu vaccination rate previously was about 33 percent, in the 2008-2009… Continue

OVER THE GULF OF MEXICO – It's a hellish scene: Giant sheets of flame racing across the Gulf of Mexico as thick, black smoke billows high into sky.

This, though, is no Hollywood action movie. It's the real-life plan to be deployed just 20 miles from the Gulf Coast in a last-ditch effort to burn up an oil spill before it could wash ashore and wreak environmental havoc.

The Coast Guard planned to use hand-held flares to set fire to sections of the massive spill. Crews turned to the… Continue