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First-time claims for unemployment insurance plunged by 50,000 last week from the week before, to 352,000. They're now near a four-year low.

GOP candidates have attacked Mitt Romney as a "vulture capitalist" who destroyed jobs. The charges center on his 15 years at the private equity firm Bain Capital. But what are private equity firms, and what do they do?

Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution may not have been China's best culinary moment in history. But Chinese journalist Sasha Gong, in a new book, revives the simple recipes of her adolescence in China that helped her and her family survive a miserable time.

Since 1961, the TV quiz show It's Academic has given smart high-schoolers in the Washington, D.C. area a place to shine. The program is listed as the Guinness Book of World Records' longest-running TV quiz show. Host Mac McGarry stepped down in 2011 after five decades as quizmaster.

Yusef Reza Gilani defended himself against contempt charges. The fact that he showed up, said one justice, made it a "great day" for Pakistan.

Dominican Cermotan said the captain was onboard for at least an hour after he issued an evacuation order.

The 69 new laws limiting reproductive rights in 2011 were one short of the record set in 1999. And action is already heating up for 2012, with several states looking at "personhood" ballot amendments, which define life as beginning at fertilization.

Cities are getting into food policy as a means to make it easier for their residents to get healthy food. Funding is also an issue, with billions of USDA dollars flowing to food and health programs.

How embarrassing for Iowa GOP officials. How embarrassing for Iowa Republicans as a party. How embarrassing for Iowa. But who told the world to hold its breath earlier this month, awaiting the latest word on who had edged ahead in the Iowa caucuses? That would have been us. The news folks.

Supporters of the product say they help quit smoking. Opponents maintain it's a gateway to cigarettes. Both groups are making their case to the Food and Drug Administration, which is studying the flavored melt-in-your-mouth products.