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Full US space launch capability may be delayed beyond 2019 if it cuts its supply of Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines, US Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. "Industry tells us... [they can] make 2019 for an engine, but I must say an engine alone will not get us to space. It needs to be integrated with a rocket, it needs to be tested, it needs to be certified, and to get all of that done, to have a launch capability will be longer than 2019," James said. The United States currently relies...

The aircraft, a Boeing 777 with 188 passengers and crew on board, was already southwest of Iceland when the decision was taken to divert the plane back to Heathrow, rather than landing at Keflavik. On landing at Heathrow, luggage was taken away for inspection without explanation. One member of the cabin crew fainted and five others complained of feeling unwell as did up to three passengers. Alan Gray, 41, a passenger on the flight said he saw a flight attendant collapse. “It was at that point the captain said he was turning the plane around. He said he wasn't willing...

Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “The Kelly File,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) explained to host Megyn Kelly where he saw inconsistencies from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) , one of his opponents for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, on the issues of immigration and the NSA data collection program.

"He's got the right personality," Bob Dole said of billionaire Donald Trump, "and he's kind of a deal-maker." Dole was the Republicans' Senate leader in the 1990s, and was the party's presidential candidate in 1996. Dole today is a corporate lobbyist. Dole's view - that Trump is fine, but conservative Sen. Ted Cruz is unacceptable - is the standard view in the Republican parts of K Street. Lobbyists prefer Trump to Cruz for many reasons, but the core of the issue is this: Trump will preserve the lobbyists' incomes and power, while Ted Cruz might crimp K Street's style. "We...

Nabela Noor often posts makeup tutorials, beauty and fashion DIYs on her YouTube page. However, following the recent terror attacks, the 24-year old decided to talk about a more sensitive topic -- Islamophobia. In her video, Noor talked about her personal experience with Islamophobia for being a Muslim-living in the United States. She also expressed her opinions about Islamophobia and her religion. In a recent interview, the blogger revealed her reasons for sharing her views on Islamophobia on her YouTube page. In an interview with Mail Online, Noor revealed her reasons for sharing her video titled "Dear America | From...

Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager for 2016 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, exposed a blatant conflict of interest on Wednesday that the Fox News Channel has been hiding for months. Lewandowski showed how Fox News has been hiding the fact that Fox News Channel Vice President Bill Sammon has a daughter working for the campaign of the Washington establishment-backed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).

A pair of pro-Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)Super PACs just offered $1.5 million for veterans if Donald Trump will debate Cruz one-on-one in Iowa before Sunday evening. Keep The Promise I and Keep The Promise II offered up the sizable donation for America's veterans on Wednesday evening. The principal donors of Keep the Promise I, the Mercer family, and Keep the Promise II, the Neugebauer family, in a joint statement released Wednesday evening said: Senator Cruz and Mr. Trump both respect the veterans and hold them in the highest regard but Senator Cruz respects the process and we are calling on...

Conservative commentator and best-selling author Michelle Malkin slammed Fox News on Twitter for the network's decision to allow someone who entered the country illegally to participate as a questioner in tomorrow night's Republican presidential debate. Malkin tweeted: "FoxNews debate questioner Dulce Candy was an illegal immigrant. I'm sure her q will be fair."

Ted Cruz: "I think any candidate for President owes it to the voters to go and stand in front of them, to answer the hard questions. I mean, it's a matter of basic respect to the men and women of Iowa...This is a job interview. And if you want a job interview, the first thing you should do to get the job is show up at the interview. And I think it's really remarkable that Donald Trump thinks so little of the men and women of Iowa that he is willing to skip the debate altogether. He doesn't think he...

“Cities like Portland, Maine, and Buffalo, N.Y., that are just beginning to implement similar minimum wage increases should slam on the brakes before too much damage is done,” Heritage’s Furth said. “Once you kill a downtown, it’s hard to bring it back.”

2016: Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said Monday his parents would never have thought their son would end up in the Senate and running for president. No kidding. He was a ne’er-do-well into his late 30s. “It’s certainly something that I don’t think they ever believed would’ve happened,” the unabashed socialist remarked during CNN’s Democratic town hall forum, as polls show him taking the lead in Iowa and New Hampshire. He explained his family couldn’t imagine his “success,” because “my brother and I and Mom and Dad grew up in a three-and-a-half-room rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn, and we never had...

The guys from Demolition Ranch were out testing to see how bad a squib bullet can damage your pistol. Here's the setup: After firing it, there's now a round stuck at the entry of the barrel and slide. See this in video here.

First, the facts. Since 2000, 10 percent of Oscar nominations have gone to black actors. Blacks comprise 13 percent of the country's population, so the Oscar nominations have roughly paralleled the percentage of blacks in the U.S. Here's how the nomination process works. There are about 6,200 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy is divided into 17 branches, with the actor division -- of 1,138 members -- the largest. Actors nominate actors in each of the four categories -- lead and supporting, actor and actress -- listing up to five names ranked in...

He is ahead in Iowa and up by double-digit margins in New Hampshire and South Carolina, a new poll finds; Democrats could see roller-coaster ride in first contests Donald Trump is dominating the GOP presidential field in the first three states to vote in the 2016 campaign, including in Iowa where he has extinguished the lead once held by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC/Marist Poll finds.

...What does everyone think of...

Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager for 2016 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, exposed a blatant conflict of interest on Wednesday that the Fox News Channel has been hiding for months. Lewandowski showed how Fox News has been hiding the fact that Fox News Channel Vice President Bill Sammon has a daughter working for the campaign of the Washington establishment-backed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). Sammon's daughter, Brooke Sammon, is Rubio's national press secretary, and obviously both have a vested interest in the success of the Rubio campaign and the demise of the other campaigns. CNN's Erin Burnett asked Lewandowski about Fox News's...

San Cristobal de las Casas (Mexico) (AFP) - The domed mosque with a minaret rises above small homes in a seemingly unlikely place: A southern Mexican indigenous city that will greet Pope Francis in three weeks. Surrounded by the misty mountains of Chiapas state, San Cristobal de las Casas is home to many members of Mexico's growing Muslim community. Women wearing colorful hijabs walk down the dusty streets of the highland neighborhoods. On Fridays, hundreds of Muslims go to the imposing mosque or smaller places of worship to pray to Allah. "I wasn't born a Muslim. I became a Muslim...

Should government officials be able to cut off donations to groups because they employ people disparaged as "climate change deniers," even if the group in question is a think tank that studies a wide range of topics, only a few of which relate to climate change at all, and the "denial" in question includes telling politically inconvenient truths about the cost of proposed climate change legislation? Only a single-issue zealot with ideological blinders and a contempt for the First Amendment would think so. But that hasn't stopped New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and California Attorney General Kamala Harris investigating...

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco insists the bishops are united, but questions exist about how supportive Pope Francis is of open opposition to controversial legislation supporting same-sex partnerships The pressure to subvert traditional ethics on issues pertaining to life, the family and education, which has been sweeping through the European Union from West to East, is currently being halted by the former "Iron Curtain" countries, and in Italy, where the struggle has been pitting grassroots movements against the European Establishment for at least a dozen years now. As befits the country that has hosted the papacy for almost all of the twenty...

Explanation: Giant elliptical galaxy M60 and spiral galaxy NGC 4647 do look like an odd couple in this sharp cosmic portrait from the Hubble Space Telescope. But they are found in a region of space where galaxies tend to gather, on the eastern side of the nearby Virgo Galaxy Cluster. About 54 million light-years distant, bright M60's simpler egg-like shape is created by its randomly swarming older stars, while NGC 4647's young blue stars, gas and dust are organized into winding arms rotating in a flattened disk. Spiral NGC 4647 is estimated to be more distant than M60, some 63...