BUXTON, N.C. (AP) -- The last ferry left for the mainland and coastal residents hunkered down at home as Hurricane Earl closed in with 110 mph winds Thursday on North Carolina's dangerously exposed Outer Banks, the first and potentially most destructive stop on the storm's projected journey up the Eastern Seaboard....

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- An oil platform exploded and burned off the Louisiana coast Thursday, the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months. This time, the Coast Guard said there was no leak, and no one was killed....

BOSTON (AP) -- A fatal explosion at a Massachusetts condominium project has led the state attorney general to investigate the delivery of faulty propane to locations across New England and New York....

Here are some differences between the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster April 20 and the oil production platform explosion Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico:...

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. (AP) -- A small plane that crashed into a shallow lagoon off San Francisco Bay on Thursday, killing three people, belonged to the founder of a local steel company who was believed to be among the dead....