Tropical Storm Erika strengthened late Tuesday after forming hours earlier in the Atlantic, the National Hurricane Center said. As of 11 p.m. ET, Erika was centered about 365 miles (585 km) east of the northern Leeward Islands, the hurricane center said. Its maximum sustained winds were near 60 mph (95 km/hr), with higher gusts. While Erika meandered Tuesday evening, it was expected to start moving west-northwest at about 9 mph overnight. "Some strengthening is possible during the next 24 hours," ...

French investigators have ended the second phase of their search for the flight recorders from Air France Flight 447, the French air accident investigation agency BEA said Thursday. Flight 447 went down June 1 in the Atlantic Ocean in stormy weather as it flew from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Charles de Gaulle airport here, killing all 228 people on board. BEA said in a statement that the second phase of the search for the wreckage and the data and ...

Hurricane Bill blew toward land early Tuesday, edging closer to the West Indies with near 100 mph winds and the potential for developing into a major hurricane. The National Hurricane Center expected Bill to strengthen over the next 48 hours. Various weather models showed the storm either missing or grazing the west side of Bermuda as it heads toward the U.S. East Coast, CNN meteorologists said Tuesday. The models showed Bill's path moving dangerously close to the Carolina ...

The search for a missing Russian cargo ship was "developing quite dramatically" Friday, according to Russia's ambassador to NATO. But exactly what was developing was not made clear. Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin spoke on Radio Echo of Moscow amid reports of progress in the search for the Arctic Sea, a cargo ship whose Russian crew was last heard from after a reported hijacking two weeks ago. Asked about reports that the ship had been located in the Atlantic Ocean, the ambassador ...

Two Russian attack submarines have been cruising in the Atlantic off the East Coast of the United States, a senior defense official said Wednesday. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said their presence is not causing alarms to go off. "So long as they are operating in international waters, as, frankly, we do around the world, and are behaving in a responsible way, they are certainly free to do so, and it doesn't cause any alarm within this building," he said. The ...

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus is ready to fund a third search of the Atlantic Ocean if a second search, now under way, fails to find debris from last month's Air France crash, the company said Friday. Airbus is discussing a payment of between 12 to 20 million euros ($17-28 million) to help pay for a third search, but it is still too early to settle on a figure, company spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said. "We are ready to give a significant share, ...

Debris from Air France 447, which crashed en route from Brazil to France last month, killing 228 people, has arrived in France, the French air accident investigation agency BEA said Wednesday. "The debris ... will be sent to Toulouse where they will be examined at the Center of Aeronautics Tests of Toulouse (a branch of the Defense Ministry) under the control of the police and the BEA investigators," said the French air accident investigation agency BEA. The wreckage was transported ...

The search for the data and voice recorders from the Air France plane that crashed more than a month ago off Brazil's coast is entering a new phase, according to France's accident investigation agency. All 228 people aboard the plane were killed in the June 1 crash. The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, commonly known as black boxes, stop giving out acoustic broadcasts after 30 days. But investigators decided to continue listening for the "pings" for 10 ...

It may be a long time before investigators learn what caused an Air France plane to plunge into the Atlantic Ocean, a French crash investigator said Wednesday. The Airbus 330, with 216 passengers and 12 crew members on board, disappeared from radar screens, some three hours after it took off from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil en route to Paris. Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said aircraft encountered heavy turbulence about 02:15 a.m. local time Monday (10:15 p.m. ET ...

Brazilian and French rescue teams continued to search Tuesday for the passengers of an Air France jet that disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean as details of Flight 447 began to emerge. The Airbus A330 encountered heavy turbulence about 02:15 a.m. local time Monday (10:15 p.m. ET Sunday), some three hours after the jet carrying 228 people left Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for Paris, France, on an 11-hour flight, according to Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon. At that point, the plane's ...