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A North Dakota agency waited more than a week to tell the public about a pipeline spill of more than 20,000 barrels of crude oil. A wheat farmer was the first to recognize the spill had happened.

So far, tobacco companies have paid more than $100 billion to state governments as part of a 25-year, $246 billion settlement. Though the money was meant to be spent on prevention and smoking-related programs, it didn't come with a mandate.

Journalist Tom Vanderbilt discusses the nonhuman operatives — from pigeons to house cats — deployed by the United States government during the Cold War. He wrote about the program recently for the Smithsonian magazine.

Iran's new President Hassan Rouhani says he will seek a nuclear agreement and an end to crippling Western economic sanctions. This has raised hopes that better economic times may be ahead. But Rouhani's team, as well as economists, say Iran's problems are deep-rooted and won't be easily solved.

The Nobel Prize in economics will be announced Monday morning in Sweden. This prize is a relatively new one — it was established in 1968 by Sweden's central bank. The prizes announced last week, like the Nobel Peace Prize, were established more than 100 years ago in Alfred Nobel's will.

Chemical compounds discovered in a mosquito fossil from Montana offer scientists clues to what the very old insect ate before it died. The bug's final blood meal was likely from a bird, researchers say, and could lead to other hints about ancient Earth.

Unlike the technologies in laptops, smartphones and electric cars, the batteries inside them have been slow to evolve. In Silicon Valley, more than 40 companies are working on finding a battery breakthrough. And they're facing international competition.

In order to have a second child, one parent would have to be an only child under the new policy. Previously, both parents had to be only children. China has been loosening the policy for years as it tries to combat a gender imbalance as well as a labor shortage.

Beijing and Stockholm, Sweden, are vying to become the first city to have hosted both summer and winter Olympics. They're among six cities that submitted bids by Thursday's deadline.

In the 50 years since the Kennedy assassination, Texas has become bigger, richer and more influential politically. Its economic model has not made everyone winners, but it's been attractive enough to draw millions of newcomers.