U.S. stocks were poised to open higher Wednesday as investors cheered a stronger-than-expected labor market reading ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Since the crash, we've gotten used to thinking of real estate as a market shaped by national forces: Interest rates went down, Wall Street and homebuyers went nuts, regulators fell asleep at the switch, and -- voilà -- we had ourselves a bubble.

Under the weather and out of a job? You could be eligible for free health services like flu shots and prescription drug refills.

The economy is not out of the woods, and Congress is feeling pressure to do something about it.

Nov. 25 - More bodies are found by security forces at the scene of what is now branded the deadliest attack in the world on the media.

Nov. 25 - Unions say around 250,000 Irish public workers take part in a strike over the government budget reform plans.

Nov. 25 - Heavy rainfall and floods hamper the journey to Mecca as Haj pilgrims arrive in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Nov. 25 - As India's Prime Minister Singh ends his US tour, analysts will look for concrete results after all the warm rhetoric.

Nov 25 - Car giant General Motors has announced plans to cut 9,000 jobs across Europe.

Nov 25 - Peruvian police raid street market and seize suspected toxic Chinese-made toys ahead of Christmas.

Nov 25 - The Khmer Rouge's chief torturer and jailer in Cambodia in the 1970s expresses "excruciating remorse" in the final stages of his trial before the U.N.-backed "Killing Fields" tribunal.

Nov 25 - Swiss daredevil pilot Yves Rossy ditches into the sea while trying to fly from Africa to Europe using his homemade jet-propelled wing.

Nov 25 - Doctor Zhong Nanshan says he doubts the official Chinese death toll from the H1N1 virus and says China must beware of the virus mutating into a montrous hybrid.

Space shuttle Atlantis and its seven-member crew are expected to return to Earth on Friday, Nov. 27, after an 11-day mission.

The launch of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, aboard a Delta II rocket is scheduled to occur between 9:09 a.m. and 9:23 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 9, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

NASA Television will air the events surrounding the landing of three International Space Station crew members who will return to Earth Dec. 1.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will present astronaut Fred Haise, Jr., with NASA's Ambassador of Exploration Award during a ceremony on Wednesday, Dec. 2, at the Gorenflo Elementary School in Biloxi, Miss.

NASA has selected for development 368 small business innovation projects that include research to minimize aging of aircraft, new techniques for suppressing fires on spacecraft and advanced transmitters for deep space communications.

The 12 crew members aboard space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station will hold a news conference Tuesday at 7 a.m. CST, 13 minutes earlier than previously announced.

NASA's revolutionary planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has been honored with the 2009 Best of What's New Grand Award from Popular Science Magazine and a 2009 Breakthrough Award from Popular Mechanics Magazine.