Facebook has long declared that it's "free and always will be." And it still is — unless you want more friends to see what you have to say.

The social media giant is rolling out a feature in the U.S. that lets users pay to promote their posts to friends, just as advertisers do. Facebook has been testing the service in New Zealand, where it tries out a lot of new features, and has gradually introduced it in more than 20 other countries. Facebook said Wednesday that promoting a post — such as announcing a garage sale, charity drive or big news like an engagement — will bump it higher in your friends' news feeds.

Oil prices fell for a second day Wednesday over concerns about economic turbulence in Europe, China and the U.S.

Benchmark oil was down 23 cents to $91.66 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped 59 cents to end at $91.89 per barrel in New York on Tuesday.

A Japanese Finance Ministry official says Tokyo is hoping the recent flare-up in friction with China will not damage the two Asian economic powers' cooperation in international finance.

Takehiko Nakao, a vice minister for finance, said reports Wednesday that representatives of some big Chinese banks were canceling plans to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Tokyo next week was "very disappointing."

The British government has scrapped a controversial decision to strip Richard Branson's Virgin Group of a major rail franchise, citing significant flaws in the way the decision was made.

The government announced in August that it was awarding a 13-year franchise to run the west coast London-to-Scotland service to Virgin's rival FirstGroup.

U.S. births fell for the fourth year in a row, the government reported Wednesday, with experts calling it more proof that the weak economy has continued to dampen enthusiasm for having children.

But there may be a silver lining: The decline in 2011 was just 1 percent — not as sharp a fall-off as the 2 to 3 percent drop seen in other recent years.

Police investigating two gangs called the Very Crispy Gangsters and the Rockstarz didn't need to spend all their time pounding the pavement for leads. Instead, they fired up their computers and followed the trash talk on Facebook.

"Rockstarz up 3-0," one suspect boasted — a reference to the body count from a bloody turf war between the Brooklyn gangs that ultimately resulted in 49 arrests last month.

A dog who survived an 11-mile (17-kilometer) ride from Massachusetts to Rhode Island after being hit by a car and wedged into the grille has been reunited with its owners.

The owners, who weren't identified, told WPRI-TV it's a "miracle."

A new study may reassure some women considering short-term use of hormones to relieve hot flashes and other menopause symptoms. Starting low-dose treatment early in menopause made women feel better and did not seem to raise heart risks during the four-year study.

However, the research didn't address the risk of breast cancer, perhaps the biggest fear women have about hormones since a landmark study a decade ago. The new one was too small and too short for that.

Dozens of weight loss and immune system supplements on the market are illegally labeled and lack the recommended scientific evidence to back up their purported health claims,government investigators warn in a new review of the $20 billion supplement industry.

The report, being released Wednesday by the Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general, found that 20 percent of the 127 weight loss and immune-boosting supplements investigators purchased online and in retail stores across the country carried labels that made illegal claims to cure or treat disease.

 The NASA rover Curiosity has beamed back pictures of bedrock that suggest a fast-moving stream, possibly waist-deep, once flowed on Mars — a find that the mission's chief scientist called exciting.

There have been previous signs that water existed on the red planet long ago, but the images released Thursday showing pebbles rounded off, likely by water, offered the most convincing evidence so far of an ancient streambed.