Sales of previously owned homes fell less than expected in May and prices dropped 4.6 percent from a year ago, a trade group said on Tuesday.

The National Association of Realtors said sales dropped 3.8 percent month over month to an annual rate of 4.81 million units, the lowest since November, after a downwardly revised 5.0 million unit pace in April.

It was the second straight month of declines in home resales. Economists polled by Reuters had expected sales to drop 5.9 percent to a 4.80 million-unit pace from the previously reported 5.05 million-unit rate.

Series 17 of Top Gear is nearly upon us, the first episode scheduled to air on the BBC in just eleven days. So what can we expect from the latest series?

Well, the usual mix of epic road trips, comic shenanigans and celebrity cameos are in order. And there's really only one way to find out what those will entail. But in advance of the season's BBC debut, Top Gear has released the following advertising clip to get our juices flowing.

In the video after the jump, you'll see Jeremy Clarkson taking the McLaren MP4-12C around the track, James May riding shotgun in the Mini WRC car racing through the night against a luge, Richard Hammond trying to skipper a Dartz Prombron through city streets, Jezza and Hamster driving a used Porsche Boxster through the countryside, and Jeremy chauffeuring Bernie Ecclestone around Monte Carlo in a Citroën DS3 Racing, with the Abarth 500C and Renault Clio RS in tow.

Employers hired far fewer workers than expected in May and the jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent, raising concerns the economy might be stuck in a painful slow-growth mode.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 54,000 last month, the weakest reading since September, the Labor Department said on Friday. Private employment rose just 83,000, the least since last June, while government payrolls dropped 29,000.

Economists had expected payrolls to rise 150,000 and private hiring to increase 175,000. The government revised employment figures for March and April to show 39,000 fewer jobs created than previously estimated.

The job creation slowdown confirmed the economic weakness already flagged by other data from consumer spending to manufacturing, and it stoked fears the economy could be facing a more troubling stretch of weakness than had been thought.

Veterans in New Haven, Connecticut, are outraged over the vandalized memorial at Long Wharf. Spray paint now covers the names of many veterans who fought and died in that conflict. The El Salvadoran gang, known as MS-13, is believed to be responsible for

U.S. politicians are targeting police don't ask policies that allow illegal immigrants to report crimes without fear of deportation. The Arizona Republic said Sunday that while most police have found the policies help in the fight against crime, political

Students all over the state are pressuring the Governor to sign a bill to help undocumented immigrants get through college. The California Dream Act would enable immigrants who went to high school here to qualify for some state financial aid.