Following the rapid outbreak of a malarial virus called Zika in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned pregnant women against traveling to those regions. The tropical illness has been linked to birth defects.

"Out of an abundance of caution, pregnant women advised ...

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's appeal of his public corruption convictions. McDonnell says he never violated his oath of office and that the convictions were based on an overly broad definition of bribery.

In September 2014, a jury convicted McDonnell and his wife, ...

Militants have struck an upscale hotel in Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso in West Africa. They also attacked a nearby cafe. Wire services quote a hospital official as estimating that 20 people may have been killed. He got that figure from talking to survivors.

Reuters reports the gunmen ...

Wal-Mart will shut down 269 stores to focus on other aspects of the business, including online sales, the company announced Friday. Among the shuttered stores will be 154 in the U.S.

Wal-Mart, however, is not shrinking. In the same announcement, the company said it is planning to open 300 ...

Imagine Cinderella's glass slipper scaled to about 100 times its original size and dropped on the coast of Taiwan.

That's the new church in Ocean View Park in Budai township.

Looking like it was plucked from a distorted fairy tale, the glittering, shoe-shaped building is made up of about 320 ...

An independent commission formed by the World Anti-Doping Agency released the second part of its damning report Thursday, detailing illicit state-sanctioned doping by track and field athletes, and corruption among top international officials.

While the first part of the report, released in November, focused mainly on wrongdoing by the ...

A federal judge in Alabama has thrown out a civil rights case against a former Madison, Ala., police officer accused of using excessive force on an unarmed Indian man last February. Sureshbhai Patel, who was 57 years old at the time, suffered serious injuries.

Eric Parker went on trial ...

British actor Alan Rickman, a veteran of dozens of films, has died at age 69. Recently, Rickman was most well-known for portraying the complicated villain Severus Snape in the films based on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books.

"Rickman had been suffering from cancer," The Guardian reports.

Rickman appeared in ...

Irvin, who died Monday at 96, was one of the first black players in Major League Baseball. He showed Mays the ropes when Mays entered the league. Irvin, Mays said, was "sort of like my father."

ESPN has hired former Olympic softball player Jessica Mendoza as a full-time Sunday Night Baseball analyst for the upcoming MLB season.

Last summer, Mendoza, 35, became the first woman in the booth during the network's MLB broadcast. In September, she became a Sunday Night Baseball regular, serving as analyst ...

After months of planning, maneuvering and dealing, NFL team owners have voted 30-2 in favor of relocating the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles, while leaving open the option for the San Diego Chargers to share the facility.

Three teams — the Rams, the Chargers and the Oakland Raiders — ...

MetLife says it's planning to break off part of its business that sells life insurance to U.S. households because of stiffer federal regulations regarding the amount of capital the company is expected to hold.

In a statement, MetLife said it is "currently evaluating structural alternatives for such a separation, ...

Mohammed al-Nimr says he felt relieved following his father's execution because the sheikh was abused for years by Saudi authorities.

How close was notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán from pulling off another escape, right under the noses of Mexican authorities?

According to a Tuesday interview with one of the marines involved in the raid that resulted in the kingpin's recapture four days ago, Guzmán nearly slipped ...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Florida's process of allowing judges, not juries, to decide whether to impose the death penalty is unconstitutional.

The 8-1 vote — Justice Samuel Alito was the lone dissenter — reverses a 2014 ruling by the Florida Supreme Court. Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered the ...

For the fifth time in seven years, Barcelona and Argentine international striker Lionel Messi has won the FIFA Ballon D'Or for best soccer player. Messi received more votes than Real Madrid and Portuguese international Cristiano Ronaldo, and Barcelona teammate and Brazilian international Neymar to set the record for most Ballon ...

A New York court decided to extend the ruling issued last month that allows the daily fantasy sports betting sites, DraftKings and FanDuel, to continue operations in the state while they appeal a lower court's order that they stop.

The decision from a panel of state Supreme Court appellate judges ...

Alabama beat Clemson 45-40 in Monday night's College Football Playoff National Championship, giving the Crimson Tide their fourth title in seven seasons. Heisman-winning running back Derrick Henry ran for 158 yards and scored three touchdowns for Alabama.

It was a remarkably high-scoring game for the teams — Alabama had allowed ...

The extradition of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán to the U.S. will likely take at least a year, according to the head of Mexico's extradition office, Miguel Merino.

Speaking Monday on a Radio Formula program called Ciro Gómez Leyva por la Mañana, Merino said Mexico has begun ...

A former St. Louis Cardinals director for baseball development, Chris Correa, pleaded guilty to five counts of unauthorized access to protected information on the Houston Astros, including scouting and injury reports, trade discussions and draft rankings.

According to the Department of Justice, Correa, 35, admitted that from March 2013 through ...