Scott Neuman

In an extraordinary and unprecedented move, the Vatican has placed a former archbishop under house arrest after he was accused of paying for sex with children while serving as the papal ambassador to the Dominican Republic.

Jozef Wesoloswki, a former Polish archbishop, was recalled to Rome in August 2013 from ...

President Obama told a gathering of the U.N. General Assembly today that the world is living in "pervasive unease" from such crises as terrorism, expansionism and the Ebola epidemic. He challenged the world body to fix the international system or risk being "pulled back by an undertow of instability."

"We ...

India has managed to do what few other nations have accomplished: putting a satellite into orbit around another planet — and it did so a lot cheaper than the competition.

The $70 million Mangalyaan, or "Mars craft" in Hindi, began circling Mars after a 24-minute engine burn to slow it ...

Updated at 12:30 p.m. ET

Witnesses in eastern Syria near the Turkish border report a fresh round of airstrikes against Islamic State positions. The Pentagon has confirmed a new set of strikes, but a spokesman says the U.S. is not involved in any attacks near the Turkish border.

Using an ...

Nearly three-quarters of Americans believe religious influence on life in the U.S. is waning and nearly half think that churches and other houses of worship should play a greater role in the national discourse on social and political matters, according to a new Pew study.

The findings by Pew's ...

Update at 12:40 p.m. ET

President Obama said a multinational coalition that carried out airstrikes in Syria shows that the fight against Islamic extremists is "not America's fight alone."

Speaking briefly just before his departure for the United Nations in New York, the president said he is "proud to ...

The self-declared Islamic State has apparently released the second propaganda video in a promised "lecture series" delivered by kidnapped British journalist John Cantlie.

"In this program, we will see how Western governments are hastily marching toward all-out war in Iraq and Syria without paying any heed to the lessons ...

The self-declared Islamic State has released the second video in a promised "lecture series" delivered by kidnapped British journalist John Cantlie.

"In this program, we will see how Western governments are hastily marching toward all-out war in Iraq and Syria without paying any heed to the lessons of the ...

Updated at 12:50 p.m. ET

In a major escalation of the air campaign against Islamic extremist groups, the U.S. and Arab allies jointly hit targets inside Syria for the first time.

The New York Times says, "The intensity of the attacks struck a fierce opening blow against the ...

Update at 2:49 p.m. ET. Officers Found At Canadian Border:

After going missing over the weekend, three Afghan officers, who were being trained in the United States, were detained at the Canadian border, a Pentagon official tells NPR's Tom Bowman.

The news was first reported by WCVB-TV's Karen Anderson. ...

The so-called King Fire, one of several sweeping through parts of California, has destroyed 10 homes and 22 other buildings, fire officials say.

As of early Monday morning, crews had been able to contain about 18 percent of the fire, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection ...

Thousands of students in Hong Kong flooded a university campus in stifling heat today, starting a weeklong boycott of classes to protest Beijing's stance on electoral reform in the territory.

The Associated Press reports: "Dressed in white and wearing yellow ribbons, students from more than 20 universities and colleges packed ...

NASA's MAVEN spacecraft conducted a 33-minute burn of its six main engines to ease into an orbit around Mars after a nearly yearlong, 442 million-mile voyage from Earth. The probe's mission is to study the red planet's atmosphere.

"All I can say at this point is, 'We're in orbit ...

Updated at 7:35 a.m. ET

Kurdish fighters claim to have halted an advance by self-described Islamic State militants in an area of the Turkish-Syria border region that has seen masses of refugees fleeing the fighting in recent days.

Reuters quotes a spokesman for the YPG, the main Kurdish peshmerga ...

President Obama unveiled a new White House campaign aimed at combating campus sexual assault, saying such violence is "an affront to our basic humanity."

The "It's On Us" campaign, which includes several new public service announcements, is backed by the NCAA and promoted by media giant Viacom. It's built ...

The iconic American Pabst Blue Ribbon brand will soon be owned by a Russian company under a deal to sell the Los Angeles-based brewer for an undisclosed sum.

Pabst Brewing Co., with such beer brands as Colt 45, Old Milwaukee and Schlitz, was acquired four years ago by C. Metropoulos ...

Seven young Iranians arrested in May on obscenity charges for producing their own video version of Pharrell Williams' hit song "Happy" have been sentenced to 91 lashes and up to a year in jail, although the punishment has been suspended providing they don't re-offend.

The director, plus the video's six ...

Police in Florida say a man who did time in prison a decade ago on firearms violations gunned down his six grandchildren and his daughter before turning a weapon on himself.

Authorities say Don Spirit, 51, called 911 on Thursday to report that he might harm himself or others. When ...

French warplanes conducted their first airstrikes against targets in northern Iraq just hours after the U.S. Senate approved arming and training Syrian rebels to enter the fight against Islamic State militants.

Rafale fighters struck a logistics depot, which French President Francois Hollande declared "entirely destroyed."

Hollande, speaking ...

Updated at 11:27 a.m. ET

British Prime Minister David Cameron said the Scottish vote to remain in the United Kingdom has put the question of independence to rest "for a generation," but he pledged constitutional reforms to give Edinburgh greater control over its own affairs.

"There can be no ...