Scott Neuman

A bill aimed at punishing Russia for sending its forces into Crimea by imposing sanctions on Moscow and providing economic aid to Ukraine has passed a key vote in the U.S. Senate.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 14-3 to pass the measure that authorizes $1 billion in loan guarantees ...

After 30 years on death row, 64-year-old Glenn Ford has walked out of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola a free man after a judge voided his 1983 murder conviction based on new exculpatory evidence.

Ford was convicted of killing Isadore Rozeman, a Shreveport man he'd done occasional yard work for. ...

Israeli lawmakers have voted to end the practice of exempting ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredi, from national service, a move that opens them up to military conscription for the first time in the country's 65-year history.

The Knesset passed the measure 67-1 with the opposition boycotting it in the 120-member legislature.

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Update at 8:15 a.m .ET, March 13:

We've begun a new post, which at this moment is headlined "Death Toll From NYC Explosion Stands At Seven, May Go Higher."

Update at 4:25 a.m. ET, March 13:

A sixth person has been confirmed dead in the explosion that flattened ...

Another 940,000 people signed up for health insurance in February under the Affordable Care Act, bringing the total to 4.2 million since the troubled HealthCare.gov website was launched, the Department of Health and Human Services reports. The number is still well short of the administration's goal for March 31, ...

Libya's prime minister lost a vote of confidence and has been dismissed after his government was unable to stop a North Korean-flagged tanker from loading oil at a rebel-held port and reportedly breaking through a naval blockade.

Ali Zeidan was replaced temporarily by the country's defense minister, Abdallah al-Thinni, ...

A Swedish journalist was gunned down in a heavily guarded section of the Afghan capital that is home to Westerners working for aid agencies, embassies and news organizations.

Nils Horner, 51, who has dual British-Swedish nationality, worked for Swedish Radio and had been in Afghanistan for only a few ...

Dallas Seavey was the first musher to slip under the famed burled arch finish line in Nome, Alaska, winning his second Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race after a 1,000-mile slog from Willow.

Seavey, 27, "ran a blistering pace the last 77 miles" with his seven-dog team to win the iconic ...

A tense standoff Friday between pro-Russian troops and Ukrainian forces at a missile-defense base in Crimea is reportedly over without a shot being fired.

Russia's Interfax news agency reported that a Russian military truck had smashed through the gate of the Ukrainian base in Sevastopol, the port city that is ...

A California lawmaker has proposed a measure that would prohibit SeaWorld San Diego from using orcas in its shows.

Richard Bloom, a Santa Monica Democrat, says the documentary Blackfish, which examines the 2010 death of a SeaWorld trainer who was killed by a captive orca, inspired him to ...

Credit-card rivals Visa and MasterCard said Friday they have formed an industry-wide group aimed at improving payment security in the wake of a number of breaches that compromised customers' data.

"The recent high-profile breaches have served as a catalyst for much needed collaboration between the retail and financial services industry ...

Being North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's deputy can be bad for your health, as the sudden execution last year of the young dictator's No. 2 official has conclusively proven.

So, when Choe Ryong Hae, the senior Pyongyang official assumed to have stepped into the role, did ...

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, tells NPR that U.S. decision-makers were given a week's notice that some Russian action was likely.

Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management has offered to buy Safeway, Inc., the nation's second-largest grocery chain, for a reported $9.4 billion. Cerberus plans to merge Safeway with another grocer, Albertson's.

"Safeway has been focused on better meeting shoppers' diverse needs through local, relevant assortment, an improved price/value proposition and ...

The Senate has voted to block a bill that would have removed the authority of senior military commanders to prosecute sexual assault cases within their ranks.

On Thursday's 55-45 vote, short of the 60 necessary to move the legislation forward, the Senate set aside the Military Justice Improvement Act sponsored ...

Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair pleaded guilty to adultery and two other charges in a court martial proceeding Thursday at Fort Bragg, N.C. He still faces the most serious charge of sexually assaulting a female captain.

Sinclair, 51, a former deputy commander with the 82nd Airborne Division, admitted to ...

One of Moammar Gadhafi's sons has arrived in the Libyan capital for the first time since the 2011 revolution that toppled his father after Niger, where he'd long been under house arrest, finally agreed to extradite him.

Saadi Gadhafi, 40 — the former head of Libya's soccer federation who was ...

An American host for the Kremlin-backed Russia Today television has quit on air, announcing from the channel's Washington, D.C., anchor desk that she doesn't want to be "part of a network ... that whitewashes the actions of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin."

Liz Wahl announced her resignation on Wednesday, saying ...

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden who prosecutors say became a mouthpiece for al-Qaida in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, faced a jury for the first time on Wednesday in a Manhattan federal courtroom.

On the first day of the trial, jurors were ...

The Israeli military claims to have seized a ship carrying advanced Iranian-made weaponry bound for Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces "intercepted an attempt to smuggle an Iranian shipment of advanced weaponry intended for terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip. The operation took place in the early hours of Wednesday ...