Scott Neuman

The pontiff told the United Nations General Assembly that it is critical that the international community act now to solve problems ranging from climate change to poverty and inequality of opportunity.

We have included a video of the speech above. You can view the full transcript here.

This is ...

Updated at 10:15 p.m. ET: Four Dead Were Students

A multi-vehicle accident involving a charter bus, a Duck boat tour vehicle and two cars in central Seattle has left at least four people dead and several injured, authorities say.

Seattlepi.com reports:

"The crash occurred shortly after 11:11 ...

Croatia has locked down its border with Serbia in an effort to stem the flow of thousands of refugees across the border.

Joanna Kakissis, reporting from the border region, says Serbia has closed its border to Croatians in retaliation. "Trucks are backed up for 8 miles on the highway to ...

Updated at 6 p.m. ET

Pope Francis departed Washington, D.C., this afternoon, bound for New York, the second to last stop on his U.S. tour. Once in New York, he will celebrate Vespers, an evening prayer, at St. Patrick's cathedral around 7 p.m.

Earlier today, the pontiff delivered a ...

Pope Francis, in an address to a joint meeting of Congress, encouraged lawmakers to work together to solve the problems of ordinary Americans and to show compassion for people across the globe who are suffering from war and hunger.

His message touched on some of the biggest political controversies of ...

Secretary of State John Kerry is pledging that the United States will significantly increase the number of migrants it accepts over the next two years, ratcheting up to 100,000 annually by 2017.

The move, meant to show solidarity with Europe in the face of a growing migrant crisis that ...

Two U.S. citizens held in Yemen have been released, according to the White House. Although the names of the individuals were not immediately released by the administration, they are reportedly two businessmen from New Orleans and Michigan.

A spokesman for New Orleans-based logistics company Transoceanic Development said an employee, 45-year-old ...

At least 13 migrants, including children, were killed when the dinghy they were using to cross the Aegean Sea collided with a ferry off the coast of Turkey. Another 24 refugees were missing after their boat sank off the Greek island of Lesbos.

The first incident occurred near the port ...

Despite George Stephanopoulos' best effort to press Donald Trump on the Republican front-runner's true thoughts about President Obama's birth and religion, the answers came off more as political dodges than the famous straight talk for which the GOP front-runner is famous.

On ABC's This Week today, Stephanopoulos asked Trump: ...

Updated at 11:45 p.m. ET

Thousands of Cubans packed Havana's Revolution Square to celebrate Mass with Pope Francis, history's first Latin American pope, erupting in cheers as the pontiff approached in his open-sided popemobile.

Believers and non-believers waved Cuban and Vatican flags as they thronged the square, overlooked by a ...

Update at 12:30 a.m. ET, Sept. 21

Supporters of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' Syriza party cheered and waved flags in the capital after the leftist party won a convincing victory over the conservative New Democracy party in snap elections.

With more than 99 percent of the ballots counted, Syriza ...

Pro-democracy activists in Bangkok have defied the military government's ban on protests, staging a march through the Thai capital to commemorate the ninth anniversary of a coup against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that triggered an era of political instability and resulted in a second army takeover last year.

After ...

Updated at 4:35 p.m. ET

Pope Francis arrived in Havana to enthusiastic crowds, beginning a 10-day papal visit first to Cuba and then to the United States, where he will meet with President Obama, address a joint meeting of Congress in Washington and speak before the United Nations General ...

North Korea is getting pressure from its one and only ally, China, to tone down its latest blustery rhetoric and not to conduct a planned space launch or possible nuclear test.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking at an academic forum on the future of North Korea talks, was quoted ...

Updated at 12:45 p.m. ET

Within a day of becoming the latest focus of Europe's migrant crisis, Croatia has attracted some 20,000 refugees, while hundreds more are starting to trickle into neighboring Slovenia as they make their way toward the northern EU states.

The influx of so many people into ...

Updated at 2:55 p.m. ET

A suspect arrested in connection with at least four shootings on Arizona highways in recent weeks told a judge today that he is "the wrong guy."

Leslie Allen Merritt, Jr., 21, was charged with aggravated assault, criminal damage, disorderly conduct, carrying out a drive-by shooting ...

Pope Francis arrives in Cuba on Saturday, where he will hold Mass and visit with President Raul Castro ahead of a five-day tour of four U.S. cities, a meeting with President Obama and a speech to a joint meeting of Congress.

National Catholic Register writes: "Visiting both Cuba and ...

Japan's upper house of parliament has approved unprecedented measures that clear the way for the country to deploy troops abroad for the first time since World War II, a move pushed hard by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The ruling party faced three days of intense debate over the measures to ...

NPR has learned that four Russian attack aircraft have landed in Syria as part of an effort by Moscow to support the regime of Bashar al-Assad against Islamic State militants.

Pentagon Correspondent Tom Bowman says the Sukhoi jets, known by the NATO designation "Flanker" have been deployed at a forward ...

The data are in, the hypotheses have been tested and science has handed out prizes for finding answers to some of humanity's least-pressing questions: Welcome to the 2015 Ig Nobel Prizes, given annually at Harvard University to "honor achievements that make people LAUGH, and then THINK," according ...