ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Spurred by a police chief, Minnesota lawmakers launched a drive Thursday to remove from the state constitution a clause allowing slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crimes.St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell, who...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Survivors of church sex abuse have descended on Rome this week, marking the first anniversary of Pope Francis’ summit of church leaders on preventing abuse with calls for more accountability and acknowledgment of their pain.On...

PARIS (AP) — Julian Assange's European defense team said Thursday it will try to seek asylum in France for the Wikileaks founder, whose full hearings for extradition to the United States on spying charges start next week in London.French team member...

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan’s rival leaders on Thursday announced they have agreed to form a coalition government just two days before the deadline, a breakthrough after months of delays and a major step in the emergence from a five-year...

TOKYO (AP) — Two elderly passengers taken off the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess because they were infected with the new virus have died, Japan's Health Ministry said Thursday, becoming the first fatalities from the virus-stricken vessel.Japan...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Tossing aside tradition, California's governor on Wednesday devoted his biggest platform to a single issue: solving a homelessness crisis that has overwhelmed the nation's most populous state in an era of unprecedented prosperity.Governorstypically...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to make it easier for the government to force psychiatric treatment for people with mental illness and expand statewide a still-developing test program that allows officials to more easily take control...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, six months after disclosing it had paid millions of dollars to people sexually abused as children by its clerics.The diocese joins at least...

LONDON (AP) — Vegetables rotting in the fields, food going unprocessed, the elderly and disabled left without care.That’s the alarming picture painted by some British employers about the impact of new U.K. immigration rules set to be introduced in...

The Boy Scouts of America urged victims to come forward Tuesday as the historic, 110-year-old organization filed for bankruptcy protection in the first step toward creating a huge compensation fund for potentially thousands of men who were molested as...

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — The U.N. secretary-general said Tuesday the virus outbreak that began in China poses “a very dangerous situation” for the world, but “is not out of control.”Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press, Antonio...

BOSTON (AP) — The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has agreed to provide captions for more of its publicly available online videos as part of a settlement announced Tuesday in a case that accused the school of discriminating against people who...