VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis refused Wednesday to approve the ordination of married men or women as deacons to address a shortage of priests in the Amazon, sidestepping a fraught issue that has divided the Catholic Church and emboldened his conservative...

CHICAGO (AP) — He's stopped posting to his Twitter account, his last Instagram post was eight months ago, and his acting and singing careers appear to be at a standstill.Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has all but vanished from public view...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The families of three female high school runners filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to block transgender athletes in Connecticut from participating in girls sports.Selina Soule, a senior at Glastonbury High School, Chelsea...

FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) — A Fort Dodge man accused of beating a pastor to death outside a central Iowa church was found mentally unfit Wednesday to stand trial.Webster County Judge Gina Badding ordered Joshua Pendleton, 36, to undergo treatment at the...

The U.S. Department of Defense is struggling to change how it handles the abuse of military kids, including cases involving sexual assault by other children, according to a report commissioned by Congress.The military has been slow to implement reforms...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Concerns have been growing that next week's Nevada caucuses could offer a repeat of the chaos that ensnared the Iowa vote, with Nevada facing many of the same organizational and technical challenges that crippled Iowa’s process.Volunteers...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina has been here before: recession, growing poverty, high inflation, billions of dollars in debt, a looming deadline for repayment and simmering anger toward the International Monetary Fund.This is a big week for...

BALTIMORE (AP) — A shooting at a Baltimore apartment complex Wednesday ended with the death of a former state corrections official who had been under investigation and the wounding of two fugitive task force officers, authorities said.The officers,...

With the start of the 2020 census just a month away for most U.S. residents, the U.S. Census Bureau is behind in recruiting workers and establishing partnerships with civic groups, and it is at risk of missing some informational technology testing goals,...

JERUSALEM (AP) — The U.N. human rights office on Wednesday released a list of more than 100 companies it said are complicit in violating Palestinian human rights by operating in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank — a first-ever international...

ROME (AP) — The Italian Senate voted by a large margin Wednesday to allow the prosecution of right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini for making 131 rescued migrants to remain on a coast guard vessel for days when he was Italy's interior minister.Salvini's...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A meeting with nearly 80 black pastors in Detroit. A speech before a black Democratic organization in Montgomery. A rally at a historically black university. A tour of Martin Luther King Jr.'s church. An early voting kickoff...