A racketeering indictment naming 34 reputed members of a white supremacist prison gang was unsealed in Texas this week, federal authorities announced. The defendants in the 17-count indictment included four senior leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. The are accused of drug dealing,...

Three people were killed in separate incidents Saturday in the Pakistani city Quetta, officials said. The first incident took place on Double Road when a gunman opened fire, killing one person, Dawn News reported. Another person was injured in the incident. A vehicle in the central commercial...

At least 27 people have died in fighting between inmates and guards at a prison in Sri Lanka, officials say. Rioting was said to have begun at the Welikada prison in Colombo when police commandos arrived to provide security while prison guards searched for illegal items, the BBC reported...

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson’s support for Republican nominee Mitt Romney did not amount to Israeli interference in the U.S. election, an Israeli official said. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not use his friendship with Adelson to try to sway the vote in Romney’s favor,...

Turkey’s parliament has written a new charter to assure against child brides, officials say. A four-party committee — made up of representatives from the Justice and Development Party, Republican People’s Party, Nationalist Movement Party and Peace and Democracy Party —...

An Afghan provincial governor warned there is a risk of civil war in his country after U.S. and NATO troops leave in 2014. Habiba Sarabi, governor of Bamiyan province, told BBC Afghanistan political factions in the country were becoming increasingly on edge about their position once the...

The White House has not decided how to respond to passage of marijuana legalization measures in Colorado and Washington, administration sources said. The U.S. Department of Justice has maintained that federal law trumps state law but no formal decision has been made yet on whether the feds...

A suspect who allegedly sexually assaulted a woman on a bus in Southern California has a criminal record, Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives said. Kerry Trotter, 20, was on probation for a drug offense and had been investigated in a previous sexual assault case. “The good news...

Turkish officials blamed weather conditions for the Saturday crash of a military helicopter in which 17 soldiers died, ruling out terrorism. Ahmet Aydin, governor of the southeastern province of Siirt, blamed heavy fog for the early-morning crash, Hurriyet Daily News reported. The Sikorski...

British officials want to see more international intervention to end the conflict in Syria, and some analysts advocate finding a political solution. “We want [Syrian President Bashar] Assad to go,” the Voice of America quoted British Prime Minister David Cameron as...

A $4.2 billion deal to buy helicopters and missile defense systems from Russia has been canceled only weeks after it was signed, Iraqi officials say. The agreement, which was signed in October, was canceled over concerns about corruption, the BBC reported Saturday. The deal is now being...

House Speaker John Boehner urged Congress Saturday to move quickly to create jobs and reduce taxes before automatic tax increases and spending cuts take effect. In the GOP”s first weekly address since the re-election of President Barack Obama, Boehner repeated the Republican fiscal...

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon declared Saturday “Malala Day” to honor the teenage Pakistani advocate for girls’ education who was shot by the Taliban. Ban said 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai was the “global symbol” of every girl’s right to an education,...

A strong second run Saturday carried Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany to victory in the women’s World Cup slalom at Levi, Finland. Hoefl-Riesch flew down the course in 55.04 seconds in her second run, giving her a combined time of 1 minute, 55.58 seconds. Tanja Poutianen came in second and...

Republicans are reconsidering immigration policy in light of the role Latino voters played in re-electing U.S. President Barack Obama, political analysts said. Latinos favored Obama over Republican nominee Mitt Romney by 40 percent, and many within the GOP are reconsidering their tough stance...

A retired Philadelphia police inspector who recently served a jail sentence for child pornography has been charged with trying to lure a a young girl. Bail was set at $1 million for Leo Haley, 72, at his arraignment late Thursday, WTXF-TV, Philadelphia, reported. The Philadelphia District...

President Obama said Saturday the people voted for action on Election Day and called on Congress to pass middle-class tax cuts for 98 percent of all Americans. “On Tuesday, America went to the polls. And the message you sent was clear: You voted for action, not politics as usual. You...

A British army major pleaded guilty Friday to safety violations that helped cause the death of a teenage girl during cadet training in the Scottish Hebrides. Major George McCallum, who entered a plea to violations of the Health and Safety at Work Act in a hearing in Inverness, will be spared a...

The FBI discovered CIA Director David Petraeus was having an affair with his biographer by investigating his personal email, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Journal, citing sources, said agents were trying to find out if Paula Broadwell, author of “All In: The Education of...

Republican Rob McKenna Friday conceded the hotly contested race for governor of Washington state to Democrat Jay Inslee. Inslee will replace outgoing Gov. Christine Gregoire after McKenna acknowledged he could not overcome the estimated 41,000 vote deficit he faced as of Friday evening, The...

Cardinal George Pell, de facto head of the Catholic Church in Australia, said other institutions shared the church’s blindness to sexual abuse. In an interview published Saturday in The Weekend Australian, Pell acknowledged children were abused by priests, who were often simply...

A Russian woman who agreed to sell her 5-year-old son to an undercover police officer has been sentenced to three years in prison, prosecutors said Friday. A court in Khabarovsk Territory in the Far East found Yulia Savchenko, 28, guilty and imposed the sentence, RIA Novosti reported. She is...

At least 9,000 Syrians crossed the border to Turkey in 24 hours and 2,000 more fled to Lebanon and Jordan, U.N. relief officials said Friday. The new arrivals in Turkey included two Syrian Army generals, 11 colonels and 13 other military defectors, the Anatolian News Agency reported. Officials...

U.S. President Barack Obama’s re-election was also a victory for a 2010 law intended to provide more effective financial regulation, financial analysts said. The president signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010. His Republican challenger, Mitt...

A police officer shot and killed a man at the scene of a Denver-area shootout Friday without realizing the victim was a fellow officer, police said. Lakewood police spokesman Steve Davis said 35-year-old James Davies died “after being shot by another officer” in darkness outside a...

Opponents of the Affordable Care Act are urging U.S. governors “to tell the federal government no” when it comes to implementing the healthcare reform law. Groups including Americans for Prosperity — founded and funded by billionaire conservative activists David and Charles...

As Southern California’s defense industry shrinks with the reduction in federal military spending, Boeing Corp. announced cuts in its local workforce. Among the largest employers in the region, Boeing said it is reducing its executive workforce in the area by 30 percent from 2010 levels,...

Miami-Dade County (Fla.) Mayor Carlos Gimenez has formed a committee to look into why it took so long to count ballots in many precincts in his county. “We need to put it in context,” Gimenez told The Miami Herald. “I believe that there are different operational issues at...

Cold weather and snow has been predicted for parts of the South, the Midwest and the West, meteorologists say. A storm front moving across Southern California may result in snowfall in mountain areas in Ventura and Los Angeles counties Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reported. “Some...

Afghan troops, tasked with defending outposts without high-tech equipment such as helicopters and jets, are relying on donkeys, a military official said. Hundreds of donkeys are sustaining bases built and defended by U.S. troops and are in use as modern air power and transport equipment are...