Pope faces key test with vote on divorcees, gays

Pope faces key test with vote on divorcees, gays
Justices balk at last-minute voting changes
Power out, trees fall as hurricane crosses Bermuda
Mission Unaccomplished: Containing Ebola in Africa
Supreme Court allows Texas use of new voter ID law
Ebola is 'disaster of our generation' says aid agency
Cautious optimism over Nigeria's kidnapped girls
Obama urges Americans not to give in to Ebola hysteria
Supreme Court denies request to block Texas voter ID law
U.S. bans Hungarians from entry over corruption charges
Report: Ferguson officer says he feared for life
2nd Ebola nurse 'felt funny' while in Ohio
Hurricane Gonzalo scores bull's eye hit on Bermuda
Arizona joins other states in allowing gay unions
Good news for Hunter Biden after cocaine controversy
Mysterious 'space plane' lands in California

Posted: 18 Oct 2014 10:11 AM PDT

Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis was set to sort his allies from his enemies Saturday with a Vatican vote on a document drafted at the end of a fierce two-week debate over opening the Catholic Church's doors to remarried divorcees and gays.

Justices balk at last-minute voting changes

Posted: 18 Oct 2014 09:31 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has allowed Texas to use its strict voter ID law in the November election even after a federal judge said the law was the equivalent of a poll tax and threatened to deprive many blacks and Latinos of the right to vote this year.

Power out, trees fall as hurricane crosses Bermuda

Posted: 18 Oct 2014 11:04 AM PDT

HAMILTON, Bermuda (AP) — Hurricane Gonzalo crushed trees, flattened power lines and damaged Bermuda's main hospital during an hours-long battering, but the tiny, wealthy British territory suffered no deaths.

Mission Unaccomplished: Containing Ebola in Africa

Posted: 18 Oct 2014 09:08 AM PDT

Looking back, the mistakes are easy to see: Waiting too long, spending too little, relying on the wrong people, thinking small when they needed to think big. Many people, governments and agencies share the blame for failing to contain Ebola when it emerged in West Africa.

Supreme Court allows Texas use of new voter ID law

Posted: 18 Oct 2014 06:18 AM PDT

The state's controversial voter identification law can be used for the November election, the justices rule.

Ebola is 'disaster of our generation' says aid agency

Posted: 18 Oct 2014 10:37 AM PDT

London (AFP) - Aid agency Oxfam on Saturday said Ebola could become the "definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation", as US President Barack Obama urged against "hysteria" in the face of the growing crisis.

Cautious optimism over Nigeria's kidnapped girls

Posted: 18 Oct 2014 05:22 AM PDT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — There's no dancing in the streets, but people in the hometown of more than 200 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls are cautiously optimistic about news of a cease-fire with the Islamic extremists who abducted their daughters six months ago.

Obama urges Americans not to give in to Ebola hysteria

Posted: 18 Oct 2014 10:43 AM PDT

By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With three cases of Ebola diagnosed in the United States but dozens of people being monitored in case they contract the disease, President Barack Obama urged Americans on Saturday not to give in to "hysteria" about the spread of the virus. Obama also made plain he is not currently planning to give in to demands from some lawmakers for a ban on travelers from the worst-hit countries. "We can't just cut ourselves off from West Africa," Obama said in his weekly radio address. ...

Supreme Court denies request to block Texas voter ID law

Posted: 18 Oct 2014 09:05 AM PDT

By Curtis Skinner (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday denied a request to block a Texas law requiring residents to show certain forms of identification before they vote, a measure that supporters say prevents voter fraud but opponents decry as discriminatory. The move, which means the requirement will be in place for the November elections, comes after a U.S. appeals court on Tuesday granted a request by the state to stay a lower court decision that struck down the law. ...

U.S. bans Hungarians from entry over corruption charges

Posted: 18 Oct 2014 09:25 AM PDT

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The United States has banned several Hungarian citizens from entry and alleged that they were engaged in or benefiting from corruption, prompting the Hungarian government to call for a show of evidence. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government has clashed several times with the European Union and the United States over reforms that critics said harmed some foreign investors and weakened the system of checks and balances in the former Communist satellite. "The U.S. ...

Report: Ferguson officer says he feared for life

Posted: 18 Oct 2014 10:41 AM PDT

Darren Wilson has told investigators that he was pinned in his vehicle as he and Michael Brown struggled over his gun, The New York Times reported.

2nd Ebola nurse 'felt funny' while in Ohio

Posted: 17 Oct 2014 09:03 AM PDT

Officials try to identify anyone who may have come into contact with Amber Joy Vinson.

Hurricane Gonzalo scores bull's eye hit on Bermuda

Posted: 17 Oct 2014 10:03 PM PDT

By Sam Strangeways HAMILTON Bermuda (Reuters) - Hurricane Gonzalo slammed into Bermuda on Friday, knocking out most of the electricity as it lashed the tiny Atlantic island chain with pounding surf, torrential rain and howling wind, but there were no immediate reports of injuries. The strongest storm to sweep the subtropical British territory in a decade made full landfall at about 8:30 p.m. as the 35-mile-wide (56 km) eye of the storm crossed the south-central coast of Bermuda, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported. ...

Arizona joins other states in allowing gay unions

Posted: 18 Oct 2014 01:38 AM PDT

PHOENIX (AP) — Karen Bailey and Nelda Majors were a couple for 50 years before they told friends and family about their relationship.

Good news for Hunter Biden after cocaine controversy

Posted: 17 Oct 2014 12:33 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden, the youngest son of Vice President Joe Biden, faces no automatic review of his law license in Connecticut following his discharge from the U.S. Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine use, Connecticut legal authorities said Friday.