AP National News

In an impromptu Easter Sunday speech, Pope Francis on Sunday encouraged people to hold fast in their `'fearful hearts'' to faith despite all the wars, sickness and hatred in the world, acknowledging that many wonder where God is amid so much evil and suffering.

Backed by ships, helicopters and drones, Russian rescue teams searched for victims in the Black Sea after a Russian military plane carrying 92 people to Syria crashed Sunday shortly after takeoff from Sochi.

President Barack Obama has designated the bulk of U.S.-owned waters in the Arctic Ocean and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing.

Thick smoke has settled over a wide area of the southern Appalachians, where dozens of uncontrolled wildfires are burning through decades of leaf litter, and people breathe in tiny bits of the forest with every gulp of air.

North Carolina officials say the death toll associated with Hurricane Matthew has risen to 18. Gov. Pat McCrory told a briefing Tuesday afternoon that two people drowned in Robeson County.

A coroner says a 6-year-old boy has died days after he was critically wounded in a school shooting in South Carolina.

Overwhelmingly rejecting President Barack Obama's veto power, Congress has forced into law contentious legislation that would allow the families of Sept. 11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia.

A proposed federal bill of rights for survivors of sexual assault won final legislative approval Wednesday, sending it to the president's desk.

Gasoline should begin flowing again Wednesday through a temporary bypass on a critical pipeline after a major leak in Alabama forced a shutdown that led to surging fuel prices and scattered gas shortages across the South, a company official said Tuesday.

Colonial Pipeline says it is beginning construction of a temporary pipeline that will bypass a leaking section of its main gasoline pipeline in Shelby County, Alabama.