Ken Stanford

The gunman who fatally ambushed two New York City police officers in their squad car had a long criminal record, a hatred for police and the government and an apparent history of mental instability that included an attempt to hang himself a year ago, authorities said Sunday.

Civil rights leaders Sunday condemned the ambush killings of two New York police officers and expressed fear that the backlash over the bloodshed could derail the protest movement that has grown out of the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

The key role Pope Francis played encouraging talks between Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro left fractures among his flock in South Florida, where many older Roman Catholics equate the Castro brothers with the devil.

President Barack Obama is preparing to nominate the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta to the No. 2 position at the Justice Department, according to two people familiar with the move.

Atlanta police say charges have been filed against more than a dozen people who blocked an intersection during a protest near a busy mall in Buckhead.

Gov. Nathan Deal recently announced 18 award winners for the Innovation Fund, a competitive grant program that provides more than $4.5 million to local education authorities, schools, institutions of higher education and nonprofit organizations to further advance student achievement in Georgia.

The number of traffic deaths nationwide dropped about 3 percent last year, and the rate of deaths per 100 million miles traveled tied a record low, according to government statistics.

Health officials are warning consumers to avoid prepackaged caramel apples because they are linked to four deaths and more than two dozen illnesses in 10 states.

Cuban opposition leaders from the island joined Cuban American politicians and activists on Saturday, pledging to oppose President Barack Obama's plan to normalize relations with the communist nation and disputing the notion that their community is split by a generational divide.

The United States is reviewing whether to put North Korea back onto its list of state sponsors of terrorism, President Barack Obama said as the U.S. decides how to respond to the cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment that law enforcement has blamed on the communist nation.