U.S. troops equipped with Patriot missiles and fighter jets began military exercises in Jordan that have drawn condemnation from Russia, which accuses the West of fanning the conflict in neighboring Syria.

A self-described conservative Republican who is a manager in the federal tax collection agency office that targeted conservative groups told investigators that he, not the White House, set in motion the review, the top Democrat on the House watchdog committee said Sunday.

Venezuela's Electoral Council has completed an audit of results from April's bitterly contested presidential election, and as expected it confirmed Nicolas Maduro's 1.5 percentage-point victory.

It's been six months since the deadly school shooting that made gun control a top U.S. issue once again, and families of some of the victims are going back to Washington to remind lawmakers they are painfully waiting for action.

The U.S. government has recovered 400 pages from the long-lost diary of Alfred Rosenberg, a confidant of Adolf Hitler who played a central role in the extermination of millions of Jews and others during World War II.

A woman who was critically wounded in last week's California shooting rampage died, bringing the number of victims killed by the gunman to five.

United States President Barack Obama told Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during their summit in California that the U.S. clearly understood its commitment to Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act, including its obligation to provide Taiwan with arms to protect itself, an Obama aide said Saturday.

Barack Obama and Xi Jinping ended their first U.S.-China summit Saturday, forging a rapport and policy understandings, if not breakthroughs, on North Korea, climate and cyber issues.

For centuries, tycoons and adventurers alike have dreamed of building a canal through Nicaragua between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and riding a boom in international trade to new riches. Up until now, however, all comers were forced to admit defeat when faced with the sheer challenge of building a man-made river through dense, hilly jungle.

The gunman who killed four people in a shooting rampage in Santa Monica before he was slain by police at a community college in the California seaside town was once a student there and had a brush with the law several years ago as a teenager, police said on Saturday.