KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A female victim escaped after being held captive for two days, tortured and assaulted at a home in Lake Arrowhead, a private community south of Lathrop, Missouri, the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.

The victim, whose age was not released, was taken to a hospital where she was reported to be in critical ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The questions came fast and furious for nearly five hours Wednesday night, offering a glimpse into the world of wealth, worry and water.

"We have a few large koi pond (sic) with over 100 fish," one person said during an angst-filled town hall meeting of the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District. "Is there a special exemption for...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Moments after being taken off life support, an anonymous Bay Area woman gave the most abundant of gifts: 17 different tissues and organs.

Some were transplanted into strangers in need, but many others were rushed off on a unique mission. They were donated for research — contributing to a first-ever detailed “cell atlas,...Read more

The four were all high-ranking men at different California State University campuses — three were vice presidents for student affairs.

Each was accused of inappropriately touching women. And each case was handled differently.

Two of the accused men were allowed to continue working while under investigation, but a third was placed on leave. ...Read more

ELKTON, Fla. — Someday, when your commute or supermarket run gets interrupted by the collapse of society, there will be certain considerations to make.

Jeff Smith seemed to know them all. Pacing under the sweeping metal roof of an open-air rodeo pavilion on the woodsy St. John’s County fairgrounds, Smith held the gaze of his sparse morning ...Read more

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held an emergency meeting over a COVID-19 outbreak sweeping the unvaccinated country and causing one of the biggest crises under his rule, reprimanding cadres for failing to execute his public health orders.

At the meeting, North Korea reported 392,920 new “fever cases” and eight new deaths nationwide in a 24...Read more

Stanley Sienda, 88, had just returned from his customary daily jog one afternoon in late April when he heard someone pounding on the door of his apartment in Chugach View, a Fairview public housing complex for seniors.

"I open the door," said Sienda. "And somebody grabbed me and bit me on the neck."

He found himself grappling on the floor with...Read more

LVIV, Ukraine — Signaling what they called a “new era,” leaders of Finland and Sweden said Sunday they will seek membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization within days, a move almost certain to escalate geopolitical tensions arising from the Russian war in Ukraine.

Having dealt a number of significant if limited setbacks to ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said after a visit to Kyiv that he expects the Senate to pass a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine with broad bipartisan backing on Wednesday, and countered what he called the “isolationist voices” in his own party.

McConnell, R-Ky., speaking to reporters on a call from Sweden, made the...Read more

LOS ANGELES — One person was killed and five others were wounded Sunday after a gunman opened fire on a Taiwanese church congregation in Southern California.

The shooting occurred at 1:26 p.m. inside Geneva Presbyterian Church on the 24000 block of El Toro Road in Laguna Woods. Authorities said the shooting occurred during a lunch banquet ...Read more

BUFFALO, N.Y. — As Buffalo residents expressed horror, anger and grief Sunday over a mass shooting that left 10 people dead at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood, local and federal officials said they were investigating the attack by a young white gunman as a hate crime and an act of “racially motivated violent extremism.�...Read more

A retired police officer, the 86-year-old mother of a former fire commissioner, an anti-gun activist and a longtime missionary were among the 10 people shot and killed in Saturday’s racially motivated attack at a Buffalo supermarket.

A total of 13 people were shot, 11 of them Black.

Authorities arrested Payton Gendron, 18, of Conklin, New ...Read more

A manager at the Buffalo supermarket where 10 people were killed Saturday says she saw the suspect pretending to be homeless the day before the massacre.

“He was acting like he was homeless and needed change,” Shonnell Teague told the New York Daily News in a Facebook message on Sunday. “He really was checking out the store.”

The act ...Read more

The suspected gunman in Saturday’s racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo previously garnered police attention with a threat he made last year, officials said.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said a June 2021 incident involving the suspect, Payton Gendron, was not racially charged.

“From what I have, it was a generalized ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden urged police departments to spend federal law enforcement aid, saying it can help reduce gun violence “and intervene before it’s too late.”

Hours after his speech at an event for police officers killed in the line of duty, the White House said the president and first lady Jill Biden will visit Buffalo, ...Read more

NATO members rallied around Finland and Sweden on Sunday after they announced plans to join the alliance, marking another dramatic change in Europe’s security architecture triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Gathering in Berlin over the weekend, most NATO foreign ministers embraced the bloc’s northern enlargement, a process that ...Read more

CHICAGO — After a teen was shot and killed near the Bean, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has banned unaccompanied minors from visiting Millennium Park after 6 p.m. from Thursday through Sunday, a policy aimed at keeping large crowds of teenagers from creating chaos, but that also is likely to inspire fierce criticism from civil libertarians and racial ...Read more

Yaritza Velazquez-Medina took a chance on a major career turn when she decided to drop her work as a crisis counselor in 2018 to pursue her artistic passions. She enrolled at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles to become a graphic designer — even though she wracked up about $70,000 in college debt to do so.

But after she crossed the...Read more