A massive Chinese infrastructure program that Beijing says is aimed at promoting global trade and economic growth is actually intended to expand the country’s political influence and military presence, according to a report issued April 17.

Students from Florida to Chicago started streaming out of their schools April 20 in the latest round of gun-control activism following the February shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Organizers said there will be walkouts in every state.

Sirens wailed, church bells tolled and yellow paper daffodils of remembrance dotted the crowd as Polish and Jewish leaders extolled the heroism and determination of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fighters on the 75th anniversary of their ill-fated rebellion.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan caught Turkey off guard on April 18 by calling early elections for June, in a move that could cement his grip on power a year ahead of schedule.

Wildfires that have killed two people in western Oklahoma are nearing conditions not seen in at least a decade because of the mixture of high temperatures, low humidity and heavy winds, the National Weather Service said April 16.

Cuba on April 18 selected 57-year-old First Vice President Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez as sole candidate to succeed Raul Castro as president of Cuba, the centerpiece of an effort to ensure that the country’s single-party system outlasts the aging revolutionaries who created it.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed that his CIA chief secretly met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea and said “a good relationship was formed” heading into the adversaries’ anticipated summit.

After securing the Venezuelan presidency with 50.6 percent of the vote in 2013, Nicolas Maduro pledged: “I am ensuring the legacy of my commander, [the then-deceased predecessor Hugo] Chavez, the eternal father.”

Syrian and Russian authorities prevented independent investigators from going to the scene of a suspected chemical attack, the head of the chemical watchdog group said April 16, blocking international efforts to establish what happened and who was to blame.

Heavy rains fell on the Hawaiian island of Kauai during the weekend, leaving residents stranded by floodwaters.

The bells of Old South Church in Boston rang at 2:49 p.m. to commemorate a citywide moment of silence in honor of Boston Marathon bombing survivors and victims.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley has indicated new economic sanctions will be announced against Russia for enabling the government of Syrian leader Bashar Assad to continue using chemical weapons.

Allied missiles struck at the heart of Syrian chemical weapons arsenal in a show of force and resolve aimed at punishing the Assad government for a suspected poison gas attack against civilians and deterring the possible future use of such banned weapons.

The divisive legislation means Hawaii joins California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, Washington state and the District of Columbia in allowing doctor assisted suicide.

California Governor Jerry Brown is crystal clear that his National Guard will help President Trump go after drugs and thugs on the Mexican border, but not immigrants. Drawing that line may be hazy.

Higher gas prices will affect drivers the most during the coming months.

We kick it. We stomp it. We sweep it out of our homes. We even use its name as an insult. Yet by doing so, we undervalue one of our most important resources.