The calendar says it’s nearly Christmas, but the damage looks more like spring. A powerful storm system roared across parts of the South, claiming at least 14 lives in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas and injuring scores more. The Storm Prediction Center said at least 14 tornadoes hit Mississippi on Wednesday, but a single twister did most of the damage. It ...

Disgusted, yes. Shocked, no. That’s what Kevin McConnell feels after learning that Ethan Couch — the teenager who killed four people and injured several others, including McConnell’s then 12-year-old son Lucas, while driving drunk on a Texas road — is on the lam. In the McConnells’ view, Couch was never held accountable. Not meeting with his probation officer and fleeing ...

Opposition candidate Mauricio Macri is poised to become Argentina’s next President after a runoff vote that marks the end of a political dynasty. “Thank you for believing in me. … I am here because you have decided,” a triumphant Macri said from his campaign headquarters Sunday night as throngs of supporters erupted in cheers. “Today is a historic day,” he ...

Two men arrested by Australian anti-terror police in Sydney have been charged with plotting attacks on targets including a navy base, according to New South Wales Police. The men were apprehended Wednesday during dawn raids on their homes by officers from the Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT), as part of their ongoing anti-terror campaign known as “Operation Appleby.” A 24-year-old ...

Rescuers have found the first survivors of a deadly landslide in Shenzhen after a mountain of construction waste engulfed part of the southern Chinese city, collapsing buildings and burying vehicles. Two people were rescued early Wednesday morning after being buried for more than 60 hours, state-run news agency Xinhua reported. One survivor, a man from Chongqing in central China, has ...

At least three people were killed and seven wounded Saturday when a car packed with explosives exploded outside a shopping mall in Somalia’s capital, a senior police official said. Police Col. Ahmed Hassan said the attack apparently was aimed at Hussein Wehliye Irfo, the governor of central Somalia’s Galgaduud region. The explosions happened a few meters from his convoy on ...

Their M.O. is a tried and terrifying one: Launch a raid, single out Christians, and then spray them with bullets. But when Al-Shabaab militants ambushed a bus Monday, things didn’t go according to plan. A group of Kenyan Muslims shielded the Christian passengers and told the attackers they were prepared to die together. The Muslim passengers, who were mostly women, ...

With the number of ISIS fighters growing in regional neighbor Afghanistan, Russian President Vladimir Putin is turning to an old enemy — the Taliban — to share intelligence. A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said the contact between Moscow and the Afghan Taliban only involves intelligence-sharing and information exchange regarding the fight against ISIS. Why would Putin ...

Immigration Minister John McCallum said Sunday that Canada could accept as many as 50,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016, potentially doubling the government’s previous commitment to take in 25,000 by the end of February. And as Canadians rally to help that effort, Canadian Council of Refugees Executive Director Janet Dench says her organization hopes they will also think ...

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was dealt an eye-watering sucker punch by a teenager during a campaign event Wednesday. The young man got up close to the Prime Minister, reportedly asking to take a photograph, before unleashing his left fist into the side of Rajoy’s head. The punch knocked Rajoy’s glasses off of his face, leaving the leader of the ...