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Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel says he's open to reviewing the military's ban on transgender service members.

In an interview with ABC News, Hagel said while the issue is more complicated than allowing gays in the military because it requires medical support, the policies "continually should be reviewed."

ABC ...

There are a few special days we relish watching unfold on social media. The first day of school is one. Mother's Day is another. We like them because social feeds are filled with photographs that gives us an intimate peek at a very special human connection that resonates across the ...

A cease-fire deal that was hailed by the international community was broken two days later by more fighting in South Sudan on Sunday.

Quoting a United Nations official, Reuters reports fighting broke out in the town of Bentiu, where both sides fired.

Reuters adds:

"President Salva Kiir ...

After being drafted by the St. Louis Rams, Michael Sam is poised to become the first openly gay player in the NFL.

NPR's Steve Mullis already covered the news. But the historic moment was also captured by ESPN cameras. It was an emotional moment that culminated in a kiss ...

A Florida rabble-rouser wants the city of Deerfield Beach to allow him to say a satanist prayer at the beginning of a council meeting.

Of course, Chaz Stevens' request comes after the Supreme Court ruled that sectarian prayer before a government meeting does not necessarily violate the Constitution's Establishment ...

As a heavy fog lifted through the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan, a procession began.

Vehicles from the FDNY, the Port Authority and NYPD carried three flag-draped coffins filled with the unidentified remains of some Sept. 11 victims.

The procession began at a medical examiner's office and passed by Ladder Co. ...

Two U.S. embassy officers in Yemen shot and killed two armed men in Sanaa last month.

"The Embassy officers are no longer in Yemen," State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said in a written statement. "Per standard procedure for any such incident involving embassy officers overseas, this matter is under review."

South Sudan's president has signed an agreement with a rebel leader that calls for the "immediate cessation of hostilities."

As NPR's Gregory Warner has been reporting, a political tug of war between two rivals has spiraled into "tit-for-tat ethnic killing" that has threatened to tear apart the world's youngest ...

(This post was updated at 9:45 p.m. ET.)

Two people are dead and another is missing after a hot air balloon caught fire and crashed near Doswell, Va., on Friday night.

The family has identified the missing woman as Natalie Lewis, a University of Richmond women's basketball team staff ...

In her first solo weekly address, first lady Michelle Obama said the U.S. is committed to standing up for the more than 200 Nigerian girls who were kidnapped from their school weeks ago.

"In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters," she said. "We see their hopes and ...

The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has filed for an initial public offering in the United States.

The company runs the largest online and mobile commerce site in the world, controlling a huge portion of the Chinese market. Its intent to go public marks the biggest IPO of the Internet ...

The White House has decided that it will let Senators read a secret memo that makes the legal case for the government's ability to target Americans abroad using a drone strike.

NPR's Carrie Johnson tells our Newscast unit that the move is designed to head off a confirmation battle over ...

Nigeria has accepted a U.S. offer to send a team that could help in the search for 276 girls who were abducted from a school last month, the State Department said today.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said during her daily briefing that Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan had "welcomed" an ...

Sixty years ago today, Roger Bannister accomplished something humans had only dreamed of decades earlier.

As he's described it, the first two laps felt easy, and black-and-white BBC footage of the event corroborates this. He looks at ease, his spikes hardly touching the track before springing another step. When he ...

A new U.S. government report released Tuesday finds that climate change is already having a broad impact on both weather and the economy.

NPR's Elizabeth Shogren tells our Newscast unit the third National Climate Assessment is the most comprehensive look at climate change that the government has ever produced. ...

Cornealious "Mike" Anderson is a free man once again.

Back in 2000, the Missouri resident was sentenced to 13 years in prison for holding up a man with a gun. Anderson was 23 at the time and was told to await orders on when to show up to prison.

Thirteen ...

A city council in upstate New York is not violating the Constitution when it opens its meetings with a prayer, the U.S. Supreme Court held Monday with a 5-4 vote.

As we've reported, the town of Greece, N.Y., used to open its board meetings with a moment of ...

During his campaign for president in 1988, George H.W. Bush made what's arguably one of the most memorable campaign promises: "Read my lips," he said. "No new taxes."

But as 1990 came around, with the economy still sluggish, he agreed to a bipartisan budget deal that reneged on that promise ...

We usually don't make much of European soccer. But on Sunday, Cristiano Ronaldo nailed such a spectacular goal against Valencia that we just had to show it to you.

Here's how SBNation describes it:

"Cristiano Ronaldo was not facing the goal, the ball was waist high and he ...

In the wake of a massive data breach that exposed the personal information of about 70 million customers last year, Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel is stepping down, the retailer's board announced in a statement Monday.

"Gregg led the response to Target's 2013 data breach," the statement read. "He ...