Eyder Peralta

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has some more bad news for U.S. taxpayers: The $7.6 billion the United States has spent on its counternarcotic efforts in Afghanistan has done little to reduce poppy production.

In fact, quite the opposite has happened because in 2013, the cultivation levels ...

Things got heated at the Chicago polling place where President Obama cast an early ballot on Monday.

Obama was in his little booth, next to a young woman, when her boyfriend, whom CNN identified as Mike Jones, quips: "Mr. President, don't touch my girlfriend."

Obama held his own, replying, "I ...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines on Monday for health care workers caring for patients with Ebola.

The new guidelines "provide an increased margin of safety," CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a conference call with reporters.

Frieden added that they represented a "consensus" by the ...

This past September was, on average, the hottest on record, meteorologists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday.

The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces was 60.3 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.30 F hotter than the century average.

The AP reports:

"It was ...

A judge in Boston says that some 1,000 pre-trial jurors may be asked to complete a questionnaire for the trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in January.

The Boston Herald reports U.S. District Court Judge George O'Toole Jr. made the announcement at a status conference on Monday.

The Pentagon is training a 30-person medical response team designed to be deployed nationally in case anyone else in the country is diagnosed with Ebola.

Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said the team was formed based on a request from the Department of Health and Human Services.

"The ...

Northern white rhinos are one step closer to extinction, after one of only two breeding males known to exist was found dead at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

In a statement, the conservancy said Suni, 34, had not been poached, but they had not yet determined why the ...

A health care worker who had self-quarantined herself aboard a Carnival Cruise Lines ship has tested negative for Ebola and was allowed to disembark with the rest of the passengers in Galveston, Texas, on Sunday.

In a statement, the Galveston County Health Authority said it had determined "there is ...

An annual pumpkin festival in Keene, N.H., devolved into mayhem as people threw beer bottles, lit fires, overturned at least one car and clashed with police late Saturday into Sunday morning.

The local Boston CBS station reports that police arrested at least a dozen people and about 30 were ...

Running 26.2 miles is hard enough.

Now imagine running them through the deep smog that often envelopes Beijing. That's what happened this morning as some 25,000 runners took to the streets for the 34th Beijing International Marathon, which begins at Tiananmen Square.

As The South China Morning Post reports, ...

In a full-page letter published in Sunday's Dallas Morning News, Barclay Berdan, the CEO of the company that owns Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, said the hospital was "deeply sorry" for missing the ebola diagnosis of Thomas Eric Duncan.

If you remember, Duncan came into the hospital on Sept. 28 with ...

With maximum sustained winds of 115 mph, Hurricane Gonzalo gave the island chain of Bermuda a direct blow on Friday.

Via the National Hurricane Center, here's a satellite loop of when the storm made landfall:

The Royal Gazette, a newspaper in Bermuda, reported that by 8 p.m. ET., ...

Houston Mayor Annise Parker announced on Friday that the city would narrow the scope of a controversial subpoena that asked five local pastors for copies of some of their sermons and communications.

The subpoena — which sits at the uncomfortable intersection of church and state — drew immediate ire from ...

In a process that will surely be repeated across the United States, a federal judge in Arizona ruled that the state's ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge John W. Sedwick said that the legal opinion in his circuit is clear: The Court of Appeals for the 9th ...

Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, has been discharged from the Navy after testing positive for cocaine, a source familiar with the matter tells NPR's Tom Bowman.

Navy spokesman Cmd. Ryan Perry tells Tom:

"Ensign Hunter Biden was selected for commission through the Direct Commission Officer Program in 2012. ...

For the second night in a row, President Obama addressed the American public after meeting with his cabinet about Ebola.

Obama assured Americans that their federal government is taking "this very seriously at the highest level, including me."

"What remains true is this is not an airborne disease," Obama said. ...

Venezuela, a long-time diplomatic thorn on the side of the United States, has won a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that unlike the last time Venezuela vied for a spot, this time the country was able to get enough votes easily.

The ...

"What just happened?"

That's how NPR member station WLRN in Miami summed up last night's gubernatorial debate in Florida, which started with a shot of an empty stage. The audience thought it was a joke and then we learned that Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, and his challenger, former ...

Updated at 7:53 p.m. ET

Nina Pham, the 26-year-old nurse who became infected with Ebola after treating a patient with the disease at a Dallas hospital, will be transferred to a high-level containment facility at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the ...

The Kansas City Royals, who had not seen the playoffs since 1985, have swept the Baltimore Orioles, winning the American League pennant and securing a spot in the World Series.

As The New York Times puts it, right now, the Royals can do no wrong. The team has yet ...