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On the morning before the massacre at Orlando's Pulse gay nightclub, shooter Omar Mateen drastically altered his appearance, shaving his head and face, and seemed agitated and surly, said an acquaintance who saw him that day.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un said after supervising the test launch of an intermediate-range missile that the country now has the capability to attack U.S. interests in the Pacific, official media reported on Thursday.

Two men from Anaheim, California, were found guilty on Tuesday of conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State militants, one of them going so far as to attempt to travel to the Middle East to join the extremist group, federal prosecutors said.

Pope Francis visits Armenia this weekend and will try to avoid reigniting a diplomatic dispute with Turkey after his branding of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as a genocide infuriated Ankara last year.

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday is likely to pass a Republican-backed proposal to expand the Federal Bureau of Investigation's secretive surveillance powers after the mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub last week.

When hundreds of Jewish nationalists marched through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City this month, waving banners and chanting songs in what has become an annual ritual, it wasn't only Muslims watching warily. Christians were, too.

The U.S. Senate on Monday rejected four measures restricting gun sales after last week's massacre in an Orlando nightclub, dealing a bitter setback to advocates who have failed to get even modest gun curbs through Congress despite repeated mass shootings.

The Kentucky clerk who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to dismiss her appeal because the state's new law to remove clerks' names from licenses made her action unnecessary.

The gunman who slaughtered 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida threatened to blow up a car rigged with bombs and to strap hostages into explosive vests, according to partial transcripts of his 911 calls released on Monday.

Pro-choice groups plan to fly a drone carrying abortion pills from Ireland to Northern Ireland in protest against restrictions on terminations on both sides of the border, activists said on Thursday.

Donald Trump's presidential campaign manager has left, a Trump spokeswoman said on Monday, a further disruption to a campaign already at odds with senior Republican Party figures over his policies.

Republican lawmakers should follow their conscience on whether to support Donald Trump in November's presidential election, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said in an interview, reflecting the party's unease over its White House candidate.

Pope Francis has said the "great majority" of Catholic marriages being celebrated today are invalid because couples do not fully realize it is a lifetime commitment, drawing sharp criticism from Church conservatives.

Iraqi forces on Friday entered the center of Falluja, the Iraqi city longest held by Islamic State, nearly four weeks after the start of a U.S.-backed offensive that cleared out the tens of thousands of residents still there.

U.S. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy ended a blockade of the Senate after nearly 15 hours on Thursday, saying Republicans had pledged to hold votes on gun control measures to expand background checks and prevent people on U.S. terrorism watch lists from buying guns.

Islamic State militants have tens of thousands of fighters around the world, a far greater number than al Qaeda at its height, John Brennan, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said on Thursday.

The Islamic State is committing genocide against the Yazidis in Syria and Iraq to destroy the religious community of 400,000 people through killings, sexual slavery and other crimes, United Nations investigators said on Thursday.

Belgian police have received an anti-terror alert warning that a group of Islamic State fighters recently left Syria en route for Europe planning attacks in Belgium and France, a Belgian security source said on Wednesday.

A federal grand jury has been convened to look into possible wrongdoing by the wife of the gunman who killed 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub, and criminal charges could be brought against her early as Wednesday, a law enforcement source said.

The man who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida appears to have acted alone, without direction from the Islamist militant groups he voiced sympathy for, authorities said as they investigated the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Updated sleep recommendations for children and teens point to the benefits of getting enough sleep and the dangers of getting too little.

Republican Donald Trump on Monday placed responsibility for a mass shooting in Florida squarely at the feet of radical Muslims, who he said were entering the country amidst a flood of refugees and "trying to take over our children."

The Supreme Court is due to rule by the end of June on whether the Texas law, which imposes strict regulations on abortion doctors and clinic facilities, violates a woman's constitutional right to end her pregnancy as set out in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. The court has not issued a major abortion-related ruling since 2007.

More than 80 Bosnian children are in Islamic State-held territory in Syria and Iraq and represent a "time bomb" that could pose a major security risk when they return, a study said on Monday.

Omar Mateen's wife described him as "bipolar," and emotionally disturbed with a violent temper. She said she had been beaten and otherwise physically abused by Mateen during outbursts in which he would "express hatred towards everything".