Nation and World

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois lawmakers are seeking a zero-tolerance policy for most on-duty police officers when it comes to using alcohol.

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Bangladesh’s government plans to raise the minimum wage for garment workers, a Cabinet minister said Sunday, after the deaths of more than 1,100 people in the collapse of a factory building focused international attention on the textile industry’s dismal pay and hazardous working conditions.

WASHINGTON – The seasoned diplomat who penned a highly critical report on security at a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, defended his scathing assessment but absolved then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. “We knew where the responsibility rested,” Thomas Pickering said Sunday.

TRENTON, N.J. – Police stormed a New Jersey home early Sunday and fatally shot a registered sex offender who had held his girlfriend’s three children hostage, ending their 37-hour ordeal and recovering the bodies of the captives’ mother and another sibling, authorities said.

CLEVELAND – The three women allegedly imprisoned and sexually abused for years inside a padlocked Cleveland house asked for privacy Sunday, saying through an attorney that while they are grateful for overwhelming support, they also need time to heal.

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey’s prime minister vowed Sunday his country won’t be drawn into Syria’s civil war, despite twin car bombings the government believes were carried out by a group of Turks with close ties to pro-government groups in Syria.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Every time Los Angeles exhales, odd-looking gadgets anchored in the mountains above the city trace the invisible puffs of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that waft skyward.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown pushed a novel approach through the Legislature two years ago to dramatically reduce California's prison population in response to a federal court order.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A standoff with an armed man who took multiple hostages inside a Trenton home has ended, and three children are safe, police said early Sunday.

ISLAMABAD – Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared victory after a historic election marred by violence Saturday, a remarkable comeback for a leader once toppled in a military coup and sent into exile.

A clear majority of Americans still suspect there was a conspiracy behind President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, but the percentage who believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone is at its highest level since the mid-1960s, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

Year after year, the clock ticked by and the calendar marched forward, carrying the three women further from the real world and pulling them deeper into an isolated nightmare.

REYHANLI, Turkey – In one of the deadliest attacks in Turkey in recent years, two car bombs exploded near the border with Syria on Saturday, killing 43 and wounding 140 others. Turkish officials blamed the attack on a group linked to Syria, and a deputy prime minister called the neighboring country’s intelligence service and military “the usual suspects.”

SOUK AL-JUMMA, Tunisia – On the day he chose to die, Adel Khedri woke up at 6:30 a.m., took his black backpack and headed down to the busy boulevard where he worked as a cigarette peddler.

WASHINGTON – Beyond the Air Force’s embarrassing suspension of 17 nuclear missile launch officers lie two broader questions.