The Associated Press

Gobi, the stray dog who captured hearts when she adopted her human Dion Leonard during a 155-mile race across China’s Gobi desert, will be featured in books and a movie depicting how the two met and bonded.

Lions rescued from circuses in Colombia and Peru and airlifted to South Africa scratched their manes on trees and explored their new territory in the African bush after being released into a sanctuary north of Johannesburg Sunday. One of the 33 lions, a male known as Zeus, let out a mighty roar before stepping out of his cage into an...

Fido and Spot may not have to cower under the bed this summer when fireworks and thunderstorms hit. The first prescription veterinary medicine for treating anxiety over loud noises — a widespread problem that can send dogs running away in terror and harm both themselves and property — will soon hit the market. Veterinary medicine maker Zoetis Inc. of Florham...

Animal rescuers in Southern California were surprised when they found an emaciated coyote found badly wounded at the bottom of an empty reservoir was pregnant.

The kitten lay on the ground so perfectly still that passing volunteer rescuers had initially written her off as just another of the many victims — human and animal — of this week’s ferocious wildfires near Athens. But then came a hint of life — the frail feline began crying out and slowly moving her tiny body, singed by heat...

The chairman of the Washington, D.C., Council has urged a member saddled with allegations of wrongdoing to resign before a formal vote to expel him from office.

The majority of D.C. Council members say they will vote to remove Jack Evans from office. If the final vote goes the same way, it will be the first time that the D.C. Council has voted to remove one if its own. Mark Segraves reports.

Climate change, gun violence, the very nature of democracy and an angsty little movie star called Forky helped propel “existential” to Dictionary.com’s word of the year. The choice reflects months of high-stakes threats and crises, real and pondered, across the news, the world and throughout 2019. “In our data, it speaks to this sense of grappling with our survival, both...

When no Americans replied to her ads seeking a dance instructor, studio owner Chris Sabourin looked overseas. But she was stymied again by a federal tightening of visa application rules she and others contend is hampering the ballroom dance industry. Sabourin had to eventually give up after a year and thousands of dollars trying to hire a top ballroom dancer...

Russian scientists on Monday showed off a prehistoric puppy, believed to be 18,000 years old, found in permafrost in the country’s Far East. Discovered last year in a lump of frozen mud near the city of Yakutsk, the puppy is unusually well-preserved, with its hair, teeth, whiskers and eyelashes still intact. “This puppy has all its limbs, pelage – fur,...

One of the busiest days on the Virginia legislature’s calendar began under a cloud of suspense Tuesday as Gov. Ralph Northam weighed whether he can continue in the job amid the fallout over a racist photo on his 1984 medical school yearbook page.

A diocese in Kentucky apologized Saturday after videos emerged showing students from a Catholic boys’ high school mocking Native Americans outside the Lincoln Memorial after a rally in Washington. Videos circulating online show a youth staring at and standing extremely close to Nathan Phillips, a 64-year-old Native American man singing and playing a drum. Other students, some wearing Covington Catholic...

Teachers at the only unionized charter school in Washington, D.C., say the charter network is closing the school as retaliation against their unionization efforts.

Attorneys for the man accused of killing five people at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Maryland say prosecutors haven’t provided them with enough factual details involving the charges against their client, as they weigh changing his plea to not criminally responsible due to insanity.

The District stopped suspending driver licenses for failure to appear in court or pay some traffic fines, leading the city DMV to restore more than 65,000 licenses.

It’s been 1 1/2 years since the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, but two men seen on camera assaulting a black man in a parking garage remain unidentified.

The retired Vatican diplomat who accused Pope Francis of turning a blind eye to the alleged sexual misconduct of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is begging the American to publicly repent for his crimes for the good of the Catholic Church.

Virginia’s attorney general is the latest of the top elected officials in the state to face a scandal. He said Wednesday that he once wore blackface. News4’s Julie Carey has the latest details from Richmond on Gov. Ralph Northam, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark Herring.

Virginia’s Democrats struggled to find their way out of three interlocking political crises Thursday that could bring down the party’s top elected officials and put a Republican in the governor’s chair.