RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) - The mayor of Charlottesville called on Friday for a special session of Virginia's legislature to let localities decide the fate of Confederate monuments like the statue at the center of a far-right rally last week that turned deadly.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston officials are planning road blockades and even banning food vendors from the historic Boston Common as they step up security around a "Free Speech" rally on Saturday featuring right-wing speakers, aiming to avoid a repeat of last weekend's violence at a white supremacist rally in Virginia.

MANASSAS, Va. (Reuters) - In the northern Virginia county where Confederate general Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson earned his famous moniker, a battle has begun to remove his name from the local high school where it appears in large white letters on the red brick facade.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California man convicted of the worst mass killing in Orange County history was spared the death penalty on Friday after a judge found that serious misconduct by prosecutors had violated his rights to a fair trial.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles judge on Friday rejected a request by the woman who was raped by director Roman Polanski 40 years ago to have the criminal case against him dismissed.

(Reuters) - The Wayne County jail in downtown Detroit is not liable to inmates who were subjected to group strip searches when the number of inmates awaiting processing made individual searches impractical, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A San Francisco area man on a delayed honeymoon was among the 13 people killed in Thursday's attack in Spain, his family told a local television station on Friday, hours after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson confirmed that an American citizen was dead.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued a forceful condemnation of "bigotry in all its forms" on Friday and called for national reconciliation as he promised to work toward making the government more racially diverse.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Next week's solar eclipse will be streamed live online for the first time, from the vantage point of helium-filled balloons across the United States, providing the public with sky-high views as the moon blocks the sun.

(Reuters) - Hundreds of livestock ranchers in the drought-stricken U.S. Northern Plains are embracing what organizers say is the first lottery designed to provide some much-needed relief to their operations.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Steve Bannon, the blunt-spoken and divisive strategist who rose from Donald Trump's conservative campaign to a top White House post, was pushed out by the president Friday, capping a turbulent seven months marked by the departure of much of Trump's original senior staff....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For Susan Bro, mother of the woman killed at a rally organized by white supremacists, the president of the United States can offer no healing words....

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -- The Latest on the Spain attacks (all times local):...

PARIS (AP) -- The dead and injured in Barcelona were a snapshot of the world - men, women and children from nearly three dozen nations - testifying to the huge global appeal of the sun-kissed city....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump is "studying and considering his options" for a new approach to Afghanistan and the broader South Asia region, the White House said Friday after the president huddled with his top national security aides at Camp David....

ABERDEEN, Wash. (AP) -- One-hundred-fifty baskets of pink petunias hang from the light posts all over this city, watered regularly by residents trying to make their community feel alive again. A local artist spends his afternoons high in a bucket truck, painting a block-long mural of a little girl blowing bubbles, each circle the scene of an imagined, hopefu […]

ATLANTA (AP) -- President Donald Trump's widely criticized response to white supremacist violence in Virginia has left Democrats in a quandary: how to seize the moral high ground without getting sucked into a politically perilous culture war....

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A Los Angeles judge on Friday denied the impassioned plea of Roman Polanski's victim to end a four-decade-old sexual assault case against the fugitive director....

HELSINKI (AP) -- A man stabbed eight people Friday in Finland's western city of Turku, killing two of them, before police shot him in the thigh and detained him, police said. Authorities were looking for more potential suspects in the attack....

NEW YORK (AP) -- Taylor Swift had a "blank space, baby" across social media Friday - and Swifties went wild....

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

New England Patriots defensive end Derek Rivers' rookie season may be over due to a knee injury.

The phrase "Bear Raid" had become synonymous with Cal football in recent years.

A new study explains why whiskey tastes better when it is diluted with water.

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient trade network crisscrossing Vietnam's Mekong Delta region.

Researchers have found that women who have hypertension during pregnancy have an increased risk of heart disease and hypertension later in life.

Actors Sarah Hyland and Dominic Sherwood have ended their relationship after about two years of dating.

Singer Trey Songz pleaded guilty to a pair of misdemeanors following a clash with police after a concert in Detroit.

New research suggests parents who want their kids to pick up on a story's moral lessons should choose books featuring humans, not animals.

A new study by the University of Michigan finds that parents are divided in support of delays to school start times that would allow teens to get more sleep.

Mr. Bannon, President Trump’s chief strategist, had clashed for months with other senior West Wing advisers and members of the president’s family.

Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump's outgoing chief strategist, has been criticized as being emblematic of the far-right nationalism that turned violent in Virginia last weekend.

A comeback of its onetime chairman could help reanimate the website as a gathering spot for President Trump’s most ardent populist supporters.

Naming Stephen K. Bannon the campaign’s chief executive completed a merger between the most strident elements of the conservative news media and Mr. Trump’s campaign.

The right-wing opinion and news site championed Donald J. Trump; its chairman, who helped run the campaign, was named chief White House strategist and senior counselor.

Friday: Preparing for the eclipse, a three-hour commute from Stockton to San Francisco, and a look back at California’s orange heritage.

The president spent Thursday evening with some of his wealthiest supporters, trying to regain momentum after criticism over his response to violence in Charlottesville, Va.

The billionaire investor’s views on environmental regulations had raised criticism from Democratic lawmakers.

In a Facebook post, Mitt Romney urged President Trump to repudiate racists and admit they were “100% to blame” for the violence in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend.

As cities and states remove Confederate monuments, leaders in the art world urge more dialogue and deliberation.

On Monday, Aug. 21, the event that millions have anticipated will unfold when the moon passes directly in front of the sun.

Following the formation of Harvey, two additional tropical systems may form across the Atlantic Basin with one potentially impacting the U.S.

After drenching the Windward Islands, Harvey is set to track toward Central America and may bring dangerous conditions early next week.

Devastating flooding and mudslides struck the west African country of Sierra Leone, while tropical activity was abundant in the Atlantic.

Many photographers agree: You probably will not fry your phone if you point it to the sky on Aug. 21 for a moment or two, but you may not get a quality image either.

The central United States will be the focal point for severe thunderstorms once again to end the week.

The same storm responsible for severe weather in the central United States on Thursday will swing into the Northeast on Friday.

As sea levels around the world continue to rise, countries continue to explore new and innovative techniques to protect infrastructure and coastal communities.

A storm system will continue its trek eastward and raise the risk of severe thunderstorms in the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley Thursday afternoon and evening.

The legacy of 1992's Hurricane Andrew, the most recent Category 5 storm to devastate the United States, serves as a stark reminder of nature's capability to destroy and forever change lives.