World

Twitter officially launched the “Mute” feature on Monday, a function that allows users to hide other accounts’ tweets from their timelines and silence push notifications without unfollowing or blocking. The social network had apparently been testing the mute feature for at least a few weeks before rolling it out for all users, The Washington Post reported.

A new documentary, Fed Up, produced by bookseller Heather Reisman and environmentalist Laurie David, who wrote An Inconvenient Truth, takes aim at the food industry, and levels much of the blame for the dramatic increase we have seen in the spread of obesity, which the World Health Organization (WHO) says has doubled since 1980.

BAUCHI, Nigeria — One of the teenagers who escaped from Islamic extremists who abducted more than 300 schoolgirls says the kidnapping was “too terrifying for words,” and she is scared to go back to school. Sarah Lawan, a 19-year-old science student, spoke Sunday as Nigerians prayed for the safety of the 276 students still held captive. Their prayers were joined …

Nearly 90% of voters in the Donetsk region voted in favor of independence from Ukraine, and 10% voted against it, an election official claimed Monday. Pro-Russian separatists eager to declare independence from Kiev held the vote Sunday.

Singer Alicia Keys has been named the new face of a Givenchy fragrance. Alicia Keys has just taken her first step into the beauty industry by landing a contract to represent Parfums Givenchy. According to WWD, the singer will appear in promotional ads for the brand’s next fragrance later on this year.

Health officials say the long, tough winter did nothing to stifle the tick population in the Northeast. They say ticks are primed to increase in population and continue to spread Lyme Disease. Last year, Lyme disease cases reached nearly 1,400 in Maine, the highest number since the state started tracking the cases. Officials say the number of Lyme disease cases …

California Highway Patrol officers rescued a Chihuahua stuck on the center divider of a Northern California freeway. The rescue occurred Friday on Interstate 680 in Walnut Creek during rush hour.

The Iraqi army, backed by the air force, carried out two operations targeting militants in Anbar province, the Baghdad military operations command said Thursday (May 8th).

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel says he’s open to reviewing the military’s ban on transgender service members. In an interview with ABC News, Hagel said while the issue is more complicated than allowing gays in the military because it requires medical support, the policies “continually should be reviewed.”

Five people were killed Sunday, May 11, in Hesperia when a van hit a Honda that was stopped at a stop sign, overturned and came to a rest upside-down on top of the Honda. The crash was reported at 6:55 a.m. at Main Street and Balsam Avenue. The van was headed east on Main Street when, for an unknown reason, …

On Monday, May 5, wife and mother Jenna Hinman from upstate New York died at the age of just 26 years old. She had been diagnosed with a rare placental cancer but was still able to give birth to her twin girls, Kinleigh and Azlynn on March 3. The baby girls were delivered nine weeks early by an emergency C-section …