Nation/World

Uganda explicitly bars government officials from accepting gifts of any kind from cigarette-makers. French and British officials must publicly announce any encounters with representatives of the industry. Thailand and the Philippines won't even let officials take a meeting except under the narrowest of circumstances.

These are some of the measures deployed by countries around the world to limit influence over their anti-smoking policies, according to the first-ever Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index.

October marks the start of a new flu season, with a rise in likely cases already showing up in Louisiana and other spots, federal statistics show.

The advice from federal health officials remains clear and consistent: Get the flu vaccine as soon as possible, especially if you're pregnant or have asthma or another underlying condition that makes you more likely to catch a bad case.

The last time Samya Stumo's family heard from her, she had sent a text letting them know she was about to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. She would write again when she got there, she promised.

But the 24-year-old from western Massachusetts was among 157 people who were killed when the flight crashed last March.

For her family, it was the start of a painful, grief-choked odyssey that has turned them and dozens of other families into reluctant activists, taking on federal regulators and Boeing over the crashes of two 737 Max airplanes.

In France, McDonald's is often a symbol of everything that's despised about American capitalism and fast-food culture. One Paris neighborhood battled for years to keep the golden arches from settling in between its traditional butchers and bakers (it eventually lost). And the actions of an anti-globalization farmer named José Bové, who tried to dismantle a McDonald's 20 years ago, are legendary.

But for the last year, a group of McDonald's employees in the southern French city of Marseille has been fighting to save its McDonald's restaurant.

The U.S. ambassador to China is pushing back against Beijing's criticism of a new State Department requirement that Chinese diplomats must report certain meetings they have in the U.S.

The State Department announced Wednesday that it is requiring all Chinese diplomats in the U.S. to notify them of meetings they plan to have with local and state officials as well as educational and research institutions. However, there is no penalty associated yet with failing to report such meetings.

President Trump's acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, on Sunday again tried to control the damage from his earlier acknowledgment that the White House used nearly $400 million in aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate the 2016 presidential election.

Since Mulvaney made the stunning admission on Thursday, he has been walking the remarks back and assigning responsibility to the media, insisting that his words have been misconstrued.

Updated at 4:02 p.m. ET

An early morning training exercise gone wrong resulted in the deaths of three U.S. Army soldiers and injured three more at Fort Stewart, in Georgia, on Sunday, according to Fort Stewart officials.

The soldiers were riding a Bradley Fighting Vehicle when around 3:20 a.m., it flipped over and rolled into water, a news release from Fort Stewart said.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper traveled to Afghanistan on Saturday in an effort to restart peace talks with the Taliban after President Trump scrapped plans for negotiations at Camp David last month.

The 12,000-year-old Hambach Forest in western Germany is under threat. The country's biggest power company, RWE, has been clearing the ancient natural resource to make room for coal mining. Currently, there is only 10% left of the forest's original 13,500 acres.

Hoping to halt the decimation, environmental activists have been squatting in the forest since 2012.

A brainless, bright-yellow organism that can solve mazes and heal itself is making its debut at a Paris zoo this weekend.

At least so far, "the blob" is more benevolent than the ravenous star of its 1950s sci-fi film classic namesake.

On-air challenge: Every answer today is something you see in a hotel room — always, or at least often. Name these things from their anagrams, minus one letter.

Example: BOXER – X --> ROBE

1. DEBT – T

2. MAPLE – E

3. OPALS – L

4. FEAST – T

5. ROBIN – B

6. ACHIER – E

7. LOWEST – S

8. NIBBLE – N

9. HOWLERS – L

10. MIDBRAIN – D

11. TEAMSTERS – E

12. LONGEVITIES – G

The nation's response to the deadly opioid epidemic has been broadly bipartisan, but deep divides have emerged over a settlement plan offered last month by Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin.

Democratic state attorneys general have generally panned the deal, which would force Purdue's owners, member of the Sackler family, to give up control of their company while paying roughly $3 billion in cash from their personal fortunes.