SANTIAGO, Cuba — Pope Francis wraps up his visit to Cuba on Tuesday with an open-air Mass at the country's most revered shrine before heading to the U.S. for a grueling, three-city visit.

UNITED STATES-CUBA

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration may allow the U.N. to condemn America's economic embargo against Cuba without a fight, The Associated Press has learned, an unprecedented step that could increase pressure on Congress to end the 54-year-old restrictions.

POPE-FAMILY REUNION

HOLGUIN, Cuba — Cuban families know how ideology can divide. Olga Maria Saladrigas' family left the island after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. Her cousin's family backed the new regime and stayed. The two women grew up with only a handful of memories of each other.

POPE-CUBA DISSIDENTS

SANTIAGO, Cuba — Security is tight around Pope Francis after a Cuban dissident got close enough to touch the popemobile and at least three other opposition members were thwarted trying to accept Vatican invitations to greet the pontiff at ceremonies in Havana.

POPE-CONGRESS

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner has been trying for 20 years to get a pope to come talk to Congress. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says it's "thrilling beyond words." This week's historic address by Pope Francis to a joint meeting of Congress has lawmakers of all political affiliations and religious backgrounds buzzing. For the many Catholic lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including Republican Boehner and Democrat Pelosi, the occasion carries special significance, even as they brace for the unconventional pontiff to make both parties squirm with his focus on hot-button political and social issues.

POPE-US-AMERICAN CHURCH

NEW YORK — Pope Francis will arrive in the United States to find a Catholic church playing a prominent role in American life, with a vast network of charities and an infusion of energy from a fast-growing Latino population. At the same time, the church is struggling to find its footing a few months after gay marriage became legal and as more people leave organized religion behind.

UNITED STATES-AFGHANISTAN-CHILD ABUSE

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon and the White House condemn reports that Afghan forces who worked with U.S. military personnel sexually assaulted boys, and members of Congress complain about a U.S. soldier being forced out of the military because he intervened in 2011, attacking an Afghan police commander he believed was raping a child.

DINING WITH FRENEMIES

WASHINGTON — It's never good when tension is on the dinner menu. When Chinese President Xi Jinping and wife Peng Liyuan visit Washington later this week, President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, face the daunting task of trying to throw a warm and inviting dinner party for guests of honor accused of cyberspying on the U.S., trampling human rights and engaging in assertive military tactics.

PRESIDENTIAL RACE-CARSON-MUSLIMS

WASHINGTON — Republican White House contender Ben Carson shakes off growing criticism and refuses to back off his weekend charge that a Muslim shouldn't be elected as U.S. president.

PRESIDENTIAL RACE-WALKER

MADISON, Wisconsin — Warning the Republican presidential race has become too nasty, Scott Walker suspends his 2016 campaign and calls on some of his Republican rivals to do the same, citing an urgent need to "clear the field" to help defeat front-runner Donald Trump.

PRESIDENTIAL RACE-SANDERS-STYLE

WEST BURLINGTON, Iowa — Bernie Sanders doesn't kiss babies. He promises them a revolution. "This is for you," the upstart Democratic presidential candidate told 3-month-old Lily Landretti after an event in southeastern Iowa. He meant his insurgent campaign. Lily just kept gurgling. In an age of carefully planned campaigns, the Vermont senator is different. A self-identified grump, Sanders gets angry, rolls up his sleeves and winds up drenched in sweat. Like Donald Trump in the Republican race, Sanders has been drawing big crowds and giving the buttoned-up candidates a run for their money.

SYRIA-COMING TO AMERICA

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey — Hussam Al Roustom and his wife didn't tell anyone before they and their two small children left Syria, fearing their plans for escape could fall apart. Leaving their homeland had never been part of the picture. Al Roustom had a supermarket and owned their home in the western Syria city of Homs. But a civil war that started with unrest in 2011 had taken its toll, especially on his son Wesam, already dealing with autism and so traumatized by the barrage of violence that he stopped speaking entirely.

WHITE HOUSE-BORDER CROSSINGS

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Border Patrol arrested nearly 10,000 unaccompanied immigrant children and families caught illegally crossing the border with Mexico in August, a 52 percent jump from August 2014, according to statistics published by the agency Monday afternoon.

COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA

QUITO, Ecuador — Colombia and Venezuela agree to redeploy ambassadors who were withdrawn in a month-old dispute that has paralyzed trade and movement along their border.

SALMONELLA OUTBREAK-SENTENCING

ALBANY, Georgia — A former peanut company executive is sentenced to 28 years in prison for his role in a deadly salmonella outbreak, the stiffest punishment ever handed out to a producer in a foodborne illness case.

MYSTERY OF BABY DOE

BOSTON — In her short, tumultuous life, Bella Bond loved cats, dancing to country music and the color green. Those were but brief flashes of happiness in a life marked by neglect, abuse and a horrible ending, according to descriptions given by a prosecutor in court Monday, as Bella's mother and her boyfriend were arraigned on charges in connection with her death.

SALMONELLA OUTBREAK SENTENCING

ALBANY, Georgia — A former peanut company executive is sentenced to 28 years in prison for his role in a deadly salmonella outbreak, the stiffest punishment ever handed out to a producer in a foodborne illness case.

VOLKSWAGEN-EMISSIONS SCHEME

DETROIT — Volkswagen became the world's top-selling carmaker trumpeting the environmental friendliness, fuel efficiency and high performance of diesel-powered vehicles that met America's tough Clean Air laws. VW's success story was so good that pollution-control advocates did their own tests, hoping to persuade other countries to enforce the same strict standards. Instead, they got a foul-smelling surprise: In actual driving, the VWs spewed as much as 40 times more pollution from tailpipes than allowed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

APPLE CAR

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is speeding up work on a project that could lead to the California tech giant building its own electric car, according to a new report.

EMMYS

HBO claimed the hardware at the annual Emmy Awards. Viola Davis, Jon Hamm and Tracy Morgan captured the hearts. In the 67th edition of the television awards show Sunday, Davis became the first woman of color to win best actress in a drama series. Hamm was a sentimental favorite for winning best actor in his last chance with "Mad Men," and Morgan was an emotional surprise in appearing onstage following his traumatic brain injury in an auto accident last year. 

TV-JERRY SPRINGER

STAMFORD, Connecticut — As his talk show celebrates its silver anniversary on Monday, Jerry Springer knows better than to wheel a cake onstage with him. No sense tempting fate. He didn't anticipate he'd be fighting back tears as he addressed his audience.