VATICAN CITY - Marking Christianity's most hopeful day, Pope Francis made an Easter Sunday plea for peace and dialogue in Ukraine and Syria, for an end to terrorist attacks against Christians in Nigeria and for more attention to the hungry and neediest close to home.

CHICAGO – Gov. Pat Quinn promised tighter controls Saturday after a review found that the Illinois Medicaid program paid an estimated $12 million for medical services for people who had already died.

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Ed Peters hadn’t worked this hard since boot camp. That was 1967.

KATMANDU, Nepal – The rescuers moved quickly, just minutes after the first block of ice tore loose from Mount Everest and started an avalanche that roared down the mountain, ripping through teams of guides hauling gear.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis baptized 10 people Saturday and urged them to bring their faith “to the ends of the Earth” as he presided over an Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica.

PARIS – Ten months after their capture in Syria, four French journalists crossed the border into neighboring Turkey and reached freedom Saturday, though dozens more remain held in the country's chaotic civil war.

MOKPO, South Korea – After more than three days of frustration and failure, divers Sunday finally found a way into a submerged ferry off South Korea’s southern shore, discovering more than a dozen bodies inside the ship and pushing the confirmed death toll to 49, officials said.

PERTH, Australia – A robotic submarine looking for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet is expected to finish searching a patch of the Indian Ocean seabed within a week after so far coming up empty, and the search area may be expanded after that, officials said Saturday.

LAGOS, Nigeria – Islamic extremists Saturday claimed responsibility for the massive rush-hour explosion earlier this week that ripped through a busy bus station in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, killing at least 75 people and wounding 141.

WASHINGTON – As President Barack Obama travels through Asia this coming week, he will confront a region that’s warily watching the crisis in Ukraine through the prism of its own territorial tensions with China.

DETROIT – General Motors waited years to recall nearly 335,000 Saturn Ions for power steering failures despite getting thousands of consumer complaints and more than 30,000 warranty repair claims, according to government documents released Saturday.

PEKIN – A central Illinois county is reminding residents about a new ordinance that requires property owners to post reflective house numbers so first responders can find them in an emergency.

CHICAGO – Some of the police officers who have been patrolling Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods on foot are getting bicycles.

CHICAGO – A jury has awarded $14 million to a suburban Chicago woman who sued her doctor over a debilitating stroke she suffered after taking the birth control drug Yasmin.

DENVER – The U.S. energy boom is blurring the traditional political battle lines across the country.