The number of refugees entering the US dramatically fell in the past several months even as President Donald Trump's executive orders banning entry from certain Muslim-majority countries has been blocked in court.

Last October, a reported 9,945 refugees arrived in the US, but that figure steadily declined to just 2,070 in March, a six-year low, according to data released by the Refugee Processing Center (RPC).

RPC did record a slight uptick last month, however, with 3,316 refugees coming in.

On May 6, 2016, Stephen Mader was the first police officer to respond to a 911 call about a man who was threatening to kill himself.

When Mader arrived at the home of Ronald J. Williams, he found the distressed man outside with his hands behind his back. Williams' girlfriend had called for help because he was threatening to hurt himself with a knife.

After several orders from Mader, Williams showed his hands, and he was holding a gun.

He said to Mader repeatedly, "Just shoot me."

Mader kept replying calmly, "I'm not going to shoot you. Just put the gun down."

Williams appeared to be choked up. Mader - who served as a U.S. Marine in Afghanistan - did not feel Williams was dangerous to anyone but himself. It appeared the emotionally distressed man was attempting to commit "suicide by cop."

Carlos Gil is a "payer-off of promises," at least that is the way the Roman Catholic refers to himself, but he is more commonly known as a "rent-a-pilgrim". The 52-year-old Portuguese national takes on pilgrimages by proxy -- in the name of others -- especially Catholics unable because of sickness to undertake the journey or too busy or lazy for the week-long spiritual walk to the central Portuguese town of Fatima.

He can be hired for 2,500 euros ($2,700). Gil is one of the nearly one million Catholics who will descend at the weekend upon the town where three child shepherds reported visions of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago.

Two of the children will be declared saints on May 13 during a visit by Pope Francis. But Gil almost certainly will be the only pilgrim to make the trip on foot and invoice his walk.

"It's not about making money but being in the service of others," he told AFP in an interview at his home before setting off. "It's a deal we strike with God".

The 2,500-euro price is a fixed rate -- the lighting of a candle costs an additional 25 euros, while asking him to recite the rosary is another 250 euros.

The rate also goes up if the client wants Gil to shuffle the last 400 metres (quarter of a mile) on his knees, from the shrine's public square to the chapel where the visions are said to have taken place in 1917.

A pilgrimage, made for oneself or others, can be for various reasons: to fulfil a promise to God, as a request for healing, a baby or professional success, to give thanks when a request has been granted or to atone for sins.

"For me, it's a passion. I am Catholic, but if I had been born in Saudi Arabia, I would be Muslim and would make pilgrimages to Mecca," Gil said.

Staff in hand, backpack on his shoulders, Gil leaves his small white villa near the coastal town of Cascais, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the capital Lisbon. It is 7:30 am and raining but Gil wants to make it in enough time to see the pontiff, after seeing Pope Benedict XVI in Fatima in 2010.

Gil's sister Maria Jose, 50, will walk with him.

Russian center for Syrian reconciliation said that more than 800 residents of Syria's Aleppo received humanitarian assistance from Russia in the past 24 hours.

More than 800 residents of Syria's Aleppo received humanitarian assistance from Russia in the past 24 hours, the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation said in its daily bulletin on Thursday.

It is hard to believe that Baltimore was once one of the greatest cities in the entire world. Unlike nearby Washington D.C., Baltimore is a blue collar city that is home to some of the hardest working people in America. When I was in high school, my brother and I were huge fans of the Baltimore Orioles, and once in a while our parents would drive us from our home in Virginia all the way up to Baltimore to see them play. As an adult, I spent a number of years living near D.C., and I would take frequent trips up to Baltimore. To say that the city is in a state of decline would be a major understatement. Everywhere you look there are abandoned buildings and homes, and as you drive through some of the worst areas you can actually see drug addicts just lying in the streets. Just like so many other communities all over this country, decades of liberal policies have taken a brutal toll, and now the city is just a rotting, decaying shell of the glorious metropolis that it once was.

There are some sections of Baltimore that you simply do not go into once the sun goes down. And actually it isn't a very good idea to go into those areas during the day either. The crime in the city has gotten so bad that authorities have actually formally requested help from the federal government...

According to World Health Organization, a recent cholera outbreak in Yemen has claimed the lives of 51 people across the country over the past two weeks.

A recent cholera outbreak in Yemen has claimed the lives of 51 people across the country over the past two weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday.

The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has criticized internet giant Yahoo for not helping to investigate security breaches in 2013 and 2014 which compromised sensitive information from more than 1 billion accounts.

Yahoo "clearly failed to adequately protect itself against cyberattacks, as well as to secure its users' data, as one would expect from an IT company," BSI President Arne Schoenbohm said in a statement on Thursday.

Last year, Yahoo disclosed a massive data breach of 1 billion accounts in 2013. It came just months after the company revealed that information from 500 million users, including names, telephone numbers, passwords, and birth dates, was compromised in 2014.

According to the BSI, it reached out to the online giant for information to investigate the cases, yet Yahoo proved to be uncooperative.

Governor Phil Scott is expected to sign a bill that would make Vermont the first US state to legalize marijuana for recreational use through legislation, rather than a voter initiative. Scott indicated he had concerns about the bill but is "not opposed."

The legislation was approved by a 79-66 vote on Wednesday and would eliminate penalties for adults 21 years and older, allowing them to possess one ounce or less of the drug beginning in 2018, according to WPTZ.

It also allows for adults 21 years and older to have up to two mature marijuana plants and four immature plants, according to the proposed measure.

However, public consumption and private sales would remain against the law.

The bill was identical to one passed by the Senate that also set up a commission to study the best way to regulate and tax marijuana.

In campus clashes from California to Vermont, many defenders of the First Amendment say they see signs that free speech, once a bedrock value in academia, is losing ground as a priority at U.S. colleges.

As protests have derailed speeches by controversial figures, including an event with Ann Coulter last month at the University of California, Berkeley, some fear students have come to see the right to free expression less as an enshrined measure of protection for all voices and more as a political weapon used against them by provocateurs.

"I think minority groups and those who feel alienated are especially skeptical about free speech these days," said Jeffrey Herbst, leader of the Newseum, a Washington group that defends the First Amendment. "But the powerful can get their message across any number of ways. It's those who feel powerless or alienated who really benefit from enshrined rights."

A new survey conducted by polling firm Nielsen Scarborough has produced some interesting and perhaps unexpected results that are sure to cause worry among the U.S.' powerful Israel lobby.

The results showed that 40 percent of respondents support imposing sanctions or taking more serious action against Israel's government for its continued construction of illegal Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land. Among Democrats who were polled, 56 percent supported sanctions against Tel Aviv.

The survey, commissioned by professors Shibley Telhami and Stella Rouse at the University of Maryland, asked over 2,000 participants about their views on major foreign affairs issues, including Israel's occupation of Palestine. In addition to covering opinions on possible sanctions targeting Israel, some of the poll's other results indicate that opposition to the U.S.' historic support for Israel is growing.