(Reuters) - A poet whose work explores the casual racism in the United States toward African-Americans is among the 23 winners of $625,000 "genius grants," the U.S. organization awarding them said on Thursday.

LONDON, Sept 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The United States unveiled plans on Thursday to ramp up efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM) after figures showed more than half of million women and girls were living at risk.

BEIJING, Sept 22 (Reuters) - China has conditionally lifted an import ban on some shipments of U.S. boneless beef and beef on the bone, the agriculture ministry and quality watchdog said on Thursday.

MILAN (Reuters) - A kaleidoscopic fairytale by Gucci and Fay's military-inspired looks opened Milan's womenswear fashion show on Wednesday with a display of clothing and accessories for spring and summer 2017.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's national election board on Wednesday dashed opposition hopes of holding a referendum this year to remove unpopular socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A "superstar" medical student at Stanford University was killed after plunging down a steep slope while climbing a nearly 14,000-foot (4,267-meter) California mountain peak, police and the university said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One person has died of a gunshot wound in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday during protests against the killing of a black man by police, the city's police chief said.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - In her first address to the U.N. General Assembly as national leader, Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi defended her government's efforts to resolve a crisis over treatment of the country's Muslim minority.

(Reuters) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday proposed listing the rusty patched bumble bee, a prized but vanishing pollinator once widely found in the upper Midwest and Northeastern United States, for federal protection as an endangered species.