Associated Press stories, Page 2193

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf returned Thursday to the United States after a previously undisclosed trip to Israel that his office said mixed personal travel with state business. Wolf’s spokesman said the governor and his wife, first lady Frances Wolf, spent three days at the end of their trip...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — No. 12 West Virginia’s opponents don’t have to dribble the ball past midcourt to the point of exhaustion anymore. But it comes at a cost. In abandoning a suffocating full-court pressure defense from past seasons, the Mountaineers have doubled down on an even-greater priority: keeping teams out...

Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street, pushing major indexes to new record highs. A batch of solid economic data injected more optimism into markets Thursday, a day after the U.S. and China signed an initial trade deal. Technology companies including Microsoft led the gains. Morgan Stanley rose sharply after...

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin on Thursday fast-tracked work on constitutional changes that could keep him in power well past the end of his term in 2024 while lawmakers quickly sealed his choice for new prime minister. Speaking to a working group created to draft constitutional changes, Putin cast his...

KYIV, Ukraine — Police in Ukraine are investigating whether the U.S. ambassador came under illegal surveillance by an unknown party before the Trump administration recalled her from Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday. The announcement came two days after Democratic lawmakers in the United States released documents and text messages that...

President Donald Trump took steps Thursday to give religious organizations easier access to federal programs and reaffirmed students’ rights to pray in public schools. Under orders from Trump, nine Cabinet departments proposed rules intended to remove “regulatory burdens” on religious organizations participating in federal programs by eliminating a requirement that...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A convicted sex offender has been charged in connection with the disappearance of an Alabama woman whose body was found in a shallow grave weeks after she texted a friend she was “in trouble.” The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office charged Fredrick Hampton, 50, on Thursday with abuse...

MILWAUKEE — Federal prosecutors have charged 37 people accused of sending cocaine and other drugs from Puerto Rico to Wisconsin and elsewhere in the country using the U.S. Postal Service, authorities said Thursday. The United States Attorney’s Office in Eastern Wisconsin said the drugs were sold in the state, as...

NEW YORK — Carlos Beltran is out as manager of the New York Mets before a single game, the latest fallout from the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal that has rocked MLB. The Mets announced the decision Thursday in a news release, saying Beltran and the team “agreed to mutually part...

WASHINGTON — The FBI, in a change of policy, is committing to inform state officials if local election systems have been breached, federal officials told The Associated Press. In the past, the FBI would alert local governments about attacks on their electoral systems without automatically sharing that information with the...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — FBI agents on Thursday arrested a former Canadian Armed Forces reservist and two other men who are linked to a violent white supremacist group and were believed to be heading to a pro-gun rally next week in Virginia’s capital. The three men are members of The...

A government committee asked to review U.S. approval of new passenger planes after two deadly crashes involving the Boeing 737 Max has found that the system is safe and effective but could be improved. The committee differed sharply with legislators who are investigating Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration, which...

Microsoft is pledging to become 100% “carbon-negative” by 2030 by removing more carbon from the environment than it emits. CEO Satya Nadella said Thursday that the commitment will happen “not just across our direct emissions, but across our supply chain, too.” It’s a major step up from Microsoft’s previous green...

MOSCOW — Mikhail Mishustin never had any political ambitions as a career bureaucrat and his name didn’t come up as a top candidate to become Russia’s next prime minister. But the 53-year-old Mishustin, the longtime chief of Russia’s tax service, was tapped for the post by President Vladimir Putin. The...

NEW YORK — The nation’s largest retail trade group says holiday sales increased 4.1%, the top end of its forecast. The National Retail Federation had expected growth in a range of 3.8% to 4.2% for the November and December period. The growth is nearly double the 2.1% growth seen during...

LONDON — The governments of five countries that lost citizens when Iran shot down a Ukrainian airliner demanded Thursday that Tehran accept “full responsibility” and pay compensation to the victims’ families — though they had little to offer besides moral pressure to get Iran to comply. After a meeting in...

ABILENE, Texas — A recently suspended Texas high school student stabbed two of his classmates Thursday morning before fleeing campus, officials said. Police arrested the student about 30 minutes after the 8 a.m. attack at Abilene High School, police spokesman Rick Tomlin told KTXS-TV. Medics took both victims to a...

Today she travels the world, attends a red-carpet movie premiere and sits on panels with astronauts, former presidents and feminist icons. But in the years after 9/11, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh was just a New Jersey teenager, writing a blog from her bedroom. She used the blog to connect with other young...

PANAMA CITY — Prosecutors in Panama said Thursday they have found the corpses of six children and one adult in a clandestine burial pit where a religious sect was found torturing indigenous people in exorcism rituals. Prosecutors said the dead minors found in the pit ranged in age from one...

WASHINGTON — The White House violated federal law in withholding security assistance to Ukraine, an action at the center of President Donald Trump’s impeachment, a federal watchdog agency said Thursday. The Government Accountability Office said in a report that the Office of Management and Budget violated the law in holding...

NEW YORK — Grammy-nominated pop singer Demi Lovato will perform the national anthem at the Super Bowl. NFL and Fox on Thursday announced the performance, which will take place ahead of the big game on Feb. 2 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. Jennifer Lopez and Shakira will headline the...