Associated Press stories, Page 2489

BAGHOUZ, Syria — U.S.-backed Syrian fighters said Thursday a “large number” of Islamic State militants and their families are surrendering a day after intense fighting in the last speck of land the extremists still hold in eastern Syria. At the edge of Baghouz, the village where the militants are still...

HARTFORD, Conn. — A divided Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled gun maker Remington can be sued over how it marketed the Bushmaster rifle used to kill 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Justices issued a 4-3 ruling that reinstated a wrongful death lawsuit and...

NEWARK, N.J. — The husband of one of the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” reality TV stars has been released from federal prison and is waiting to see if he’ll be deported back to Italy. An attorney for Joe Giudice says he’s been sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement...

BRYANT POND, Maine (AP) — Fox News host Tucker Carlson said he’s scuttling plans for a TV studio near his vacation home in rural Maine because of publicity. Carlson planned to buy an old town garage and transform it into a studio under a deal that called for him to...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Three Norwegian lawmakers have nominated Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg, who has become a prominent voice in campaigns against climate change, for the Nobel Peace Prize. Freddy Andre Oevstegaard and two other members of the Socialist Left Party said they believe “the massive movement Greta has set...

CHICAGO — “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has pleaded not guilty to the charges accusing him of lying to police about being attacked in downtown Chicago a few weeks ago. The 36-year-old actor’s lawyer, Tina Glandian, entered the plea Thursday on Smollett’s behalf after Judge Steven Watkins was assigned to oversee...

READING — Prosecutors have announced the federal indictment of eight alleged members of a violent drug organization blamed for as many as eight homicides in one Pennsylvania community. U.S. Attorney William McSwain says a drug gang called “Trinidad DTG” distributed methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and cocaine in the Reading area. McSwain...

NEW YORK — New York Police Department’s hate crimes unit is investigating after a poster of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was defaced with a swastika and an anti-Semitic insult. WNBC says a straphanger tweeted a photo of the defaced poster on a Brooklyn subway platform to the Metropolitan...

BILLINGS, Mont. — Gray wolves in the U.S. would be stripped of federal protection and subjected to hunting and trapping in more states under a proposal released Thursday that declares the predators recovered following a decades-long restoration effort. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to revoke the wolves’ endangered...

The mastermind of a wide-ranging college admissions scandal set up a charity that wove a deep web of deception and fraud to mask bribes and payoffs, funneling millions of dollars through the tax-exempt organization under the nose of U.S. officials, according to prosecutors and tax documents reviewed by The Associated...

WASHINGTON — The Republican-led Senate is set to deal President Donald Trump a rebuke on his declaration of a national emergency at the Mexican border, with the only remaining question how many GOP senators will join Democrats in defying him. Republicans are predicting that Thursday’s showdown vote will result in...

LONGMONT, Colo. — National Guard troops were using specialized vehicles with tank-like treads to rescue stranded drivers in Colorado in the wake of a massive late-winter storm that was expected to unleash heavy rain and snow on the Midwest plains on Thursday. Wednesday’s blizzard caused widespread power outages, forced the...

PHOENIX — Two years after New Mexico’s largest county barred local law enforcement from cooperating with immigration authorities, its leaders learned that the policy was being subverted from within. Staff members at the Bernalillo County jail in Albuquerque were still granting immigration authorities access to its database and, in some...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — West Virginia held on to beat Oklahoma, 72-71, in the Big 12 Tournament on Wednesday night when the Sooners’ Christian James, who appeared to knock down a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to force overtime, was ruled to have had his foot on the line. The officials overturned their...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The pop star Pink added another member to her family this week when she adopted a puppy while in Tennessee on her “Beautiful Trauma” tour. The Tennessean reports the pup has been named Nash, which the star says is short for Nashville. Pink posted a photo on...

SAN FRANCISCO — Two college students have filed a lawsuit against the University of Southern California, Yale University and other colleges where prosecutors have accused rich and famous parents paying bribes to ensure their children’s admission. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco and alleges the...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia’s government backtracked Wednesday on abolishing capital punishment, saying instead that the death penalty would no longer be mandatory for selected offenses. Rights groups slammed the reversal and urged it to reconsider. Deputy Law Minister Hanipa Maidin made the announcement in parliament but didn’t give any...

HARRISBURG — Four Democrats and three Republicans have filed petitions to get on primary ballots for a seat on Pennsylvania’s mid-level appellate court that handles civil and criminal appeals from county courts. Filings were due Tuesday for the May 21 primary for two open Superior Court seats. Democrats filing include...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A federal judge, citing an “unprecedented measles outbreak” in suburban Rockland County, New York, has denied a request to let 44 unvaccinated children return to school. Parents of students in the Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge have sued the county health department. They say...

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns returned as an expansion team in 1999. They became a real one Tuesday night. It only took 20 mostly tortuous years — and one tremendous trade. With a shocking, blockbuster deal for superstar wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., the Browns flipped the NFL on its...

The company that has made billions selling the prescription painkiller OxyContin said Wednesday that it is considering legal options including bankruptcy, a move that could upend hundreds of lawsuits claiming it had a major role in causing the U.S. opioid drug crisis. “As the company has stated, it is exploring...

LONDON — British lawmakers have gone on record saying they don’t want the U.K. to leave the European Union without a divorce agreement in place, increasing the odds that Brexit won’t take place as planned at the end of the month. With an approaching deadline intensifying fears that economic and...

LOS ANGELES — Colleges and companies moved swiftly to distance themselves from employees swept up in a nationwide college admissions scheme, many of them coaches accused of taking bribes and others prominent parents accused of angling to get their children into top schools by portraying them as recruited athletes. That...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas lawmakers have sent the governor legislation banning most abortions 18 weeks into a woman’s pregnancy, a prohibition that could be the strictest in the country. The House on Wednesday gave final approval by an 86-1 vote to the bill, which Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson has...