National News

UNITED NATIONS -- North Korea's top diplomat said Monday a weekend tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump was a "declaration of war," and North Korea has the right to retaliate by shooting down U.S. bombers, even in international airspace. It was the latest escalation in a week of undiplomatic exchanges between North Korea and the U.S. during the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting...

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration spent months hashing out new travel restrictions on more than a half-dozen countries, determined to avoid the chaos that accompanied President Donald Trump's first travel ban. But critics said it's a mystery why some countries are included, and they believe Venezuela and North Korea were added to provide legal and political cover for what they said remains a "Muslim ban."...

WASHINGTON -- The last-gasp Republican drive to tear down President Barack Obama's health-care law essentially died Monday as Maine Sen. Susan Collins joined a small but decisive cluster of GOP senators in opposing the push. The Maine moderate said in a statement the legislation would make "devastating" cuts in the Medicaid program for poor and disabled people, drive up premiums for millions and weaken protections Obama's law gives people with pre-existing medical conditions...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Every night since Hurricane Maria hit, Miguel Martinez and his family have slept on mattresses on the porch to escape the heat inside their dark, stifling home. But it's nearly impossible to sleep with temperatures in the high 70s...

MEXICO CITY -- As many as 360 buildings and homes are in danger of collapse or with major damage in Mexico City nearly a week after a magnitude-7.1 earthquake collapsed 38 structures. The risk of delayed collapse is real: The cupola of Our Lady of Angels Church, damaged and cracked by the Sept. 19 quake, split in half and crashed to the ground Sunday evening. There were no injuries...

LOS ANGELES -- A future cup of coffee in California could give you jitters before you take a sip. A not-for-profit group wants coffee manufacturers, distributors and retailers to post warnings about a cancer-causing chemical stewing in every brew and has been presenting evidence in a Los Angeles courtroom to make its case...

WASHINGTON -- Violent crime in America rose in 2016 for the second consecutive year, driven by an increase in killings in some major cities, but it remained near historically low levels, according to FBI data released Monday. The Trump administration seized on the figures as proof the nation is in the midst of a dangerous crime wave that warrants a return to tougher tactics such as more arrests and harsher punishments for drug criminals...

WASHINGTON -- The White House and congressional Republicans are finalizing a tax plan that would slash the corporate rate while likely reducing the levy for the wealthiest Americans, with President Donald Trump ready to roll out the policy proposal at midweek...

NEW YORK -- Anthony Weiner's sexting compulsion cost him his seat in Congress, his shot at becoming New York mayor and his marriage and may have denied Hillary Clinton the presidency. On Monday, it cost him his freedom. Weiner, 53, dropped his head into his hands and wept as a federal judge sentenced him to 21 months behind bars for illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl, his tears flowing long after the gavel came down on a case he called his "rock bottom."...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A man charged in a mass shooting at a Tennessee church expressed suicidal thoughts in June and had a volatile relationship with a woman that twice involved law enforcement this year, according to police records. Emanuel Kidega Samson, 25, is charged with the fatal shooting of one woman and is expected to face several more charges after a rampage that left six others wounded Sunday...

BEDDINGTON, Maine -- Maine forest rangers said the quick actions of a woman with a frying pan helped stop a forest fire. Rangers said Nancy Weeks used a frying pan to carry water back and forth between the flames and a nearby pond in a wooded area near Beddington. Weeks kept the fire under control until crews arrived. Officials said the fire was sparked by an unattended camp fire...

WASHINGTON -- In a quest to end cookie-cutter health care, U.S. researchers are getting ready to recruit more than 1 million people for an unprecedented study to learn how our genes, environments and lifestyles interact -- and to finally customize ways to prevent and treat disease...

NEW YORK -- French researchers said they restored some signs of consciousness in a brain-injured man who hadn't shown any awareness in 15 years. During months of experimental treatment, his gaze could follow a moving object, and he turned his head toward people speaking to him. He also could turn his head when asked to do so, and his eyes widened when a researcher suddenly came close to his face, the researchers reported...

OMAHA, Neb. -- Bass Pro Shops' roughly $4 billion acquisition of rival outdoor retailer Cabela's is complete, but the small western Nebraska town that has been home to Cabela's still is wondering about its future. Monday's closing announcement didn't address how many of the roughly 2,000 Cabela's jobs will remain in Sidney, Nebraska...

NEW YORK -- Target Corp. is raising its minimum hourly wage for workers to $11 starting next month and to $15 by the end of 2020, a move it said will help it hire and keep the best employees and make shopping a better experience for customers. The initiative announced Monday is part of the discounter's strategy to improve its business, which includes remodeling stores, expanding its online services and opening up smaller urban locations...

Today in History Today is Tuesday, Sept. 26, the 269th day of 2017. There are 96 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On September 26, 1892, John Philip Sousa and his newly formed band performed publicly for the first time at the Stillman Music Hall in Plainfield, New Jersey...

NEW ORLEANS -- Some of the oldest daguerreotypes and photographs of U.S. landscapes are about to go on display in New Orleans, as part of the first exhibit and study of such landscapes made east of the Mississippi River. Photographs of vast, unspoiled Western vistas are well known, many of them from federal land surveys after the Civil War. ...

WASHINGTON -- In its first year, the Smithsonian's new black museum has become the nation's top temple to blackness, an Afrocentric shrine on the National Mall where people of all races, colors and creed are flocking to experience -- and leave behind for posterity -- the highs and lows of African-American life in the United States...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Among the most lasting and indelible images of the civil-rights movement were the nine black teenagers who had to be escorted by federal troops past an angry white mob and through the doors of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Sept. 25, 1957...

DENVER -- A Colorado Springs police officer heading to an accident in a van got a surprise when a raccoon jumped onto the front windshield of the vehicle and stayed there until the officer pulled over. Officer Chris Frabbiele was going to an accident when the raccoon landed on his windshield late Wednesday. Police spokesman Lt. Howard Black said the raccoon hopped off the van after Frabbiele pulled over and stopped...

PORTLAND, Maine -- As lawmakers propose banning the sale of shark fins in the U.S., a pair of scientists is pushing back, saying the effort might harm attempts to conserve the marine predators. Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey introduced a bill this year designed to prevent people from possessing or selling shark fins in America, much to the delight of conservation groups such as Oceana...

NEW YORK -- It seemed as if Anthony Weiner had hit rock-bottom when he resigned from Congress in 2011. "Bye-bye, pervert!" one heckler shouted as the Democrat quit amid revelations he had sent graphic pictures of himself to women on social media. Time has shown his self-destructive drama had only just begun...

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis' committee of advisers on protecting children from sexually abusive priests is expanding its workload to include the needs and rights of children fathered by Roman Catholic priests. Committee members said Sunday a working group is looking into developing guidelines that can be used by dioceses around the world to ensure children born to priests are cared for adequately...

WASHINGTON -- Republican opposition to the GOP health-care bill swelled to near-fatal numbers Sunday as Sen. Susan Collins all but closed the door on supporting the last-ditch effort to scrap the Obama health-care law, and Sen. Ted Cruz said "right now" he doesn't back it...

BERLIN -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc won a lackluster victory in Germany's national election Sunday, while the anti-migrant, nationalist Alternative for Germany party managed a triumphant entry into parliament. Merkel's main center-left rivals, the Social Democrats, slid to their worst result since World War II, projections showed. The party, led by Merkel's challenger Martin Schulz, vowed to leave her coalition government and go into opposition...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Puerto Rico's nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress said Sunday that Hurricane Maria's destruction has set the island back decades, even as authorities worked to assess the extent of the damage. "The devastation in Puerto Rico has set us back nearly 20 to 30 years," Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez said. ...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A masked gunman opened fire at a Nashville church Sunday, walking silently down the aisle as he shot unsuspecting congregants. At least one person was killed and seven others wounded, authorities said. An usher confronted the shooter, who apparently shot himself in the struggle before he was arrested, police said...

MEXICO CITY -- Five days after the deadly magnitude-7.1 earthquake, the hulking wreckage of what used to be a seven-story office building is one of the last hopes: one of just two sites left where searchers believe they still may find someone trapped alive in Mexico City...

President Donald Trump's criticism of players who kneel during the national anthem sparked a mass increase in such protests around the National Football League Sunday, as about 150 players sat, knelt or raised their fists in defiance during early games...

WASHINGTON -- Citizens of eight countries will face new restrictions on entry to the U.S. under a proclamation signed Sunday by President Donald Trump. The new rules, which will affect the citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen, will go into effect Oct. 18...

WASHINGTON -- Struggling with an embarrassing series of misconduct and behavior problems among senior officers, the Army is putting together new mental-health, counseling and career-management programs to shape stronger, more ethical leaders. The programs stem from a broader worry across the military about the need to bolster professionalism within the officer corps while holding accountable those who abuse their power. ...

Today in History Today is Monday, Sept. 25, the 268th day of 2017. There are 97 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On September 25, 1957, nine black students who'd been forced to withdraw from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, because of unruly white crowds were escorted to class by members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division...

WASHINGTON -- In a show of American military might to North Korea, U.S. bombers and fighter escorts flew Saturday to the farthest point north of the border between North and South Korea by any such American aircraft this century. The Pentagon said the mission in international airspace showed how seriously President Donald Trump takes North Korea's "reckless behavior."...

MEXICO CITY -- A strong new earthquake shook Mexico on Saturday, killing at least one person, toppling already damaged homes and a highway bridge and causing new alarm in a country reeling from two even more powerful quakes that together have killed more than 400 people...

The federal government on Friday told election officials in 21 states hackers targeted their systems before last year's presidential election. The notification came about a year after U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials first said states were targeted by hacking efforts possibly connected to Russia. The states that told The Associated Press they had been targeted included key political battlegrounds, such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin...

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency said it has recovered 517 containers of "unidentified, potentially hazardous material" from highly contaminated toxic waste sites in Texas that flooded last month during Hurricane Harvey. The agency has not provided details about which Superfund sites the material came from, why the contaminants at issue have not been identified and whether there's a threat to human health...

NEW YORK -- The destructive floodwaters of Superstorm Sandy receded quickly, but some storm victims still are neck-deep in a battle over insurance payouts. And many victims of this year's storms in Texas, Florida and elsewhere should brace themselves for a similar fight, lawyers involved in Sandy insurance battles say...

WASHINGTON -- The next version of President Donald Trump's travel ban could include new, more tailored restrictions on travelers from additional countries. The Department of Homeland Security has recommended the president impose the new, targeted restrictions on foreign nationals from countries it says refuse to share sufficient information with the U.S. or haven't taken necessary security precautions. The restrictions could vary by country, officials said...

WASHINGTON -- John McCain faced a choice that balanced friendship, party loyalty and his convictions. He made the decision some of his closest advisers expected. Looking at the twilight of his career and a grim cancer diagnosis, the Republican senator from Arizona who prides himself on an independent streak could not be moved to go along with a last-ditch GOP push to overhaul the nation's health-care system...

SOMERSET, N.J. -- President Donald Trump doubled down on denouncing protests by NFL players and rescinded NBA star Stephen Curry's White House invitation Saturday, a series of tweets that quickly inflamed football and basketball stars and prompted LeBron James to call the president a "bum."...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Puerto Rican officials rushed to evacuate tens of thousands of people downstream of a failing dam and said they could not reach more than half the towns in the U.S. territory as the massive scale of the disaster wrought by Hurricane Maria started to become clear...

OKARCHE, Okla. -- Few religious pilgrimages lead down a dusty, unpaved Oklahoma road past grazing horses, metal barns and towering wind turbines in the distance. But the unusual destination of this 2,000-mile trek from Central America to a farmhouse outside a one-stoplight town seems an appropriate honor for the Rev. Stanley Rother, a martyred Roman Catholic priest celebrated for his unassuming nature and hard work...

VATICAN CITY -- Several dozen tradition-minded Roman Catholic theologians, priests and academics have formally accused Pope Francis of spreading heresy with his 2016 opening to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. In a 25-page letter delivered to Francis last month and provided Saturday to The Associated Press, the 62 signatories issued a "filial correction" to the pope -- a measure they said hadn't been employed since the 14th century...

Today in History Today is Sunday, Sept. 24, the 267th day of 2017. There are 98 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On September 24, 1717, English author Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, was born in London. On this date: In 1789, President George Washington signed a Judiciary Act establishing America's federal court system and creating the post of attorney general...

Today in History Today is Saturday, Sept. 23, the 266th day of 2017. There are 99 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On September 23, 1952, Sen. Richard M. Nixon, R-Calif., salvaged his vice-presidential nomination by appearing on television from Los Angeles to refute allegations of improper campaign fundraising in what became known as the "Checkers" speech...

NEW YORK -- An automated-teller machine. The cash machine. In Britain, a cashpoint. ATMs, known for spitting out $20 bills -- and imposing fees if you pick the wrong one -- turn 50 years old this year. They're ubiquitous -- and possibly still a necessity, despite the big changes in how people pay for things...

NEW YORK -- President Donald Trump added economic action to his fiery military threats against North Korea on Thursday, authorizing stiffer new sanctions in response to the Koreans' nuclear-weapons advances. Its leader Kim Jong Un issued a rare statement, branding Trump as "deranged" and warning he will "pay dearly" for his threat to "totally destroy" the North if it attacks...

MEXICO CITY -- As painstaking attempts to reach survivors in quake-ravaged buildings across Mexico City stretched into a third day Thursday, desperation mounted among loved ones who earlier had high hopes for quick rescues, and some complained they were being kept in the dark about search efforts...

MEXICO CITY -- Hour after excruciating hour, Mexicans were transfixed by dramatic efforts to reach a young girl thought buried in the rubble of a school destroyed by a magnitude-7.1 earthquake. She reportedly wiggled her fingers, told rescuers her name and said others were trapped near her. Rescue workers called for tubes, pipes and other tools to reach her...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The sky was darkening Thursday afternoon as 10-year-old Sarah Jimenez laid out three plastic buckets on her grandmother's patio in hopes of capturing rainwater. "We can use it to at least flush the toilets," she told her grandmother...