From the Wire

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Customers searching for the perfect Christmas tree typically glance at Sandy Parsons’ limited offerings, then keep walking.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- Gary Edge's son was the muscle at Cornerstone.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A fifth St. Louis police officer is now accused in the assault of a colleague who was working undercover during a 2017 protest.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) -- Police in the southeast Missouri town of Cape Girardeau are continuing to investigate after a man was shot to death at an apartment complex.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The president of General Motors is expected to be in Missouri Friday for what officials are calling a “major announcement” at the company’s plant in Wentzville that makes trucks and vans.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- One of two men who is accused of opening fire inside a crowded bar in Kansas City, Kansas, killing four people and wounding five others, has been captured in Mexico, authorities said Thursday.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A St. Louis teenager has been ordered to enter a juvenile detention program for his role in the death of a retired St. Louis police sergeant.

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) -- The monitor overseeing the federal consent agreement requiring police and court changes in Ferguson is seeing troubling signs that residents are increasingly disengaged in the reform process.

Missouri State University has received a $6.5 million donation that will be used to expand agriculture education for students in the Springfield public school district.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- Two attorneys involved in an animal rights group's open records lawsuit against the University of Missouri are seeking $345,000 in fees for their work fighting to obtain research records involving cats and dogs.

An inmate who stole a state-owned dump truck and drove away from the Lansing Correctional Facility in January has been sentenced to 10 more years in prison.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A St. Louis police officer shot and wounded a man who pointed a gun at officers, Police Chief John Hayden said.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A Missouri appeals court will decide if St. Louis' top prosecutor has the authority to request a new trial for a man who has spent nearly 25 years in prison for a murder she believes he didn't commit.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A New York man has become the fifth person to plead guilty for participating in a conspiracy to help a former Missouri man who died in Syria while fighting for the Islamic State.

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. (AP) -- Divers for the Missouri State Highway Patrol have recovered the body of a man who went missing after a canoe he was in flipped at the Lake of the Ozarks.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) --

CRESCENT, Iowa (AP) -- Frogs, carp and bugs thrived all summer in murky floodwaters where Gene Walter should have planted corn and soybeans. Last year’s ruined crop spilled from metal storage bins that burst nine months ago when the Missouri River surged through two levees near his southwest Iowa farm.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A 14-year-old boy is hospitalized in critical condition after being shot at a St. Louis gas station.

PATTON, Mo. (AP) -- A southeast Missouri school district was flooded with complaints over the latest school-sponsored raccoon hunt, a tradition that dates back 37 years.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A man who intentionally drove into and killed a Somali teenager outside a mosque in December 2014 has entered an Alford plea to second-degree murder.

LONDON (AP) -- The British election result is a boost to the economy and financial markets in the short term as it will ease some of the uncertainty over Brexit that has hobbled business confidence during the past three years.

PARIS (AP) -- Paris police say officers “neutralized” a man who threatened officers with a knife Friday morning in the French capital's main business district.

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad briefed Pakistani leaders on Friday on last week's first official talks with the Taliban since President Donald Trump declared a near-certain peace deal with the insurgents dead in September.

BANGKOK (AP) -- China's activities in territory it claims in the South China Sea are meant to intimidate other nations in the region, the commander of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet said Friday.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- A former Turkish prime minister who has launched a splinter party to rival President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged on Friday a return to a parliamentary democracy and to expand rights and freedoms.

BRUSSELS (AP) -- European Union leaders gathered Friday to discuss Britain’s departure from the bloc amid some relief that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has secured a parliamentary majority that should allow him to push the long-stalled Brexit divorce deal through parliament.

LONDON (AP) --

LONDON (AP) -- The Latest on Britain's Brexit election (all times local):

GAUHATI, India (AP) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday postponed traveling for a summit with India's leader in the violence-wracked northeast, where two people were killed in ongoing protests over a new law that grants citizenship based on religion and excludes Muslims.

BERLIN (AP) -- One person was killed and around 25 injured in an explosion at an apartment block in eastern Germany on Friday, according to police.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea has withdrawn from the bidding to host the 2023 Women's World Cup.

LONDON (AP) -- Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has won a thumping majority of seats in Britain's Parliament -- a decisive outcome to a Brexit-dominated election that should allow Johnson to fulfill his plan to take the U.K. out of the European Union next month.

BANGKOK (AP) -- The British pound edged higher Friday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party claimed a robust majority in Parliament, while talk of China-U.S. trade deal buoyed share prices in Asia.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A roadside bombing in central Afghanistan on Friday killed 10 civilians, including four women and a child, an Afghan official said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Taylor Swift used the Billboard Women in Music stage to address a series of issues including her ongoing beef with Scooter Braun.

BASTOGNE, Belgium (AP) -- Pvt. Arthur Jacobson was seeking cover in the snow behind a tank moving slowly through the wooded hills of Belgium's Ardennes, German bullets whizzing by.

BEIJING (AP) -- Expectations for a U.S.-Chinese trade truce rose Friday, though Beijing accused Washington of unfairly attacking its economy and said a settlement to their costly, 17-month-old conflict must be “mutually beneficial.”

BEIJING (AP) --

WHAKATANE, New Zealand (AP) -- As grieving families sang traditional Maori songs, New Zealand military specialists wearing protective gear landed on a small volcanic island on Friday and recovered six bodies of the 16 people who died in an eruption four days earlier.

A police officer watches as pro-democracy protesters march on a street in Hong Kong.