COLUMBIA, South Carolina — South Carolina lawmakers vote overwhelmingly to consider removing the Confederate flag from their Statehouse grounds and other politicians take aim at Civil War-era symbols across the South, saying change is imperative after police said nine black churchgoers were slain in a hate crime.
ATLANTA — Calls to remove Confederate imagery from public places multiplied rapidly across the South and beyond, with opponents eyeing state flags, license plates and statues of Civil War politicians and generals.
WASHINGTON — The Senate is preparing to hand President Barack Obama a major victory with final passage of "fast track" authority to negotiate trade deals.
WASHINGTON — The United States voices deep concern over state-sponsored cybertheft and tension in the disputed seas of East Asia but does not let the sharp disagreements with China on pressing security issues cloud the outlook for cooperation between the world powers.
WASHINGTON — The United States presidential election is still over 17 months away, but millions of dollars are already flowing into political war chests in what may be America's most costly contest for the White House.
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal appears ready to launch a long-shot campaign for the Republican presidential nomination that rests on courtship of evangelical voters and his reputation as a man of ideas.
LOS ANGELES — James Horner, who composed music for dozens of films and won two Oscars for his work on "Titanic," died when his plane crashed in Southern California, his agents confirms. He was 61.
BOGOTA, Colombia — Dozens of senior Colombian army officers implicated in the killings of 3,000 civilians falsely claimed to be rebels have risen through the ranks and are escaping punishment for their roles in one of the worst atrocities committed in Latin America, Human Rights Watch says.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will tell families of Americans held by terror groups that they can communicate with captors and even pay ransom without fear of prosecution — part of a broad review of U.S. hostage guidelines that will be released Wednesday.
BALTIMORE — A medical examiner found that a young black man suffered a "high-energy injury," most likely caused when the Baltimore police van he was riding in suddenly slowed down, according to an autopsy report obtained by The Baltimore Sun newspaper.
BELLMONT, New York — Hundreds of armed searchers combed through heavy woods in far northern New York on Tuesday after new DNA evidence narrowed the hunt for two murderers who escaped from a maximum-security prison more than two weeks ago.
NEW YORK — Apple's decision to pay artists royalties during the free, three-month trial of its upcoming streaming service marks a win not only for Taylor Swift, but also for independent labels.