WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he'll travel the country in the coming weeks to encourage changes to the U.S. criminal justice system that would reduce incarceration rates. By Kevin Freking.

CONGRESS-BENGHAZI-CHAIRMAN

WASHINGTON — Rep. Trey Gowdy is a man under fierce pressure as he leads a congressional investigation of the deadly attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi. Libya, that's dismissed by Democrats as a partisan effort to target Hillary Rodham Clinton and even questioned by some fellow Republicans. 

UNITED STATES-ISRAEL-DUNFORD

JERUSALEM — The new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is in Jerusalem for talks with senior Israeli leaders, as violence spikes around the country. 

PRESIDENTIAL RACE-CLINTON

HOOVER, Alabama — Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton is telling black Alabama Democrats that she'd champion voting rights in the White House. 

OREGON COLLEGE SHOOTING-HERO

ROSEBURG, Oregon — An Oregon college student celebrated as a hero for confronting a gunman at Umpqua Community College is telling his story.

MISSISSIPPI ELECTIONS-FLAG

McCOMB, Mississippi — Weeks after the June massacre of nine black worshippers in a Charleston church, South Carolina lawmakers engaged in an emotional debate before voting to remove a Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds in Columbia. Critics called for Mississippi to step up next and rip the rebel emblem from its state flag. 

MEXICO-DRUG LORD ESCAPES

MEXICO CITY — Fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was flown to a mountainous region of his home state of Sinaloa following his daring July 11 escape from prison through a mile-long tunnel, a federal official says. 

PRESIDENTIAL RACE-BUSH-RUBIO

PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire — Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio are on course for a collision as the Florida Republicans battling for the presidential nomination have each come to see the other as the main threat to lofty ambitions. 

PRESIDENTIAL RACE-EMBRACING OBAMA

WASHINGTON — If the recent Republican presidential debates have revealed hobbling breaks in the party, the Democrats' first political X-ray showed a couple of hairline fractures.