NATIONAL NEWS

By KATHY GANNON and MATTHEW LEE ISLAMABAD (AP) — The countdown to the signing of a peace agreement between the Taliban and the United States to end the 18 years of war in Afghanistan will…

By STAN CHOE NEW YORK (AP) — Fear swept back through the stock market on Thursday as worries about the viral outbreak in China knocked the S&P 500 off its record high and had it…

By MARI YAMAGUCHI and FOSTER KLUG YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — About 500 passengers left the cruise ship Diamond Princess on Wednesday at the end of a much-criticized two-week quarantine aboard the vessel, docked in Japan,…

By DAVID CRARY AP - Barraged with sex-abuse lawsuits, the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday in hopes of working out a potentially mammoth victim compensation plan that will allow the 110-year-old…

By TOM KRISHER DETROIT (AP) — General Motors decision to pull out of Australia, New Zealand and Thailand as part of a strategy to exit markets that don’t produce adequate returns on investments raised dismay…

By MIKE STOBBE NEW YORK (AP) — A second wave of flu is hitting the U.S., turning this into one of the nastiest seasons for children in a decade. The number of child deaths and…

By YANAN WANG BEIJING (AP) — China on Thursday reported a sharp spike in deaths and infections from a new virus after the hardest-hit province of Hubei applied a new classification system that broadens the…

By DON BABWIN and HERB McCANN CHICAGO (AP) — Actor Jussie Smollett was indicted Tuesday for a second time on charges of lying to police about a racist and anti-gay attack he allegedly staged on…

By STEVE PEOPLES, KATHLEEN RONAYNE, THOMAS BEAUMONT and HUNTER WOODALL MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Democrats are hoping that voters in New Hampshire will reset the party’s presidential nomination fight on Tuesday and bring clarity to…

By ANDREW TAYLOR WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is offering a $4.8 trillion election year budget plan that recycles previously rejected cuts to domestic programs like food stamps and Medicaid to promise a balanced…