PITTSBURGH -- The panel that will decide Bill Cosby's fate was finalized Wednesday, as lawyers completed a three-day search for 12 jurors and six alternates for the entertainer's sex-assault trial.

In the end, all but one member of the panel said they were at least somewhat familiar with the allegations against Cosby. All vowed to set their ...Read more

SEATTLE -- Attorneys for Seattle Mayor Ed Murray have formally denied allegations of sexual abuse against him and asked that a lawsuit making the claims be dismissed.

In court papers filed Wednesday, attorneys Malaika Eaton and Robert Sulkin wrote that Murray "denies any inappropriate contact with the Plaintiff or any minor."

That was a ...Read more

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- South African President Jacob Zuma faces a key battle for his political survival this weekend when senior members of his ruling party say they'll push for its decision-making national executive committee to order him to step down.

Zuma goes into the meeting of the committee facing an unprecedented level of opposition ...Read more

Debt limit deadline already creeping up on Congress

WASHINGTON -- Congress and the Trump administration may be facing off over raising the debt limit sooner than planned.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he wanted Congress to complete a clean measure to lift the debt ceiling before the August recess on Wednesday.

"I urge you to raise ...Read more

A national political reporter for the Guardian newspaper Montana GOP congressional candidate said Greg Gianforte body-slammed him and broke his glasses Wednesday afternoon before a campaign event in Bozeman, Montana.

"Greg Gianforte just body slammed me and broke my glasses," reporter Ben Jacobs tweeted. He added in a second tweet: "There was a...Read more

CARACAS, Venezuela -- The death toll from nearly eight weeks of Venezuelan street protests rose to 56 on Wednesday after three opponents of President Nicolas Maduro were reported killed by gunfire in Barinas state, the birthplace of the late President Hugo Chavez.

Violent clashes between demonstrators and police and national guardsmen trying to...Read more

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Gunshots, electrocutions, suffocation, traffic accidents, tear gas and one frozen water bottle to the head.

The last eight weeks of anti-government protests in Venezuela have killed at least 55 people, authorities confirmed Wednesday, amid chaotic violence that threatens to destabilize the South American nation.

In a news ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pronounced House Speaker Paul Ryan's proposal for a border-adjusted tax dead during closed-door conversations with Democrats on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, according to two members of the panel.

The remarks they described in private were stronger than Mnuchin's public comments about ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refused last year to consider President Barack Obama's nominee for an appeals court seat that had been vacant for three years.

In January, though, Donald Trump became president and quickly nominated a different judge for the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, who until months ago was embraced by conservatives for his relentless budget-slashing advocacy, returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday as the White House's chief spending-cut champion -- and found both Republicans and Democrats challenging him.

Mulvaney, a tea party favorite who until February ...Read more

You have the privilege of sharing the planet with the largest animal that ever lived on Earth.

The great blue whale, which can be found in every ocean around the globe, is bigger than any dinosaur you've seen in a museum.

It can weigh as much as 24 elephants, and can grow up to two school buses in length.

Its jawbone is as big as a telephone ...Read more

Thursday's special House election in Montana offers an early and important test for the Democratic Party: Can it win over districts and states that loved Donald Trump just last year?

Republicans watching this week's congressional contest are nervous the answer is already a resounding "yes."

The special election between Democrat Rob Quist and ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A Schlitterbahn spokeswoman said Wednesday that an ongoing investigation by the Kansas attorney general into a child's death at its Kansas City, Kan., water park last year "feels like a long time" but will show it was an accident.

On Monday, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said that his office continues to look into ...Read more

BRUSSELS -- The British government scolded the United States on Wednesday after confidential details about the Manchester suicide bomber that had been shared with U.S. intelligence agents were leaked to the news media.

It was the second time this month that the United States has been accused of divulging intelligence from another government. ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- When a botched drug raid led to the shooting deaths of four civilians, including a teenage boy, on a Honduran river in May 2012, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials insisted that the victims were cocaine traffickers who had shot first and that DEA agents were present only as advisers.

Those claims were not true, ...Read more

President Donald Trump's budget proposal includes deep cuts to education but funds a new push for school choice.

The budget includes more money for charter schools and proposes a $250 million program to promote school vouchers.

When pressed by representatives at a House appropriations subcommittee hearing on the budget, Education Secretary ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- A digital worm powered by stolen National Security Agency software caused $1 billion in damages when it infected hundreds of thousands of computers in less than a week, a Florida digital security company says. And new attacks may be in the offing.

Hackers unleashed the worm, dubbed WannaCry, on May 12. Some 200,000 to 300,000 ...Read more

Medical researchers have identified a compound that may reduce your risk of a dangerous type of heart rhythm that can lead to strokes, dementia, heart failure and early death.

In a study of more than 55,000 Danish men and women who were tracked for up to 16 years, people who used this compound were up to 20 percent less likely to experience the...Read more