WASHINGTON -- Missouri has settled some expensive lawsuits this year. One case against the state's Department of Labor resulted in a $1.2 million settlement; another, against the Department of Social Services, was settled for $2 million. Other state agencies, including the departments of Conservation and Public Safety, have also settled cases.

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Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte lost multiple newspaper endorsements in Montana after he was cited for assault on the eve of Thursday's election.

Gianforte was charged Wednesday with misdemeanor assault after he allegedly threw Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs to the ground and punched him..

"In the past, he has encouraged his ...Read more

LONDON -- The arrests of eight suspects still in custody on Thursday are "significant" in the investigation of the network behind the Manchester Arena terrorist attack, Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said.

Hopkins said searches at several addresses in Manchester and other areas have yielded "very important" items ...Read more

A family tree can reveal a lot, especially if it belongs to a microscopic troublemaker with a knack for genetic shape-shifting.

DNA sleuthing can outline the route an emerging pathogen might take once it makes landfall in the Americas and encounters a wholly unprotected population. It's a modern take on old-fashioned public health surveillance ...Read more

While national Democrats compile lists of President Donald Trump's controversial statements, firings, and ties to Russia as ammunition for upcoming campaigns, Democrat Rob Quist is taking a different approach.

Though Quist's Republican opponent for Montana's at-large seat in Congress, businessman Greg Gianforte, is favored to win the special ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Trump administration lawyers are urging the Supreme Court to reject a 2nd Amendment claim that would restore the right to own a gun for two Pennsylvania men who were convicted more than 20 years ago of nonviolent crimes.

The case of Sessions vs. Binderup puts the new administration in a potentially awkward spot, considering ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Chicago was the only city among the nation's 20 largest to lose population in 2016 -- and it lost nearly double the number of residents as the year before, according to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

It's the city's third consecutive year of population loss. Chicago's population fell by 8,638 residents between 2015 ...Read more

SYDNEY -- Australia's nuclear family could become a minority. The nation's statistics bureau predicts that childless couples will become the country's most common type of family by as soon as 2023.That's not necessarily a bad thing, says Bernard Salt, the Melbourne-based KPMG partner and demographer who made global headlines by suggesting that ...Read more

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's powerful military will probably push for an increase in defense spending ahead of Friday's national budget as border clashes with neighboring India and Afghanistan mount.

Pakistan's relations with its neighbors have drastically deteriorated this year. On Tuesday, India's military said it hit army posts in the Pakistan-...Read more

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