MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) -- The Washington State Patrol says the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River at Mount Vernon has collapsed, dumping vehicles and people into the water....

OGIDI, Nigeria (AP) -- Writer Chinua Achebe shunned Nigeria's corrupt politicians and twice turned down national honors, never fearing to criticize those he felt ruined his country. On Thursday, however, the lawmakers and the country's elite came to praise him....

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) -- Suicide bombers in Niger detonated two car bombs simultaneously, one inside a military camp in the city of Agadez and another in the remote town of Arlit at a French-operated uranium mine, killing 26 people and injuring 30, according to officials in Niger and France. A surviving attacker took a group of soldiers hostage, and authorities were attempting to negotiate their release....

NEW YORK (AP) -- For decades, people have been getting rid of cockroaches by setting out bait mixed with poison. But in the late 1980s, in an apartment test kitchen in Florida, something went very wrong....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama sought Thursday to advance the U.S. beyond the unrelenting war effort of the past dozen years, defining a narrower terror threat from smaller networks and homegrown extremists rather than the grandiose plots of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida....

LONDON (AP) -- A man seen with bloody hands wielding a butcher knife after the killing of a British soldier on the streets of London was described as a convert to Islam who took part in demonstrations with a banned radical group, two Muslim hard-liners said Thursday....

GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) -- The Boy Scouts of America threw open its ranks Thursday to gay Scouts but not gay Scout leaders - a fiercely contested compromise that some warned could fracture the organization and lead to mass defections of members and donors....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Moving quickly to stem a raging controversy, the new acting head of the Internal Revenue Service started cleaning house Thursday by replacing the supervisor who oversaw agents involved in targeting tea party groups....

PHOENIX (AP) -- Jurors who spent five months determining Jodi Arias' fate couldn't decide whether she should get life in prison or die for murdering her boyfriend, sending prosecutors back to the drawing board to rehash the shocking case of sex, lies and violence to another 12 people....

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Friday:...

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Investors have grown nervous that the Federal Reserve will scale back its efforts to boost the U.S. economy sooner than many expected....

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Francis Maude to show commitment to equality agenda by allowing flag to be flown from cabinet office next month

Francis Maude is to show the government's commitment to the equality agenda by allowing the rainbow flag to be flown from the cabinet office in Whitehall during Pride week next month.

David Cameron has faced criticism for attempting to distance the Tory leadership from gay rights after declining to speak in detail about the equal marriage bill in the run up to its bumpy ride through the commons earlier this week.

But Maude intends to make clear that the government remains deeply committed to the equality agenda after authorising the flying of the Rainbow flag from the cabinet office between 25 June and 1 July. "This shows the government's commitment to the equalities message," one source said.

Maude made a personal intervention on the eve of the two day debate on the marriage (same sex couples) bill in the commons on Monday and Tuesday this week. In an article for the Daily Telegraph he wrote of how Britain, including himself, has become more liberal since the era of Margaret Thatcher.

Maude cited his family's experience. He wrote: "For me it was also a family experience that shaped my outlook. It was not by any means unique but it was a formative experience. My brother Charles, who was gay, died from AIDS in 1993.

"Society was a far less accepting place for gay men such as him. I think how much better his life would have been had there been greater acceptance of publicly acknowledged stable same-sex relationships. In the two decades since, much has changed. But I think this additional step, of extending marriage to all, is important both symbolically and practically. And it is something which most – though I appreciate not all – gay men and women want."

The prime minister spoke passionately in favour of gay marriage on Wednesday after the bill had completed its initial commons stages. He told the Today programme on Radio 4: "There will be young boys in schools today, who are gay who are worried about being bullied who are worried about what society thinks of them, who can see that the highest parliament in the land has said that their love is worth the same as anyone else's love and that we believe in equality. I think they will stand that bit taller today and I am proud of the fact that that has happened."

• Francis Maude
• Gay rights
• Sexuality

Nicholas Watt
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CLEVELAND (AP) -- The man who famously put down his Big Mac to help rescue three women held captive for years in a Cleveland house will get free McDonald's for the next year, a company spokeswoman confirmed Thursday....

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CANNES, France (AP) -- One of the more buzzed-about films at the Cannes Film Festival, "Omar," is set in the West Bank, and the Palestinian conflict is a key part of the plot....

MOORE, Okla. (AP) -- A massive tornado was carving its way through town. There was no time to hesitate. LaTisha Garcia had to get to her children....