The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to a seasonally adjusted 339,000, the second-lowest level in more than five years. The decline suggests hiring is improving from last month's sluggish pace.

The prom spending is on the rise again. The recession forced parents and teens to cut back on spending for the annual high school dance, but wallets are finally opening again.

Commissioner Roger Goodell said at a pre-draft event Wednesday that the league would recognize the two tragedies that took place last week. The three-day draft begins Thursday night with the first round.

The FBI alleges widespread fraud of customers at Pilot Flying J, the country's largest diesel retailer. Haslam has said he won't step aside from the Browns or as the company's CEO.

U.S. officials say the Boston Marathon explosions that killed three people and wounded more than 260 were triggered by a remote-controlled detonator.

Authorities are investigating the slayings of five people whose bodies were found in a house in the tiny Scott County community of Manchester.

Camp Lejeune has honored seven of its Marines killed in an explosion during a training exercise last month at Nevada's Hawthorne Army Depot.

Organizers are reviewing a Tough Mudder endurance event held in West Virginia following the death of a competitor.

The area near the Boston Marathon finish line is reopening to the general public.

President Barack Obama is preparing for a trip to Texas, where he will attend Thursday's dedication of his predecessor's presidential library.

Bangladesh's health minister says 70 people have been confirmed dead in the collapse of a building housing several garment factories near the capital.

The White House is threatening to veto a Republican bill that would shore up one part of President Barack Obama's health care law by siphoning funds from another part.

PETA has purchased newly-issued shares of SeaWorld Entertainment Inc., the theme park company that often has been the target of the animal rights group's protests.

A judge has thrown out three murder charges against a Philadelphia abortion provider involving babies allegedly born alive.

Lawyers for the wife of the deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect say she is doing everything she can to assist authorities.

A weekend news anchorman for a North Dakota television station says he was fired after he opened his first-ever broadcast with obscenities.

Two senators are urging the Obama administration to postpone the furloughing of air traffic controllers, saying the turmoil caused by reduced staffing raises economic and security concerns as well as inconveniencing thousands of travelers.

Federal officials say they're delaying a policy that would allow passengers to carry small knives, bats and other sports equipment onto airliners.

Former New York congressman Anthony Weiner is back on Twitter.

Authorities in West Virginia are investigating the death of a 28-year-old man who had been competing in an endurance course.

The federal government is suing a now-defunct Texas company on behalf of 32 mentally disabled men who allegedly faced abuse and unsafe living conditions while employed as contract workers at an Iowa turkey plant.

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged by federal prosecutors in his hospital room Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill - a crime that carries a possible death sentence.

The Supreme Court won't stop some federal judges from getting cost-of-living increases promised to them by Congress but never paid.

The Supreme Court has rejected a First Amendment challenge by tobacco companies to a 2009 law that restricts how they can market their products.

After spending two decades producing clones from some of the world's biggest and oldest trees, a nonprofit group says it's time to start planting.