CAIRO (AP) — An umbrella group of independent professional unions called Sunday on people to march on the presidential palace in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, to demand that leader Omar Bashir step down, signaling that protests against the 29-year rule of the autocratic president are showing no ...

The Latest on Week 17 of the NFL’s regular season (all times Eastern):

2:20 p.m.

Saquon Barkley has broken Reggie Bush’s NFL record (88) for most catches by a rookie running back. The No. 2 overall pick in the draft came into the game needing two catches to break the record set in ...

Verizon customers can continue to watch ESPN, ABC and other channels owned by Disney after the two companies announced a deal over programming fees.

The telecommunications giant and the entertainment company said in a joint statement Sunday: “Verizon and The Walt Disney Company have ...

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Paul Pogba is feeling so good at Manchester United these days that he’s practicing his goal celebrations during the pre-game warmup.

With good reason, too, as the French World Cup winner is once again finding plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Pogba scored ...

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Mark Richt stepped down as Miami coach on Sunday, an announcement that caught the school off-guard and comes just days after the end of an underachieving season.

Richt, 58, said he was not forced out, and that the decision to retire was his.

“My love for The ...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The officers suit up in the pre-dawn darkness, wrapping on body armor, snapping in guns, pulling on black sweat shirts that read POLICE and ICE.

They gather around a conference table in an ordinary office in a nondescript office park in the suburbs, going over their ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the final weekend of 2018, “Aquaman” still led the pack at the box office, but other films like “Mary Poppins Returns,” ″The Mule” and “Second Act” enjoyed post-holiday bumps too, even amid an onslaught of new Christmas offerings like “Vice,” ″Holmes and Watson,” ″On the ...

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska entomologist has named three of his eight newest beetle discoveries after the dragons from the HBO series “Game of Thrones” and George R.R. Martin book series “A Song of Ice and Fire.”

University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor Brett Ratcliffe named the new ...

Television ratings for the College Football Playoff on ESPN dropped from last season, dragged down by lopsided games and not being playing on New Year’s Day.

ESPN says Alabama’s 45-34 victory against Oklahoma in the Orange ...

BERLIN (AP) — Police say a judge has ordered the continued detention of a young Polish man who forced open a locked perimeter gate at Germany’s Hannover Airport and drove his car onto the airfield.

The 21-year-old suspect’s motive remained unclear on Sunday, but police said they still had ...

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The Latest on Congo’s presidential election (all times local):

6:45 p.m.

After closing time for Congo’s election, at least one polling station was just preparing to open. The voting center at Les Anges school in Kinshasa had not opened during the day because it ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It was supposed to be a great year for marijuana entrepreneur Brian Blatz.

When California broadly legalized pot on Jan. 1, the lawyer with a background in banking and health care had been working for a year to set up a trucking company that would whisk fragrant ...

BENI, Congo (AP) — They were barred from voting in Congo’s presidential election. They voted anyway.

On Sunday, thousands of men and women gathered in Beni to cast paper ballots they hoped that someone, somewhere, might take seriously. Last week, the electoral commission made the surprise ...

PANAM NAGAR, Bangladesh (AP) — Voters in Bangladesh went to the polls Sunday in the densely populated South Asian nation’s 11th general election to determine whether to give Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party a third consecutive term or hand the reins to a loose coalition of ...

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Before Alabama-Clemson IV is even played, know that part five of college football’s epic championship series already is in production.

The top-ranked Crimson Tide and No. 2 Tigers will meet for the fourth straight year in the College Football Playoff, and third time ...

There was a soup thrower in the locker room. There was a tickler on the hockey rink. There were science deniers swallowing their hot air. There was a hint of doomsday on a golf course.

Sports drifted into strange places in 2018. Sometimes everyone seemed lost.

The Scottish soccer ...

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Rich in the minerals that power the world’s mobile phones and laptops, yet desperately underdeveloped, Congo votes on Sunday for its first new president in nearly two decades. This could be the sprawling country’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power.

But a ...

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Kyler Murray had it all working: pinpoint throws, speedy feet and unflappable resolve all the way to the finish.

If this was his football finale, it was a gem.

Murray threw for 308 yards and two touchdowns, rushed for an additional 109 and another ...

Alabama and Clemson, again.

The top-ranked Crimson Tide and No. 2 Tigers both had double-digit victories in their semifinal games Saturday, setting up what has quickly become an annual postseason meeting. They will meet in the College Football Playoff for the fourth consecutive year, the ...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a letter to South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Sunday calling for more peace talks between the leaders in the new year following their active engagement in 2018, South Korea’s presidential office said.

Moon’s office said Kim ...

LONDON (AP) — British actress and comedic star June Whitfield, whose long career included memorable roles in TV series “Absolutely Fabulous” and “Terry and June,” has died. She was 93.

Her agent said that she died Friday night.

Whitfield enjoyed a career spanning decades, appearing ...

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — This season’s Alabama juggernaut has yet to be stopped, and Oklahoma’s shaky defense sure wasn’t going to get in the way.

Maybe Clemson can.

Tua Tagovailoa threw for 318 yards and four touchdowns and No. 1-ranked Alabama beat No. 4 Oklahoma 45-34 on ...

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — When Clemson’s Dabo Swinney entrusted a team with championship aspirations to freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence in September, this is what the Tigers’ coach had in mind.

Lawrence threw for 327 yards and three touchdowns and No. 2 Clemson beat No. 3 Notre Dame ...

President Donald Trump sought to deflect blame for the deaths of two Guatemalan children in U.S. custody by claiming they were “very sick” when they arrived, even though immigration authorities have said both children passed initial health checks.

The mother of the boy who died Christmas ...

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Notre Dame missed out on a big early game-turning play by the very nose of the football. The Fighting Irish defense missed having All-America cornerback Julian Love on the field when Clemson took over the Cotton Bowl.

When the third-ranked Irish needed just about ...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The shooting death of a California police officer has reignited the debate over sanctuary laws, with a sheriff all but blaming the statewide immigration policy for the killing as he announced the arrest of a man living in the U.S. illegally.

A two-day statewide manhunt ...

BERLIN (AP) — A man forced open a locked gate on the security perimeter of Hannover Airport in northern Germany and drove a car onto the airfield Saturday before coming to a halt underneath an airliner and being detained, police said.

No one was hurt in the incident, but flights were ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — It had been months since retired Lt. Cmdr. Michele Fitzpatrick paid attention to news coverage. She was turned off by President Donald Trump’s tweetstorms and attacks on critics such as the late Republican Sen. John McCain, a war hero. But as the November midterm elections ...

A look at where the investigations related to President Donald Trump stand and what may lie ahead for him:

WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT?

Trump is facing criminal investigations in Washington and New York.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into whether the Trump campaign ...

A look at the impact of the partial government shutdown that began on Dec. 22:

____

WHAT’S OPEN AND WHAT’S CLOSED

Social Security checks will go out and troops will remain at their posts. Doctors and hospitals will receive their Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. The U.S. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump made false statements to U.S. troops in his first visit to service members in a conflict zone, misrepresenting what he’s done for them on pay. Also over the past week, the commander in chief offered a bewildering assertion about progress with his proposed ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s retailers, struggling to fill jobs, have been raising pay to try to keep and attract enough employees. Now, some stores want something in return: A more efficient worker.

To that end, retailers, fast food restaurants and other lower-wage employers are boosting ...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Jerry Brown is leaving office Jan. 7 after signing more than 1,000 laws in his last year, further positioning the state as a bastion of liberal activism and goad to President Donald Trump.

The laws, most of which take effect Tuesday, ease criminal ...

NEW YORK (AP) — Activists urging more states to ban gay conversion therapy for minors are expecting major gains in 2019, thanks to midterm election results and the buzz generated by two well-reviewed films.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have already enacted laws prohibiting ...

NEW YORK (AP) — A hedge fund run by Sears Chairman Eddie Lampert said it submitted a last-minute bid Friday to keep the struggling retailer from being liquidated.

The bid, valued at $4.4 billion, still needs to be approved. A court date is scheduled for the middle of ...

NEW YORK (AP) — Ryan Seacrest and Anderson Cooper will be there. Snoop Dogg, too.

But 1 or 2 million people in New York’s Times Square for New Year’s Eve? As Snoop would say, you must be sippin’ on gin and juice.

Crowd-size experts scoff at those mammoth figures — floated annually by ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 6 in 10 military veterans voted for Republican candidates in the November midterm elections, and a similar majority had positive views of President Donald Trump’s leadership. But women, the fastest growing demographic group in the military, are defying that vote ...

LONDON (AP) — British divers who rescued young soccer players trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand are among those being recognized in Britain’s New Year’s Honors List, along with 1960s model Twiggy and Monty Python star Michael Palin.

Twiggy, a model who shot to stardom during the ...

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Scientists say Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau volcano island, which erupted and collapsed a week ago triggering a deadly tsunami, is now only about a quarter of its pre-eruption size.

Anak Krakatau now has a volume of 40-70 million cubic meters (1.4 billion-2.4 billion ...