AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Aiming to show he's still focused on creating jobs, President Barack Obama is beginning a series of quick trips around the country to resurrect ideas from his State of the Union address that became overshadowed by the intense debates over gun control, immigration and automatic spending cuts.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IMF says Egypt's financial situation is deteriorating and the organization is awaiting updated economic information and reform plans from the government in Cairo before it can move ahead with a deal on a $4.8 billion loan.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The lead singer of the heavy metal band As I Lay Dying, who is suspected of plotting to kill his estranged wife, had become obsessed with bodybuilding, was distracted around his children, and was spending thousands of dollars on tattoos, his wife said in divorce papers.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A Korean-American smuggled inflammatory literature into North Korea and tried to establish a base for anti-Pyongyang activities at a hotel in a border city, the North said late Thursday in its most in-depth account of the accusations against the man who was sentenced to 15 years' hard labor.

By Andrew Roche LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Thursday it was "very likely" the Syrian government had used chemical weapons, and Turkey announced it was stepping up testing of people fleeing the Syrian civil war for traces. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed gratitude to Russia for its willingness to try to arrange a "Geneva two" conference to negotiate an end to the conflict, in a sign of a thawing of the long diplomatic chill between Washington and Moscow, Syria's strongest ally. ...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A portrait of Hugo Chavez stared down from a black metal frame as Jose Pastano sipped coffee after dinner with his sons in the slum house he shares with 17 relatives on the western edge of the capital.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Athletics manager Bob Melvin still believes he witnessed a home run, and nothing will change his mind.

By Chrystia Freeland NEW YORK (Reuters) - If you doubt that we live in a winner-take-all economy and that education is the trump card, consider the vast amounts the affluent spend to teach their offspring. We see it anecdotally in the soaring fees for private schools, private lessons and private tutors, many of them targeted at the preschool set. And recent academic research has confirmed what many of us overhear at the school gates or read on mommy blogs. ...

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Heavily armed and under orders to break up an ethnic militia, a combined force of Nigerian police officers and agents of the country's domestic spy agency instead found themselves the target of a brutal attack that left at least 30 of them dead and others still missing days later, authorities said Thursday.

ROME (AP) — ROME (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday the transfer of advanced missile defense systems from Russia to Syria would be a "destabilizing" factor for Israel's security.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — PBS' fall schedule will examine President John F. Kennedy's life and his death 50 years ago through a modern lens, part of the network's increased emphasis on relevance, its programming chief said.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Roberto Castro made his debut Thursday in The Players Championship by joining Fred Couples and Greg Norman in the record book.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria will supply "game-changing" weapons to Hezbollah, the chief of the Lebanese militia said defiantly on Thursday, just days after Israeli airstrikes on Damascus targeted shipments of advanced Iranian weapons possibly bound for the group.

CLEVELAND (AP) — The man accused of raping and kidnapping three women, who were missing for about a decade before being found alive at his home, was ordered held Thursday on $8 million bail.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Academy award-winning director Ang Lee says modesty and diligence have been the keys to his success in penetrating the foreign cultures that were part of many of his most notable films.

By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul DHAKA (Reuters) - Eight people were killed when a fire swept through a clothing factory in Bangladesh, police and an industry association official said on Thursday, as the death toll from the collapse of another factory building two weeks ago climbed above 900. The fire, in an industrial district of Dhaka, comes amid global attention on safety standards in Bangladesh's booming garment industry following the catastrophic collapse of Rana Plaza, on the outskirts of the city, in the world's deadliest industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984. ...

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — David Moyes inherited one of the toughest and most coveted jobs in soccer on Thursday — succeeding Alex Ferguson as manager of mighty Manchester United.

NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market pulled back early Thursday after surging to record levels during the past week as investors judged that recent gains already reflect much of the improvement in the economy.

LONDON (AP) — Higher-than-expected Chinese inflation figures on Thursday gave some investors a chance to cash in recent gains on the world's financial markets in spite of more good news from the U.S. with another fall in weekly jobless claims.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey is testing injured Syrians seeking treatment across the border for chemical weapon wounds, the foreign minister said Thursday.