CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — Kobe Bryant is playing some of his toughest defense yet, demanding his mother keeps her hands off his merchandise.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — The president of Yemen on Thursday warned that the al-Qaida branch in the country was expanding and using assassinations and abductions of foreigners as a way to challenge the central authority.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Randy Jackson out.

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans spent briskly during the early spring months in the latest sign that they're encouraged by the economic recovery.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Uruguay has convicted an active general for dictatorship-era human rights violations for the first time. Gen. Miguel Dalmao was sentenced to 28 years in prison for the death of a communist professor.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Major League Baseball said the umpires were wrong.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — An Arab-backed resolution calling for a political transition in Syria and strongly condemning the regime's escalating use of heavy weapons and "gross violations" of human rights was circulated Thursday to the U.N. General Assembly, but key Syria ally Russia urged other countries to vote "no."

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — Muneera al-Shatti has loved playing basketball since she was a child but it wasn't until Thursday that she had chance to show off her skills at a public arena in Kuwait.

NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market pulled back from record levels Thursday as investors became harder to please.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional efforts to combat sexual assault in the military secured the support of the Obama administration as senior White House officials met privately Thursday with a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The bipartisan coalition behind a contentious overhaul of immigration laws stuck together on a critical early series of test votes Thursday, turning back challenges from conservative critics as the Senate Judiciary Committee refined legislation to secure the borders and grant eventual citizenship to millions living in the United States illegally.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI did not initially share with Boston police the warnings it had received from Russia about one suspect in last month's marathon bombings, despite the work of four city police representatives on a federal terrorism task force, Boston's police commissioner told Congress on Thursday.

By William James and Patrick Temple-West LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A joint effort by Britain, the United States and Australia to track down people who conceal wealth in offshore tax structures has helped identify more than 100 individuals, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said on Thursday. "The message is simple: if you evade tax, we're coming after you," said Chancellor George Osborne. ...