MOSCOW (AP) — Pale and haggard after hours of questioning, a leading Bolshoi dancer told a Moscow court that he gave his blessing to an attack on the ballet's artistic director but never imagined that the assailant would go as far as to throw acid in his face.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Efforts to stave off a late March government shutdown shifted to the Senate after House Republicans swiftly passed legislation to keep federal agencies running, while also easing some of the effects of $85 billion in budget cuts.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican senator and tea party favorite from Kentucky used an old-style filibuster lasting nearly 13 hours to take control of the chamber and block Senate confirmation of John Brennan's nomination to be CIA director.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's prospects for winning near-universal background checks for gun purchases seemed shaky as the Senate Judiciary Committee prepared for Congress' first votes on curbing firearms since December's horrific shootings at a Connecticut elementary school.

NEW YORK (AP) — A man suspected of fleeing the scene of a grisly New York crash that killed a pregnant woman and her husband was arrested at a Pennsylvania convenience store on Wednesday after a friend arranged his surrender, and he was ordered held without bail.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea vowed on Thursday to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States, amplifying its threatening rhetoric hours ahead of a vote by U.N. diplomats on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test.

DUNLAP, Calif. (AP) — Authorities are trying to determine what provoked a lion at an exotic animal park in Central California to attack and maul to death a 24-year-old intern from Washington state.