Van der Sloot was arrested the same day he was charged in Alabama with trying to extort $250,000 in return for giving the location of Holloway's body and describing the circumstances of Holloway's death.

WASHINGTON – Facing off over illegal immigration, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer told President Barack Obama that Americans "want our border secured" and called Thursday for completion of a separating fence. Obama underscored his objections that the tough immigration law she signed is discriminatory.

WASHINGTON – The federal government slapped BP with a $69 million bill Thursday to cover initial costs of responding to the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Virginia was one of just two states that refused to join a friend-of-the-court brief Tuesday supporting the father of a Marine whose funeral drew anti-gay protesters carrying inflammatory signs.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's planned meeting Thursday with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer faces a protest from opponents of Arizona's new immigration law.

A State Department official says one of the nine people killed in the Israeli raid on an aid flotilla Monday was a 19-year-old man with dual U.S.-Turkish citizenship.

METAIRIE, La. — BP sliced off a pipe with giant shears Thursday in the latest bid to curtail the worst spill in U.S. history, but the cut was jagged and placing a cap over the gusher will now be more challenging, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.

The best-case scenario of sealing the leak is two relief wells being drilled diagonally into the gushing well -- tricky business that won't be ready until August.

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hotly rejected calls to lift a blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza on Wednesday, insisting the ban prevents missile attacks on Israel and labeling worldwide criticism of his navy's bloody raid on a pro-Palestinian flotilla as "hypocrisy."

PITTSBURGH — President Barack Obama pressed Congress to scrap billions in oil company tax breaks and pass legislation to help the nation kick a dangerous "fossil fuel addiction" Wednesday, trying to channel disgust over the worsening oil disaster into a force for clean energy.