US Top Stories from Associated Press (AP)

A bus exploded in flames after colliding with an abandoned oil tanker that had been attacked by Taliban militants on Friday, southern Afghanistan police said. Forty-five aboard the bus died, The Associated Press reported. And responders say the Taliban is responsible, at least indirectly.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said there was no intelligence of "operative value" his security agencies could have passed the U.S. authorities about the two ethnic Chechen brothers accused of bombing the Boston marathon. "Due to the fact that the Tsarnaevs had not lived in Russia for many years, our security services could not provide information which had operative value," he said Thursday.

Five hundred Marines are en route to Spain to establish a new security force tasked with rapid response protection duties for U.S. citizens, government workers and facilities in Africa. The unit will also be tasked with rescuing pilots who are crashed or shot down and with evacuating other military troops and officials when necessary, CNN reported.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday that his nation would not be sending military troops to Syria, despite the surfacing of evidence that shows President Bashar Assad has used chemical weapons against rebel fighters. Mr. Cameron told the BBC the sarin gas evidence is "extremely serious" but that a response should take the form of politics, not military.

The international Islamist political movement called the Muslim Brotherhood is set to open offices in the rebel-held areas of Syria for the first time since the nation's Baathist rulers crushed it there decades ago.

Cost of amputating a leg? At least $20,000. Cost of an artificial leg? More than $50,000 for the most high-tech models. Cost of an amputee's rehab? Often tens of thousands of dollars more. These are just a fraction of the medical expenses victims of the Boston Marathon bombing will face.

A Pennsylvania mother dressed in a burka, flew to Egypt and took back her son that had been kidnapped by his father two years ago and forced to live as a Muslim. Kalli Atteya waited until 12-year-old Niko got off the school bus in the city of Alexandria, grabbed him by the arm and brought him into a motorized cart that had been waiting.

The Army's chief of staff and a Marine veteran congressman clashed publicly Thursday in a long-simmering dispute over the service's battlefield intelligence processor. Gen. Raymond Odierno exploded in anger when he interpreted a question from Rep. Duncan Hunter as an insult.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) , Police in coastal Georgia say country singer Billy Currington may have videotaped himself chasing a 70-year-old tour boat captain and threatening to "finish him off." A police affidavit and search warrant papers filed Thursday in Chatham County Superior Court say officers seized digital video files and photographs from Currington's waterfront home near Tybee Island.

An off-duty U.S. navy sailor wrestled a Dubai bus driver to the ground and beat him into submission after he tried to rape her at knifepoint on Jan. 19, a courtroom heard Wednesday. The woman, 28, was on 24-hour shore leave in Dubai when she was attacked by a bus driver after he picked her up from the Mall of the Emirates shopping center.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) , As spring rains soaked the central United States and helped conquer the historic drought, a new problem has sprouted: The fields have turned to mud. The weekly drought monitor...

WASHINGTON (AP) , Bad news in the fight against the AIDS virus: The government is halting a large U.S. study of a possible HIV vaccine because the experimental shots aren't preventing infection. The study enrolled about 2,500 people, mostly gay men, in 19 cities. Half received an experimental vaccine developed by the National Institutes of Health, and half received dummy shots.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein reacted to White House confirmation that forces loyal to Syria President Bashar Assad have used chemical weapons on their own people by urging the United Nations Security Council to take "strong and meaningful action" to end the crisis in Syria.

The Boston Marathon bombers planned to detonated six improvised explosive devises in Times Square in New York three days after leaving a trail of carnage in Boston, but altered the plan when they discovered the SUV they had carjacked didn't have enough gas and the owner escaped.

The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it will introduce a redesigned $100 bill into circulation beginning this October, more than two years later than expected. The redesigned note had added security features to protect against counterfeiting, such as a blue, 3-D security ribbon and a disappearing Liberty Bell in an inkwell, Fox News reports.