A call that there had been a "discharge of firearms" came into police at 1:35 p.m., John Cannon, the spokesman said. The shots were fired near the ticket counter in Terminal B at Bush Intercontinental Airport, he said. One person has been taken to an area hospital with life threatening injuries.

Dale Howard, of Tomball, was at the baggage handling area of the airport waiting for his sister to arrive on an incoming flight when he heard two shots fired from the floor above. A few seconds later, he said he heard three more shots.

"People were screaming. I knew exactly what it was - gunfire," Howard said.

Police from an adjacent station rushed in, and Howard said he directed them to the floor above.

Parts of the terminal remained blocked off as police investigated the shooting. The airport announced on its Twitter feed that the terminal had been closed and passengers would be redirected to other terminals.

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If the measure is signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley, it will make Maryland the 18th state in the nation to do away with the death penalty.

A repeal bill won final passage from the House of Delegates on Friday. It already had been approved by the Senate.

The House advanced the legislation this week after delegates rejected nearly 20 amendments, mostly from Republicans, aimed at keeping capital punishment for the most heinous crimes.

If passed, life without the possibility of parole would be the most severe sentence in the state.

Supporters of repeal argue that the death penalty is costly, error-prone, racially biased and a poor deterrent of crime. But opponents say it is a necessary tool to punish lawbreakers who commit the most egregious crimes.

Maryland has five men on death row. The measure would not apply to them retroactively, but the legislation makes clear that the governor can commute their sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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Billboard announced additional performers Thursday. They include Chris Brown, Jennifer Lopez, Ed Sheeran, David Guetta, Akon, Ne-Yo and Icona Pop.

Taylor Swift, Maroon 5 and fun. are finalists in 11 categories. Swift, Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, Rihanna and One Direction will compete for the top artist award.

Previously announced performers include Swift, Bieber, Bruno Mars, Miguel, Christina Aguilera, Selena Gomez, Pitbull, The Band Perry and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.

Prince, who will receive the icon award, will also perform.

Tracy Morgan will host the awards, to air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena on ABC.

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IBM says it has made the tiniest stop-motion movie ever - a one-minute video of individual carbon monoxide molecules repeatedly rearranged to show a boy dancing, throwing a ball and bouncing on a trampoline.

Each frame measures 45 by 25 nanometers - there are 25 million nanometers in an inch - but hugely magnified, the movie is reminiscent of early video games, particularly when the boy bounces the ball off the side of the frame accompanied by simple music and sound effects.

The movie is titled, "A Boy and His Atom."

Videos showing atoms in motion have been seen before but Andreas Heinrich, IBM's principal scientist for the project, said Tuesday this is the first time anything so small has been maneuvered to tell a story.

"This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world," Heinrich said. "The reason we made this was not to convey a scientific message directly, but to engage with students, to prompt them to ask questions."

Jamie Panas of Guinness World Records said Guinness certified the movie as "Smallest Stop-Motion Film."

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The police department made the announcement in a tweet Wednesday morning, saying more details would follow. Police spokeswoman Cheryl Fiandaca confirmed the tweet but referred all other questions to the FBI.

Three people were killed and more than 260 injured on April 15 when two bombs exploded near the finish line.

Suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after a gunfight with police several days later. His brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was captured and lies in a hospital prison.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev's relatives will claim his body now that his wife has agreed to release it, an uncle said. Tsarnaev, 26, has been at the medical examiner's office in Massachusetts since he died after a gunfight with authorities more than a week ago.

Amato DeLuca, the Rhode Island attorney for his widow, Katherine Russell, said Tuesday that his client had just learned that the medical examiner was ready to release Tsarnaev's body and that she wants it released to his side of the family.

Police said Tsarnaev ran out of ammunition before his 19-year-old brother dragged his body under a vehicle while fleeing the scene. His cause of death has been determined but will not be made public until his remains are claimed.

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On Tuesday, the FDA lowered to 15 the age at which girls and women can buy the emergency contraceptive without a prescription -- and said it no longer has to be kept behind pharmacy counters.

Instead, the pill can sit on drugstore shelves just like condoms, but that buyers would have to prove their age at the cash register.

Earlier this month, a federal judge had ruled there should be no age restrictions and gave the FDA 30 days to act. The FDA said its latest decision was independent of the court case.

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Apple is selling the bonds in its first debt issue since the 1990s. The company is raising the money to give to shareholders through dividend payments and stock buybacks.

The company has $145 billion in cash, more than enough for the $100 billion cash return program it announced last week. However, most of its money sits in overseas accounts, and the company doesn't plan to bring it to the U.S. until the federal corporate tax rate is lowered.

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The stock market has recovered all the ground it lost over the previous two weeks, when worries over slower economic growth, falling commodity prices and disappointing quarterly earnings battered financial markets.

The S&P 500 index rose 11.37 points to close at 1,593.61. The 0.7 percent increase nudged the index above its previous closing high of 1,593.36, reached on April 11.

"The market has had a terrific run," said Philip Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors, noting that the S&P 500 is up 12 percent since the start of 2013. "At the beginning of the year, I thought we were going to 1,660 (for the whole year). We're only about 5 percent from that."

A pair of better economic reports gave investors some encouragement. Wages and spending rose in the U.S. last month, and pending home sales hit their highest level in three years.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 106.20 points to 14,818.75, up 0.7 percent. Microsoft and IBM were among the Dow's best performers, rising more than 2 percent each.

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Dipendra Poudel of the Mountaineering Department said the three climbers -- from Italy, Switzerland and Britain -- were involved in arguments with some Sherpa guides on Sunday.

Poudel says both sides accuse each other of starting the fight, adding mountaineering officials based at the Everest base camp were investigating the incident.

Sherpa guides hired by the hundreds of Western climbers attempting to climb the world's highest mountain are the first ones to fix the ropes on the routes so their clients can climb to the peak.

The Sherpas are accusing the foreign climbers of starting the fight.

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State Sen. Diane Savino and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal announced the legislation at a news conference Sunday in New York City. The bill was introduced on Friday.

If passed, New York would become the first state to raise the minimum age to buy cigarettes to 21. Four states and some communities have increased the age to 19, and at least two towns have agreed to raise it to 21.

Savino says "anything we can do to stop young people from starting is a step in the right direction."

A hearing on the city's proposal to raise the minimum age to 21 is scheduled for May 2.

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Publicist Kirt Webster says Jones died Friday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville after being hospitalized with fever and irregular blood pressure.

Known for his clenched, precise baritone, Jones had No. 1 songs in five separate decades, 1950s to 1990s, and was idolized not just by fellow country singers, but by Frank Sinatra, Pete Townshend, Elvis Costello, James Taylor and countless others.

In a career that lasted more than 50 years, "Possum" recorded more than 150 albums and became the champion and symbol of traditional country music, a well-lined link to his hero, Hank Williams.

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A third nurse managed to save two patients and they were the only three thought to have survived, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing the Health Ministry.

Police said the fire, which broke out at about 2 a.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern, 2200 GMT) in the one-story hospital in the Ramenskoye settlement, was caused by a short circuit, RIA Novosti reported.

A photograph on the website of the emergency services showed a building consumed by flames.

The emergency services also posted a list of the patients indicating they ranged in age from 20 to 76.

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The U.S. Marshals Service said Friday that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center overnight and was taken to the Federal Medical Center Devens about 40 miles west of Boston.

The facility, on the decommissioned Fort Devens U.S. Army base, treats federal prisoners and detainees who require specialized long-term medical or mental health care.

The 19-year-old Tsarnaev is recovering from a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway.

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The group's Al Manar TV made the announcement Thursday through a one line statement flashed as an urgent news bar on its screen.

An Israeli warplane shot down a drone approaching the country coast from Lebanon, smashing its wreckage into the sea off the northern city of Haifa Thursday.

Suspicion immediately fell on Hezbollah, which sent a similar drone in October and vowed to send more.

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Hagel, speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi, said the White House has informed two senators by letter that, within the past day, “our intelligence community does assess, with varying degrees of confidence, that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically, the chemical agent sarin.”

“It violates every convention of warfare,” Hagel said.No information was made public on what quantity of chemical weapons might have been used, or when or what casualties might have resulted.President Barack Obama has said the use of chemical weapons would be a “game-changer” in the U.S. position on intervening in the Syrian civil war, and the letter to Congress reiterates that the use or transfer of chemical weapons in Syria is a “red line for the United States.” However, the letter also hints that a broad U.S. response is not imminent.White House legislative director Miguel Rodriguez, who signed the letter, wrote that “because the president takes this issue so seriously, we have an obligation to fully investigate any and all evidence of chemical weapons use within Syria.”

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Health Department spokeswoman Dara Chadwick says the body of 22-year-old Sunil Tripathi was identified Thursday morning through a forensic dental exam. The cause of death has not been determined.

Tripathi's family says in a statement they feel "indescribable grief" but are grateful for the outpouring of support.

Tripathi's body was found Tuesday by members of the Brown crew team in waters off India Point Park. Relatives of Tripathi, who's from Bryn Mawr, Pa., had been searching for him with help from the FBI and Brown students since mid-March.

He had been on leave from the Ivy League school and was living with classmates in Providence.

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Anzor Tsarnaev told journalists in the southern Russian province of Dagestan on Thursday that he is leaving "today or tomorrow."

The suspects' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, said she was still thinking it over. She was charged with shoplifting in the U.S. last summer and is concerned that she could be arrested.

Tsarnaeva said she had been assured by lawyers, however, that she would not be.

The Tsarnaev family emigrated to the U.S. a decade ago, but both parents returned to Russia last year.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

The Boston bombings should spur stronger security cooperation between Moscow and Washington, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, adding that they also show that the West was wrong in supporting militants in Chechnya.

Putin said that "this tragedy should push us closer in fending off common threats, including terrorism, which is one of the biggest and most dangerous of them."

The two brothers accused of the Boston bombings are ethnic Chechens who had lived in the U.S. for more than a decade.

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U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Carlos Vega said shortly before dawn Thursday that the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Firefighters from Mobile and Coast Guard officials responded after 8:30 p.m. CDT Wednesday to a pair of explosions involving the gas barges in an area of the Mobile River east of downtown, authorities said. Additional explosions followed over the next few hours.

Authorities say three people were brought to University of South Alabama Medical Center after suffering burn-related injuries.

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