EVERGREEN, Colo. (AP) — Dozens of homes were evacuated near Denver as a wind-driven wildfire flared, one of many in the western states where hot and windy conditions were making it easy for the wild land blazes to start and spread.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is planning a major push using executive powers to tackle the pollution blamed for global warming in an effort to make good on promises he made at the start of his second term. "We know we have to do more — and we will do more," Obama said Wednesday in Berlin.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — The Afghan Taliban are ready to free a U.S. army soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their senior operatives imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay as a conciliatory gesture, a senior spokesman for the group said Thursday.

NEW YORK (AP) — James Gandolfini would have hated all this fuss.