More than 15,000 residents have fled a volcano that rumbled to life less than a week ago in Indonesia and local airlines have been warned to avoid flying near the mountain as thick ash continues to spew from its crater, an official said Thursday.

The aviation warning was issued Wednesday for small planes serving short-haul flights in the region as small eruptions continue at Mount Sinabung, said Susanto, general manager for air navigation at Kuala Namu airport in North Sumatra's capital Medan. Like many Indonesians, he uses only one name.

Lawyers for concert promoter AEG Live LLC rested their defense Wednesday with testimony from a longtime friend and doctor of Michael Jackson in the negligence case filed by Jackson's mother over his death.

The trial is in its 21st week and jurors are expected to begin deliberations next week.

A man is facing at least 10 years in prison after acknowledging that he shot an assault rifle at the White House two years ago.

Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez pleaded guilty Wednesday to two of the 19 charges against him as a result of the November 2011 shooting. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors will drop the remaining charges. That includes the most serious charge he faced, attempting to assassinate the president, which carried a potential life sentence.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said a United Nations report finding "clear and convincing evidence" that sarin nerve gas was used in Syria painted an "unrealistic" account, and he denied his government orchestrated the attack.

In an interview with Fox News Channel conducted in the Syrian capital of Damascus and aired Wednesday,Assad said terrorists were to blame for the chemical attack, which the U.S. says killed more than 1,400 people, including hundreds of children. He said evidence that terrorist groups have used sarin gas has been turned over to Russia and that Russia, through one of its satellites, has evidence that the rockets in the Aug. 21 attack were launched from another area.

Struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry has unveiled its new Z30, touting it as the company's biggest, fastest and most advanced smartphone.

The all-touch smartphone comes with a 5-inch display and BlackBerry's largest battery so far. BlackBerry says it's designed for people looking for a smartphone geared toward communications, messaging and productivity.

LinkedIn has asked a secret court to allow it to disclose the number of U.S. national security orders the company has received under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

On Wednesday, LinkedIn joined four other companies that have similar cases pending before the FISA Court. The other four are Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook.

Mark Wahlberg is now a high school graduate — 25 years after dropping out of a Boston high school.

The 42-year-old actor-producer finished his diploma requirements after taking classes online. He dropped out of Copley Square High School, now known as Snowden International School at Copley, in the 9th grade.

Moviemaker Francis Ford Coppola and opera singer Placido Domingo are among five winners of a lucrative award that has been dubbed the "Nobel Prize of the arts."

British sculptor Antony Gormley, Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto and British architect David Chipperfield were also announced Tuesday as winners of the Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperiale Awards, which come with a 15 million yen ($150,000) purse.

Prince Harry has spent the night in a giant freezer to simulate the conditions he will face when he treks to the South Pole this winter.

The 29-year-old royal, who will race with a team of injured British servicemen and women against groups from the United States and the Commonwealth, spent around 20 hours in a cold chamber where he was subjected to temperatures of -35 Celsius (-35 Fahrenheit), with wind speeds of 45 miles per hour.

Brazil plans to divorce itself from the U.S.-centric Internet over Washington's widespread online spying, a move that many experts fear will be a potentially dangerous first step toward politically fracturing a global network built with minimal interference by governments.

President Dilma Rousseff has ordered a series of measures aimed at greater Brazilian online independence and security following revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency intercepted her communications, hacked into the state-owned Petrobras oil company's network and spied on Brazilians who entrusted their personal data to U.S. tech companies such as Facebook and Google.