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WASHINGTON (AP) — Pioneering Washington journalist Haynes Johnson, who helped redefine political reporting, has died at age 81.

The University of Maryland, where Johnson was a journalism professor, reports that he suffered a heart attack Friday while at a Bethesda, Md., hospital. He had attended the journalism college's graduation days earlier.

Johnson was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1966 for coverage of the civil rights struggle in Selma, Ala. Johnson spent about 12 years at The Evening Star in Washington before legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee hired him away in 1969.

Besides reporting, Johnson was a columnist at the newspaper from 1977 to 1994.

Johnson was the author, co-author or editor of 18 books. He also appeared regularly on the PBS programs "Washington Week in Review" and "The NewsHour."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some call it wishful thinking, but President Barack Obama has all but declared an end to the global war on terror.

Obama isn't claiming final victory over extremists who still seek to kill Americans and other Westerners. Instead, he's steering the United States away from what he calls an equally frightening threat: a country in a state of perpetual war.

He gave a landmark speech Thursday in which he sought to refine and recalibrate his counterterrorism strategy.

The president asserted that al-Qaida is "on the path to defeat," reducing the scale of terrorism to pre-Sept. 11 levels.

That means that with the Afghanistan war winding down, Obama is unlikely to commit troops in large numbers to any conflict unless, as his critics fear, he tragically has underestimated al-Qaida's staying power.

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) — A Las Vegas man is accused in Illinois of a timeshare scam that federal prosecutors say bilked $10 million from more than 3,000 victims across the United States, Canada and other countries.

A grand jury in East St. Louis has indicted 37-year-old Michael Patrick Sullivan on conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud charges. The fraud allegedly took place from December 2006 to January 2012.

The indictment alleges that Sullivan's Vacation Max telemarketing company falsely represented it found corporate buyers interested in acquiring blocks of timeshare units.

The company solicited fees of up to several thousand dollars from each timeshare owner in purported pre-paid closing costs and related expenses, but no sales actually occurred.

Online court records don't show whether he has an attorney.