WARSAW, Poland — The presidents of Israel and Poland joined thousands of others Thursday for a Holocaust remembrance event at the former Nazi death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, hoping to put recent tensions behind them.

Presidents Reuven Rivlin of Israel and Andrzej Duda of Poland lit candles, bowed their heads and pressed their hands on the Death Wall, a site at Auschwitz where inmates, chiefly Polish resistance fighters, were executed by German forces during World War II.

They then led thousands in the March of the Living, which takes place each year on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The solemn march began at the main gate of Auschwitz and ended 2 miles away at Birkenau, where Jews from across Europe were transported by train and murdered in gas chambers.

Duda said he and Rivlin were there to give testimony to the destruction of the Jewish people and warn about where anti-Semitism, xenophobia and racism can lead.

“Our common presence here shows the world: Never again anti-Semitism, never again genocide, never again Holocaust,” Duda said.

Poland recently passed a Holocaust speech law, which criminalizes blaming Poland for crimes committed by Nazis. Israel fears the law’s intent is to repress discussion about Poles who helped the Germans kill Jews.

Nazi Germany killed some 1.1 million people in the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps. The victims were mostly Jews, but also included Poles, Roma and Soviet POWs.

Interior Dept. to raise vehicle fees to $35 at iconic U.S. parks

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department is increasing fees at the most popular national parks to $35 per vehicle, backing down from an earlier plan that would have forced visitors to pay $70 per vehicle to visit the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and other iconic parks.

A plan announced Thursday would boost fees at 17 popular parks by $5, up from $30 but far below the figure Interior proposed last fall.

The plan by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke drew widespread opposition from lawmakers and governors of both parties, who said the higher fees could exclude many Americans from enjoying national parks.

The $35 fee applies mostly in the West.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said the fee hikes were needed to help maintain the parks and begin to address a $11.6 billion maintenance backlog.

Watchdog in backing Britain: Nerve agent used against ex-spy

LONDON — The international chemical weapons watchdog on Thursday confirmed Britain’s finding that a former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve agent, as Russia continued to deny suggestions that it was behind the attack.

Investigators from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said the nerve agent was “of high purity.” Britain says that means only a sophisticated laboratory could have manufactured it.

The watchdog’s report does not say who was responsible for the attack. The OPCW’s job was to identify the poison, not to trace its origins or assign blame.

Britain blames Russia for the March 4 poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury.

Backpage.com CEO pleads guilty in California plea deal

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The chief executive of a website that authorities have dubbed an “online brothel” pleaded guilty to reduced charges Thursday and agreed to cooperate in prosecuting the site’s creators.

Carl Ferrer will serve no more than five years in state prison under the plea agreement.

He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of money laundering. He also agreed to cooperate in the ongoing California prosecution of Backpage.com founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin. They have pleaded not guilty.

The founders also were among those indicted this month by a federal grand jury in Arizona.

Ferrer was absent from the federal indictment, which referenced a “CF” who was involved with the site.

Anchorage voters poised to reject bathroom bill

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Voters in Alaska’s largest city are on track to becoming the first in the country to defeat a so-called bathroom bill in a referendum that asked them to require people using public bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender at birth.

The initiative asked Anchorage’s voters to repeal part of an ordinance passed in 2015 that prevented discrimination based on sexual orientation that said people could use public bathrooms and locker rooms “consistent with their gender identity.”

Voting by mail and in person ended April 3 and the repeal effort was losing 53-47 percent as of Monday, with nearly 78,000 votes counted and only several hundred to be counted when tallying ends Friday. Supporters of the referendum have conceded defeat and opponents are claiming victory.

870,000 lose power across Puerto Rico, authorities say

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Some 870,000 electricity customers across Puerto Rico were left without power on Thursday after another widespread outage, forcing the island’s main public hospital and international airport to switch to backup generators as the U.S. territory struggles to recover from Hurricane Maria.

The island’s Electric Power Authority said a tree fell on the main line that supplies power to the capital of San Juan and surrounding areas from the north coast to the southeast. The tree fell as crews cleared land in the southeast mountain town of Cayey as part of power restoration efforts.

The announcement sparked outrage across social media. More than 50,000 customers of the 1.47 million remain in the dark since the Category 4 storm struck Sept. 20.

The most restrictive abortion law in the country will remain on hold until at least Oct. 24. The Mississippi law bans abortion after 15 weeks. It took effect when GOP Gov. Phil Bryant signed it March 19, but the state’s only abortion clinic in Jackson sued and U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves put it on hold the next day.

Many Canadians wore hockey jerseys Thursday to honor the 16 players and team personnel who died after a truck collided with the team’s bus last Friday. People showed up at work and schools in jerseys as part of a commemoration inspired by hockey moms to send a message of support for the families of the dead.