NEW YORK — As some advertisers flee Bill O’Reilly’s nightly talk show amid mounting allegations of sexual harassment, Fox News’ parent, 21st Century Fox, announced it is investigating one of those claims against its popular TV host.

The investigation is in response to a complaint lodged last week by Wendy Walsh, formerly a regular guest on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” show.

Walsh’s lawyer, Lisa Bloom, said at a news conference last week that O’Reilly had told Walsh, a psychologist and radio host, that he would recommend her for a paid contributor role on the network. Walsh and O’Reilly had dinner in Los Angeles in 2013, but when Walsh refused his invitation to go back to his hotel room, his attitude changed and she was soon dropped from the show, according to Walsh.

Bloom’s pronouncements came on the heels of a report by The New York Times that five women had been paid $13 million to settle allegations of sexual harassment or other inappropriate conduct by the top-rated host.

O’Reilly has denied all the allegations, saying that, as a prominent public figure, he is vulnerable to lawsuits from people who threaten to cause him bad publicity unless they get paid.

Walsh said she came forward because she was told by a Times reporter that many of the women who have accused O’Reilly of harassment are bound by gag orders. She said she is not bound by any such agreement, and the statute of limitations for suing has run out.

“Nobody can silence me, because my voice is not for sale,” she said.

Ala. governor in scandal quits, pleads guilty to misdemeanors

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Republican Gov. Robert Bentley resigned Monday rather than face impeachment and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor campaign violations that arose during the investigation of alleged affair with a top aide.

Last week, the Alabama Ethics Commission cited evidence that Bentley, 74, broke state ethics and campaign laws and referred the matter to prosecutors. Bentley pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of failing to file a major contribution report and converting campaign contributions to personal to use.

Bentley, a staunch family-values conservative, was first engulfed in scandal last year after recordings surfaced of him making sexually charged comments to political adviser Rebekah Caldwell Mason.

Successor Kay Ivey became the state’s second female governor.

N.Y. makes tuition free, but students must stay after college

ALBANY, N.Y. — There’s a big string attached to New York’s free middle-class college tuition initiative: Students must stay in the state after graduation or else pay back the benefit as a loan.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that the requirement was added to protect the state’s investment in a student’s education by ensuring they don’t take advantage of free tuition and then leave New York.

The tuition initiative, which Cuomo said is a national model, covers state college or university tuition for in-state students from families earning $125,000 or less. Students must maintain a certain GPA and remain in state for as many years as they received the benefit.

Republican lawmakers pushed for the requirement during closed-door state budget negotiations.

Activists say China executions outpace world despite decline

BEIJING — China’s use of the death penalty remains shrouded in secrecy and still outpaces the rest of the world combined, even after the nation’s execution rate fell sharply over the past decade, human rights activists said Tuesday.

Amnesty International reported 1,032 state-sponsored executions worldwide in 2016, excluding China, where the true number is unknown because the government considers it a state secret. The group said it believes China executed thousands, but it didn’t offer a more precise estimate due to a lack of accurate information.

The human rights group Dui Hua estimates about 2,000 executions took place in China last year, down from a 6,500 a decade ago, said the group’s executive director, John Kamm.

Symantec says CIA tools found across 16 countries

LONDON — The CIA’s cyberespionage tool kit made public by WikiLeaks has been linked to 40 spying operations in 16 countries, an early public assessment of the intelligence agency’s global hacking operations, computer security company Symantec said Monday.

In a blog post, the California-based Symantec Corp. said the tools in the WikiLeaks releases that occurred in March have been linked to the electronic infiltration of international, financial, energy and aerospace organizations across the world.

Researcher Dick O’Brien declined to provide further details, saying it might prompt speculation as to the identity of the people or organizations involved.

“I will say, in terms of the regions, the largest region represented in terms of those targets was the Middle East,” O’Brien said in a telephone interview.

U.S. aims to keep the ban on in-flight cellphone calls

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators are withdrawing a proposal that would have allowed air travelers to use their cellphones at high altitude, rather than relying on in-flight Wi-Fi services.

The proposal — introduced in 2013 by then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler — sought to roll back a long-standing ban on the use of cellphones on planes over concerns their signals could interfere with pilot radios. New advances in in-flight communications have minimized those concerns.

Under the proposal, passengers would still be required to keep their phones turned off or on airplane mode during takeoff and landing.

The decision Monday to reverse the proposal came from Wheeler’s successor, Ajit Pai. Calling the plan “ill-conceived,” Pai said he did not believe it served the public interest.

Pipeline leak: Repair work is underway for a pipeline that has spewed hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of processed natural gas into Alaska’s Cook Inlet, home to endangered beluga whales and other marine mammals. The pipeline supplies gas for power to four Hilcorp Alaska production platforms.

Russian detained: An alleged Russian hacker has been detained in Spain at the request of U.S. authorities. Pyotr Levashov was arrested Friday on a U.S. computer crimes warrant, according to a spokeswoman for Spain’s National Court. His wife told Russia’s RT that he was linked to America’s 2016 election hacking.