This Just In!: AP allows U.S. as noun

A spate of style changes from the AP today, the most important of which:

U.S.: The abbreviation is acceptable as a noun or adjective for United States.

That's bowing to increasingly popular usage. Now, I wonder whether it will start allowing state abbreviations to stand as nouns for the states. In these days of ever-compressed news, I'm seeing that more and more.

Some other changes and additions:

Fatah : A secular political party and former guerrilla movement founded by Yasser Arafat that has dominated Palestinian politics since the 1960s.

Sears Holding Corp.: A 2005 merger of Kmart and Sears, Roebuck and Co. Based in Hoffman Estates, Ill. (This replaces the old Sears, Roebuck entry. The Kmart entry remains the same, except it now refers back to this.)