AP-National

By ASHOK SHARMA and SIBI ARASU Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — Ice-cold floodwaters swept through mountain towns in India’s Himalayan northeast, killing at least 31 people, washing away houses and bridges, and forcing thousands of people to leave their homes, officials said Friday. The flood began shortly after midnight Wednesday, when the waters of

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — It’s been 15 years since the world’s elite ballooning pilots have gathered in the United States for a race with roots stretching back more than a century. They’ll be launching for this year’s Gordon Bennett competition during an international balloon fiesta that draws hundreds of

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia state Senate committee says it will start its own investigation of jail conditions in the state’s most populous county. The Thursday announcement comes three months after the U.S. Justice Department launched its own inquiry of Fulton County jail conditions. Senate Public Safety Committee Chairman John

By ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press PARIS (AP) — They creep, they crawl, they feast on your blood as you sleep. They may travel in your clothes or backpacks to find another person worth dining on — on the subway, or at the cinema. Bedbugs go where you go, and they have become a nightmare haunting

By SIMINA MISTREANU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Typhoon Koinu is sweeping southern Taiwan. One person has died and more than 300 have been injured. The typhoon’s rain and record-breaking winds have led the island to suspend flights and close schools and offices. Koinu, which means “puppy” in Japanese, made landfall early Thursday in

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel has quietly helped fuel Azerbaijan’s campaign to recapture Nagorno-Karabakh, supplying powerful weapons to Azerbaijan ahead of its lightening offensive last month that brought the ethnic Armenian enclave back under its control, officials and experts say. Just weeks before Azerbaijan launched its 24-hour assault on

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press When the megaphone called out for the daily Islamic prayers, the nonbeliever grabbed his prayer beads and ambled through the streets to join others at the mosque in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest city. Formerly a Muslim, he now identifies as an atheist but remains closeted, performing religious obligations only as

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and NATACHA PISARENKO Associated Press CAPILLA DEL MONTE, Argentina (AP) — In the pope’s homeland, there’s a woman who believes in angels and calls them aliens. Another who proudly identifies as a witch. And a spiritual guru so turned off by the Vatican’s opulence that he left the church to help

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press ISOLA DEL GRAN SASSO, Italy (AP) — Two children scribbled petitions to St. Gabriele dell’Addolorata in the sanctuary where the young saint is venerated in this central Italian mountain village. Andrea, 6, asked for blessings for his family and pets, while Sofia, 9, offered thanksgiving for winning a dance competition.

By PETER SMITH Associated Press Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy “the beauty of the morning on the beach,” he recalled. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Momo Nomura, a graphic artist and entrepreneur, visits a shrine near her business meetings or trips almost weekly. She prays first according to the Shinto rules, then heads to the reception to get a Goshuin, a seal stamp certifying her visit that comes with elegant calligraphy and

By DEEPA BHARATH Associated Press CHENNAI, India (AP) — Despite India’s millennia-old history of nonreligious movements, most atheists and rationalists choose to keep quiet about their skepticism of faith — it’s easier and far less risky than going public in one of the world’s most religious countries. The space that does exist for debating religious

By ILAN BEN ZION Associated Press MEVASSERET ZION, Israel (AP) — Israel is a nation perennially swept up in religious fervor and conflict. And yet, strikingly, a large portion of its population is secular, and even its insular ultra-Orthodox community loses a steady stream of members who tire of its strict religious rules. The country

By MARIAM FAM Associated Press There’s the Tunisian woman who fasts during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, though not for God. The Iraqi woman who, until recently, wore a hijab. And a man whose Egyptian identity card identifies him as “Muslim,” despite his efforts to change it. Such are the ways that some of

By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Nearly every Alaskan will receive a $1,312 check starting this week, their annual share from the earnings of the state’s nest-egg oil fund. Some use the money for extras like tropical vacations but others — particularly in high-cost rural Alaska where jobs and housing are limited

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press KANO, Nigeria (AP) — When the megaphone called out for the daily Islamic prayers, the nonbeliever grabbed his prayer beads and ambled through the streets to join others at the mosque in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest city. Formerly a Muslim, he now identifies as an atheist but remains closeted, performing

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press ISOLA DEL GRAN SASSO, Italy (AP) — Two children scribbled petitions to St. Gabriele dell’Addolorata in the vast sanctuary where the young saint is venerated in this central Italian mountain village. Andrea, 6, asked for blessings for his family and pets. Sofia, 9, gave thanks for winning a dance competition.

By WILL WEISSERT and BRIAN SLODYSKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Kevin McCarthy spent years raising mountains of Republican campaign cash, flying around the country to recruit top candidates in key districts and painstakingly building political relationships as he worked his way toward becoming speaker of the House. Now that he’s been ousted from the

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and NATACHA PISARENKO Associated Press CAPILLA DEL MONTE, Argentina (AP) — In the pope’s homeland, there’s a woman who believes in angels and calls them aliens. Another proudly identifies as a witch. And there’s a spiritual guru so turned off by the Vatican’s opulence that he left the church to help