AP National News

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A powerful earthquake has shaken a remote mountainous part of southwestern Pakistan that is dotted with coal mines and mud houses. At least 11 people were killed and more than 200 injured in the quake that collapsed at least one mine and many houses. A local official says rescue efforts are

ROCKVILLE, Utah (AP) — A man who is suspected of shooting at vehicles and causing a lockdown of a tourist town outside of Zion National Park in southern Utah was apprehended Wednesday night, Residents of Rockville, which has about 220 residents, were told to take shelter after reports at 4:30 p.m. that a person shot

By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Texas to suspend a new law that has banned most abortions in the state since September. The order Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman freezes for now the strict abortion law known as Senate Bill 8. It bans abortions

By STEFANIE DAZIO, MATTHEW BROWN and BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Some of the oil that spilled from a pipeline into the waters off Southern California has been breaking up naturally in ocean currents. That’s according to a Coast Guard official who spoke to reporters Wednesday. Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier says

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer A Facebook executive is pushing back on a whistleblower’s claims — supported by the company’s own internal research — that the social network’s products harm children and fuel polarization in the U.S. Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, told The Associated Press Wednesday that Facebook does not

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. Marshals say the husband of a slain social media star killed himself in a Florida home when authorities showed up to arrest him in connection with his wife’s death last year in Texas. Houston, Texas police held a news conference Wednesday saying there was no confrontation at the

CHICAGO (AP) — A former Northwestern University professor accused of murder in the stabbing death of his boyfriend reiterated his contention that another man committed the crime while he cowered in a nearby bathroom. In a second day of testimony, 47-year-old Wyndham Lathem continued to maintain that Andrew Warren stabbed Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau in July

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California prison guard killed himself after reporting corruption and harassment to authorities and cooperating with attorneys suing the state. The Sacramento Bee reported Wednesday that Sgt. Kevin Steele wrote memos to top prison officials early this year in which he said fellow correctional officers in his California State Prison, Sacramento,

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorneys for a cybersecurity lawyer charged last month in a special counsel’s probe into the Trump-Russia investigation have asked federal prosecutors to provide more information about the indictment. Lawyers for Michael Sussmann on Wednesday called the allegations vague, ill-defined and confusing. The motion previews the lines of

By JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seems skeptical of requiring the U.S. government to divulge what it says is secret information being sought by a Guantanamo Bay detainee. But in a surprising turn during arguments Wednesday, several justices also raised questions about the rights of the man, who was tortured

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Two Black Democratic state legislators are accusing Virginia’s Republican party of racism for sending out flyers with drawings showing them hoisted in the air by handheld strings. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the state GOP mailed out flyers targeting eight Democrats in competitive state House races, including three who are Black.

HOUSTON (AP) — Authorities say prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty for a man who fatally shot a family of six children and two parents at a Houston home. The Houston Chronicle reports that 54-year-old David Conley was charged with capital murder in the shooting of his estranged ex-girlfriend, her husband and six children,

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal lawsuit says Louisiana State University did too little to address allegations of sexual harassment and assault against a French graduate student, even after learning he had been arrested on a rape charge in central Louisiana. The lawsuit was filed earlier this week by six

By ED WHITE Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — Michigan is urging residents of Benton Harbor to use bottled water for cooking and drinking, a major shift in response to elevated levels of lead. The state has been making free bottled water and filters available in Benton Harbor for a few weeks. But the announcement Wednesday

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico has sent another plane load of Haitian migrants back to their homeland on a flight carrying 129 people to Port au Prince.  Unlike the first repatriation flight in late September, Mexico did not specify that all those aboard Wednesday’s flight were returning voluntarily, and some appear to have been escorted

By KEVIN FREKING and JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican and Democratic senators have edged back from a perilous standoff over lifting the nation’s borrowing cap. Democrats are signaling they are receptive to an offer from Republican leader Mitch McConnell that would allow for an emergency debt limit extension into December. McConnell made

DEPUE, Ill. (AP) — Efforts to change the roughly 200-year-old racist name of a creek in northern Illinois are gaining traction. The (Peoria) Journal Star reports that Negro Creek was named after the DePue area’s first Black settler built a cabin at the creek in 1829. Amy Urbanowski, a former area resident, has received support

By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s Republican attorney general is seeking another shot at defending an embattled 2018 law in court. The law would halt a second-trimester procedure to end pregnancies.  Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Wednesday he hopes his legal team can persuade the U.S. Supreme Court at a hearing

By DAVID PORTER Associated Press NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A former Army major and his wife who prosecutors said routinely beat their young foster children and denied them food and water have avoided more prison time. Wednesday’s proceeding in Newark was the third sentencing in the case against John and Carolyn Jackson after federal appeals