AP National News

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials are looking into reports that in the frantic evacuation of desperate Afghans from Kabul, older men were admitted together with young girls they claimed as “brides” or otherwise sexually abused. U.S. officials at intake centers in the United Arab Emirates and in Wisconsin have

By CALEB JONES Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Health care workers in Hawaii say a lack of government action is worsening an already crippling surge of coronavirus cases in the islands, and without effective policy changes the state’s limited hospitals could face a grim crisis. An infectious diseases doctor says the state’s health care workers

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VENICE, Italy (AP) — Kristen Stewart says there’s a “huge, vast” difference between her loss of privacy as a teenage movie star and that of Princess Diana. Stewart gained that perspective filming Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer,” the latest cinematic look at the late Princess of Wales, which premiered Friday at the

By RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A group of parents of disabled students has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to strike down Iowa’s law banning schools from requiring masks, arguing it endangers their health and denies equal access to education. The lawsuit is backed by the American Civil Liberties Union

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A top European Union official has condemned Belarus and expressed support for Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell spoke Friday hours after a state of emergency took effect in areas of eastern Poland following a surge in illegal migration. He said EU members “are ready to take

NEW YORK (AP) — A woman has testified that R&B singer R. Kelly paid $200,000 to settle a lawsuit she brought accusing him of giving her herpes two decades ago without disclosing he had it. The woman testified on Friday at Kelly’s sex-trafficking trial. She told jurors when they began having sex, she told him

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zambia’s parliament has elected its first female speaker, days after new President Hakainde Hichilema began shaking up the government by firing security commanders and promising economic reforms. Earlier this month the long-time opposition leader was elected after campaigning to break with the past. Since his inauguration

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim, one of Iraq’s most senior and influential Muslim Shiite clerics, has died, members of his family said. He was 85.  A relative, Mohsen al-Hakim, told The Associated Press that al-Hakim died at the Al Hayat hospital in the southern holy city of Najaf on

By ROXANA HEGEMAN and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press BELLE PLAINE, Kan. (AP) — Civil rights advocates and federal public defenders have urged the White House to intervene to ensure that a privately run federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, shuts down when its contract expires at the end of this year. The letter emailed Thursday to

By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A judge says a former student accused of murdering 17 people at a Florida high school cannot be called “animal” or “that thing” during his upcoming trial. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer ruled Friday that it’s impossible to create a complete list of words prosecutors and

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina appeals court has blocked an order that had allowed well over 50,000 felony offenders who aren’t serving prison or jail time to immediately register to vote and cast ballots. The state Court of Appeals agreed on Friday to halt last week’s decision

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — An Emmett Till historical marker in Mississippi will be repaired after being knocked off the pole that supports it. That’s according to Allan Hammons, president of an advertising agency that made the sign. A previous version of this metal sign was vandalized and another Till

By CURT ANDERSON AP Legal Affairs Writer ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The battle over mask requirements in Florida schools is headed for a new legal phase following an appeal by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of a judge’s ruling that a blanket ban on mask mandates exceeds the state’s authority. The case heads next to

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s attorney general said a former Army major accused of killing three neighbors to eliminate a witness in a court-martial has been sentenced to life in prison. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Thursday in a statement that Christian Richard Martin will not be eligible for parole. Jurors convicted Martin after

BANGKOK (AP) — A 72-year-old British man has been found safe three days after disappearing in a thick jungle in northeastern Thailand while going to visit friends on a motorbike. A member of a local volunteer team that helped rescue him said a hunter came across Barry Leonard Weller in a remote forest in Khon

By The Associated Press This week’s new entertainment releases include Mary Elizabeth Winstead starring in the brutal assassin thriller “Kate” on Netflix and a filmed version of the Tony-nominated Broadway musical “Come From Away.” Justin Bieber will hit the MTV Video Music Awards stage for the first time in six years on Sunday and the

By CLAUDIA TORRENS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — An extraordinary number of Ecuadorians has been coming to the United States — often to New York. They surpassed El Salvadorans as the fourth-largest nationality encountered by U.S. authorities on the Mexican border, behind Mexicans, Guatemalans and Hondurans. That also has led to increasing numbers of

PARIS (AP) — Officials in the principality of Monaco say that Princess Charlene is in “reassuring” condition after being suddenly hospitalized with complications from a serious sinus infection. Princess Charlene, a former Olympic swimmer who has been on an extended stay in her home country of South Africa, suffered an unspecified “malaise” overnight Wednesday, the

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Prisoners in South Carolina attacked two officers inside a county jail on Friday. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott says they destroyed much of a unit housing about 50 inmates before a special team of officers “used a show of force” to end the riot. Lott says the officers are hospitalized but

JIYEH, Lebanon (AP) — Dozens of Lebanese worshippers knelt for Friday prayers at a gas station south of Beirut amid severe fuel shortages that have paralyzed the nation for weeks. The prayer session in Jiyeh took place as a queue of vehicles waiting for gas stretched for more than five kilometers (three miles). The organizing