AP National News

By PETER SMITH Associated Press Relatives and supporters of 17 missionaries kidnapped in Haiti are praying at least as much for the captors as the captives. They’re tapping into a long history in their conservative Anabaptist tradition when they use phrases such as “Love your enemies,” “Forgive them,”  and “Pray for the kidnappers.”  The missionaries

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Families of nine victims killed in a racist attack at a Black South Carolina church have reached a settlement with the Justice Department over a faulty background check that allowed Dylann Roof to purchase the gun he used in the 2015 massacre. The Justice Department will pay

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Dozens of recall campaigns are underway across the U.S. ahead of next week’s election. Many of the efforts are led by people who oppose any COVID-19-related rules. The races illustrate the contentiousness that has upended usually sleepy school board and city council meetings. The tension is

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Police have charged two men with murder in the death of a 7-year-old boy shot in his South Carolina home 18 months ago. Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook says that investigators received almost no tips to solve Knowledge Sims’ death and police used dozens of interviews,

BERLIN (AP) — German security officials are warning far-right groups not to carry out vigilante patrols along the country’s eastern border with Poland, amid a rise in the number of migrants crossing the frontier illegally in recent weeks. Extremists groups include the far-right “Third Way” and “Free Saxons” party have been using social media to

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is debating whether to try to fix a jammed solar panel on its newly launched Lucy spacecraft, en route to explore asteroids. The problem cropped up shortly after the Oct. 16 liftoff from Florida. Officials said this week that one of Lucy’s two

BANGKOK (AP) — Police in the Southeast Asian nation of Laos have made one of Asia’s biggest-ever drug busts, seizing more than 55.6 million methamphetamine pills in a single raid. The Vientiane Times newspaper says the drugs were found in sacks in a house in the northern province of Bokeo. It says police searched the

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s justice minister says the European Union member should not pay any of the total $1.8 million daily fines the EU’s top court has imposed for Warsaw’s ignoring its injunctions regarding changes to the judiciary and a lignite mine. Zbigniew Ziobro on Thursday called the European

By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers Stocks rose broadly in afternoon trading on Wall Street Thursday and put major indexes on a path to edge past record highs. The S&P 500 rose 0.9% and the Nasdaq rose 1.2%, both near all-time highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%. It’s a

By ALEXANDRA JAFFE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden meets with Pope Francis on Friday, he won’t kiss the ring. Biden, who is only the second Catholic president in U.S. history, has said he eschews the traditional sign of respect because his mother told him not to — that no one is “better”

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — ExxonMobil’s chief executive says his company “does not spread disinformation regarding climate change″ as he counters congressional allegations the industry concealed evidence about the dangers of it. Exxon CEO Darren Woods is among top officials at four major oil companies testifying Thursday as congressional Democrats investigate what

By DAVID SHARP Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Federal prosecutors say law enforcement officers and a prosecutor aided an operation that illegally sold $13 million in pot grown for Maine’s medical marijuana program. Federal documents unsealed Wednesday when a defendant in a related case pleaded guilty revealed an elaborate operation in western Maine. Twelve

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An independent Dutch government advisory panel says the government must urgently take more action to rein in emissions of greenhouse gases. The Council of States warned Thursday that climate targets set by the government are currently “out of sight.” The report comes just days before the start of a U.N.

By LISA MASCARO, AAMER MADHANI and ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has traveled to Capitol Hill to pitch House Democrats on a dramatically scaled back domestic policy package. It’s now $1.75 trillion and without a paid family leave program and other priorities. But it’s still a sweeping proposal with new

ATLANTA (AP) — A former employee of Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan has been arrested on charges that she sent emails impersonating Duncan to get information about her divorce. Beth Green turned herself into the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office on Monday on felony charges of impersonating a public officer or employee, computer invasion of privacy

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel is due in Greece Thursday evening for a two-day visit to the country whose financial crisis marked much of her tenure and Germany’s relationship with Europe. Merkel arrives on a Greek national holiday marking the day in 1940 when Athens rejected

By JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — Knowledgeable sources and message exchanges reveal that Venezuela’s government quietly offered last year to release imprisoned Americans in exchange for the U.S. letting go a key financier of President Nicolás Maduro. A person involved says the offer was discussed at a previously reported meeting in Mexico City

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A 19-year-old British man obsessed with demons has been sentenced to serve at least 35 years in prison for murdering two sisters, in the belief that the killings would help him win a lottery jackpot. Judge Philippa Whipple sentenced Danyal Hussein Thursday in the stabbing deaths of

The Associated Press Stocks are moving higher in early trading on Wall Street Thursday, keeping the S&P 500 hovering near the record closing high it set on Tuesday. The benchmark index was up 0.5% in the early going, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq were also up about as much. It’s a

By FRANK JORDANS Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — The U.N.‘s top human rights official and U.S. President Joe Biden’s envoy to this year’s climate summit called Thursday for countries to step up the fight against global warming. Both issued dire warnings about the costs of failure, saying it is a matter of survival for the