AP National News

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA spacecraft named Lucy has rocketed into the sky with diamonds on a 12-year quest to explore a record-setting eight asteroids. Lucy blasted off before dawn Saturday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket is sending Lucy on a roundabout journey to the Trojan

By MAYUKO ONO and PAN PYLAS Associated Press LEIGH-ON-SEA, England (AP) — Leaders from across the political spectrum have come together to pay tribute to a long-serving British lawmaker who was stabbed to death in what police have described as a terrorist incident. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the leader of the main opposition Labour Party

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Police say four Russian tourists were found dead at a beach resort in western Albania. Albanian police issued a statement Saturday saying the four were found asphyxiated in a hotel sauna in the village of Qerret late Friday. Police did not give more details about the circumstances of the deaths, citing

By EILEEN NG Associated Press KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Southeast Asian foreign ministers have agreed to downgrade Myanmar’s participation in an upcoming summit in their sharpest rebuke yet of its leaders following a Feb. 1 military takeover. Myanmar objected to the decision. Brunei, chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said Saturday that

By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — In the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, a year of war and months of government-enforced deprivation have left the city of a half-million people with a rapidly dwindling stock of food, fuel, medicine and cash. The Associated Press drew on a dozen interviews with residents for

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Islamic State group says its members are responsible for a deadly suicide bombing on a Shiite mosque in southern Afghanistan. Relatives laid the bodies of the victims to rest Saturday and called on the Taliban to protect them. The group says in a statement posted on social media that two

By JILL COLVIN and SARAH RANKIN Associated Press RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) — When Donald Trump rallied Republicans this week to vote for Glenn Youngkin for governor in Virginia, the former president called in to a rally of diehard supporters. That may be the closest he gets to campaigning in the most closely watched election of

By ZEKE MILLER and ALEXANDRA JAFFE Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — President Joe Biden says he would prefer to slash the length of the new and expanded programs in his $3.5 trillion social safety net and climate change legislation, rather than eliminate programs entirely. Biden is trying to reassure progressives who are worried their

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — A black bear that was caught on video snacking on food in stores near Lake Tahoe has been shot and killed when it refused to leave a California campsite. The California Department of Fish and Game announced Thursday that the 500-pound male dubbed the “Safeway Bear” was killed in August

By STEFANIE DAZIO and LOU KESTEN Associated Press ORANGE, Calif. (AP) — President Joe Biden says Bill Clinton is doing fine and will be released soon from a Southern California hospital where he is being treated for an infection. Biden said Friday that he’d spoken with the former president and he’s not “in any serious

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand health care workers have administered a record number of vaccine jabs as the nation holds a festival aimed at getting more people inoculated against the coronavirus. Musicians, sports stars and celebrities pitched in for the “Vaxathon” event Saturday which was broadcast on television

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Netflix says it has fired an employee for disclosing confidential financial information about the Dave Chappelle comedy special “The Closer,” which some have condemned as being transphobic. Netflix said Friday that it fired the employee for sharing “commercially sensitive” information that appeared in a Bloomberg news article that mentioned how much

Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Eleven students have drowned and 10 others were rescued during a school outing for a river cleanup in Indonesia’s West Java Province. Local officials said 150 students from an Islamic junior high school were participating in the cleanup along the banks of the Cileueur river bank when 21 of

By FIRDIA LISNAWATI and NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — A moderately strong earthquake and aftershock has hit Indonesia’s resort island of Bali, killing at least three people and destroying dozens of homes. The quake hit just before dawn Saturday, causing people to run outdoors in a panic. The U.S. Geological Survey said

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A senior U.N. official says the Taliban told him they will announce “very soon” that all Afghan girls will be allowed to attend secondary schools. UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Omar Abdi, who visited Kabul last week, told U.N. reporters Friday that five of Afghanistan’s 34

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Defense Department says it is committed to offering condolence payments to relatives of the 10 people who were killed in an errant U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, in August. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Friday that the Defense Department is also working with the State Department

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Al Wolf is used to clearing one or two snakes from under people’s homes. But recently when he was called by a woman who said she had seen rattlesnakes scurry under her Northern California house he was surprised to find more than 90 snakes getting ready to

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) —  An appellate court has ordered a federal judge to consider an Alabama’s inmate’s request to block his execution next week. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled a federal judge prematurely dismissed a lawsuit arguing that Willie B. Smith III was due help

By JO KEARNEY and JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LEIGH-ON-SEA, England (AP) — A long-serving member of Parliament was stabbed to death during a meeting with constituents at a church in England, in what police said was a terrorist incident. A 25-year-old man was arrested in connection with the attack, which united Britain’s fractious politicians in

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press HENRICO, Va. (AP) — First lady Jill Biden has campaigned for Democrats in Virginia’s and New Jersey’s governors’ races. On Friday, Biden appeared at events with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Terry McAuliffe, the former Virginia governor running to regain the post. The first lady has regularly traveled the