AP National News

MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Twelve million children in France are back to school for the new academic year. They must wear a mask from age 6 as part of rules aimed at slowing down the spread of the virus in the country. French President Emmanuel Macron visited a primary school in the southern city of

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s state TV says 16 people were killed and 12 injured in the country’s west when a mini-bus plunged off a road into a valley. The report says the accident happened in Kurdish province of the Kordestan region on Thursday around noon. According to the report, 12 injured people were taken

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarian lawmakers have decided that the country will go to the polls on Nov. 14 to elect a new president. A parliamentary election could be held on the same date — the third one this year as the deeply fragmented parliament repeatedly fails to come up with a viable government coalition.

By The Associated Press President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have visited injured U.S. troops at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. There are 15 Marines at the hospital who were wounded in an Aug. 26 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport. The attack occurred as the U.S. government was arranging evacuations of

By SHEIKH SAALIQ and KRUTIKA PATHI Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — The death of a top separatist leader in disputed Kashmir has sparked a crackdown on public movement and communications by Indian authorities and highlighting the turmoil seething just below the surface in the region. Syed Ali Geelani, was the face of Kashmiri resistance

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRDO CASTLE, Slovenia (AP) — European Union ministers discussed Thursday their options to beef up the 27-nation bloc’s strategic autonomy and improve its capacity to respond to future crises. EU defense and foreign affairs ministers met in Slovenia to talk about lessons learned from their rushed departure from Afghanistan. That

By AHMED AL-HAJ Associated Press SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Fighting has flared up between Yemen’s pro-government forces and Houthi rebels in the oil-rich government stronghold of Marib province, with at least 28 fighters killed over the last 24 hours. Security officials from both sides and tribal leaders say that most of the fatalities were among

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Doctors at Poland’s main children’s hospital say a 5-year-old Afghan boy, recently evacuated from Kabul, has died and his 6-year-old brother, who has undergone a liver transplant, remained in life-threatening condition after they ate poisonous mushrooms. The family picked and ate highly poisonous death cap mushrooms in the forest around the

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The international team investigating the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine seven years ago is appealing to Russians in the city of Kursk to come forward with information about the deployment of the missile that investigators say downed the plane, killing all

By STEPHEN WADE AP Sports Writer TOKYO (AP) — Afghan athlete Zakia Khudadadi got her chance to compete in the Tokyo Paralympics. Khudadadi is one to two Afghans participating in the Paralympics. She lost her first-round match in taekwondo to Ziyodakhon Isakova of Uzbekistan 17-12. She also lost a losers’ bracket match against Viktoriia Marchuk

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s rarely used Court of Impeachment has gathered to try a former immigration minister accused for a 2016 order to separate asylum-seeking couples when one of the pair was a minor. Inger Stoejberg served as integration minister from June 2015 to 2019. She appeared Thursday before the court that was convening

By JOAN MATEU Associated Press ALCANAR, Spain (AP) — Many Spaniards are counting their losses and damage to homes and businesses caused by flooding produced by intense rain that continued falling over large areas of the country. The flash flooding didn’t lead to any direct casualties. But two young German women drowned overnight from Wednesday

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The recent release of three separate groups of students who had been abducted in northern Nigeria brought joyful reunions and the hope that others still held might soon be freed. Now just days later gunmen have again attacked a school in the northwest, taking 73 new

BY LEAH WILLINGHAM and JAY REEVES Associated Press HOUMA, La. (AP) — Many residents who wanted to flee from Hurricane Ida were left to fend for themselves as hurricane ravaged Louisiana. That was despite mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders in many parishes. Those affected include homeless people, those on fixed or low incomes, and others

BERLIN (AP) — A court has rejected a bid by German train operator Deutsche Bahn for an emergency injunction to stop a strike by many train drivers that has disrupted rail traffic in the country for a third time this summer. Deutsche Bahn said it considers the latest strike by the GDL labor union to

BERLIN (AP) — German police have carried out raids against biker groups in several western cities in connection with three killings. Police said tactical operations units and hundreds of regular officers conducted raids Thursday in Duisburg, Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen and Muelheim an der Ruhr. German news agency dpa reported that at least 20 premises were searched.

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. envoy John Kerry says China needs to expand its efforts to reduce carbon emissions to hold back the rise in global temperatures. The State Department says Kerry told Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng in a virtual meeting that there is “no way” for the world to solve the climate crisis without

BERLIN (AP) — A German regional official’s plan to let authorities receive anonymous online tip-offs about potential tax evaders has prompted a flood of hate mail. Some critics accuse Danyal Bayaz of reviving habits from Germany’s totalitarian past. The finance minister in southwestern Baden-Wuerttemberg state on Thursday retweeted some of the messages sent to him

By DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Mikis Theodorakis, the beloved Greek composer whose rousing music and life of political defiance won acclaim abroad and inspired millions at home, has died. He was 96. His death Thursday at his home in central Athens was announced on state television and followed multiple hospitalizations in

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s Victoria state is drafting legislation that would make it the first in the country to ban the public display of Nazi symbols as local neo-Nazi activity increases. The proposed ban on Nazi symbols such as the swastika, except for educational or historical purposes, will be