News

By PAOLO SANTALUCIA Associated Press ROME (AP) — To get their Afghan workers and their families into Kabul’s chaotic airport for evacuation, Western charities are inventing simple, one-off passwords. In one case, women wore red handkerchiefs around their wrists. In another, they scrawled a P on their palms. Thanks to the makeshift signals, 150 people

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities in northwestern Nigeria say two military personnel have been killed after gunmen raided a military school. A spokesman said one person was abducted from the Nigerian Defense Academy. The attack is the second in the Afaka area, where nearly 30 students were abducted in March

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A few weeks into the new school year, growing numbers of U.S. districts have halted in-person learning or switched to hybrid models because of rapidly mounting coronavirus infections. The setbacks in mostly small, rural districts that were among the first to go back are dampening hopes for

By SARAH BLAKE MORGAN Associated Press SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A hospital in northwestern Louisiana thought the COVID-19 pandemic was letting up. Then came the ongoing surge caused by the delta variant. Nurses at Willis-Knighton Medical Center in Shreveport say they are overwhelmed and exhausted. Melinda Hunt gets up before dawn for her shift six

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zambia’s new president, longtime opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema, has been sworn into power on Tuesday, raising hopes in the southern African country that in recent years has swung from prosperity and stability to massive debt, recession and repression. Hichilema told a cheering crowd that he would

By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democratic leaders have compromised with moderates and muscled President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar budget blueprint over a key hurdle. Biden praised Tuesday’s 220-to-212 vote as a step toward “truly investing in the American people.” A band of moderate lawmakers had been threatening to withhold

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The militia leader convicted of master­minding the bombing of a Minnesota mosque is asking a judge to legally acknowledge her transgender identity. Emily Claire Hari was previously known as Michael Hari. Hari was found guilty last year of civil rights and hate crime charges in the bombing of the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic

SEATAC, Wash. (AP) — The cellphone of a passenger on an Alaska Airlines jet caught fire after the plane landed at the  Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, forcing the crew to deploy evacuation slides to get everyone off. Alaska Airlines spokesperson Ray Lane says the passenger’s phone “overheated and began sparking” after Flight 751 from New Orleans

By TRAVIS LOLLER and JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press WAVERLY, Tenn. (AP) — Crews with chainsaws and heavy equipment are clearing their way through trees matted with vegetation, garbage and debris from homes as searchers scour a creek for more flooding victims in rural Tennessee. Even cars and sheds are woven into the tangle of debris

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago’s police superintendent says an officer left partially paralyzed by a shooting that killed his partner has been moved to a rehabilitation center but still faces “a long road ahead.” Superintendent David Brown said Monday that Officer Carlos Yanez, Jr.’s move out of a hospital marks “a major step in his recovery

By GONZALO SOLANO Associated Press SAN CRISTOBAL ISLAND, Galapagos (AP) — An innovative project in the remote Galapagos islands has turned dozens of local inhabitants into citizen scientists at a moment when the pandemic has dried up tourist income. The participants have been hired and trained to sample the genetic diversity in the small island

By ANNIE MA Associated Press The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit over a South Carolina law that bans school districts from imposing mask mandates. The lawsuit argues the ban effectively excludes vulnerable students from public schools and disproportionately impacts students with underlying health conditions or disabilities, who are at risk of

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new homes posted a modest 1% increase in July after three months of declines. The July sales increase left sales at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 708,000, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Sales had fallen in April, May and June. The median price