AP National News

By EUGENE GARCIA Associated Press NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Scores of sick and starving pelicans have been found in coastal California communities in recent weeks and many others have died. Lifeguards spotted a cluster of two dozen sick pelicans earlier this week on a pier in coastal Newport Beach and called in wildlife experts

By JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — About 6 million Catalans are called to cast ballots in regional elections on Sunday that will surely have reverberations in Spain’s national politics. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is hoping his party can pull off a big enough win so it can forge a leftist coalition

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The Vodou faithful sing, their voices rising above the gunfire erupting miles away as frantic drumbeats drown out their troubles. They pause to swig rum out of small brown bottles, twirling in unison as they sing in Haitian Creole: “We don’t care if they hate us,

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, JENNIFER PELTZ, MICHAEL R. SISAK and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — In the wake of salacious testimony from porn actor Stormy Daniels, prosecutors in Donald Trump’s hush money trial narrowed their focus to checks and phone records Friday as they laid the groundwork for jurors to hear from

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and TRISHA AHMED Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — On college campuses across the country, a rallying cry of pro-Palestinian protesters has been “ Disclose, divest! We will not stop, we will not rest.” Now some are winning the first of those two demands: Promises to provide information about how much university endowment

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Air Vanuatu has filed for bankruptcy protection a day after it cancelled all international flights, stranding thousands of travelers. The South Pacific state-owned airline had cancelled more than 20 flights to and from the Australian cities of Sydney and Brisbane, and the New Zealand city of

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Stocks in Asia were mixed Friday after a rally on Wall Street that pulled the S&P 500 back within 1% of its record. Benchmarks fell in Tokyo, Sydney and Seoul but rose in China, where investors were focused on the release of April inflation figures. In

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — This December marks the centennial of Rod Serling, the late host and writer of the classic TV series “The Twilight Zone.” A newly published story by Serling is the latest to draw upon his traumatizing World War II service, for which he received a Bronze

By JESSICA DONATI and MARK BANCHEREAU Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A Boeing 737 carrying 85 people caught fire and skidded off a runway at Senegal’s main airport, injuring 10 people including the pilot, the country’s transport minister said Thursday. Passengers were evacuated from the burning aircraft and some described “complete panic” as they

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York lawmakers want to change the legal standard Harvey Weinstein used to get his rape conviction overturned, proposing a bill to strengthen sexual assault prosecutions after the disgraced movie mogul’s case was tossed. The state’s highest court late last month threw out Weinstein’s conviction in

By ZEN SOO AP Technology Writer HONG KONG (AP) — A top public relations executive from Chinese technology firm Baidu has apologized after she made comments that were seen as glorifying a culture of overwork. Baidu’s head of communications Qu Jing implied in the videos that she was not concerned about her employees as she

INDEPENDENCE, Calif. (AP) — Two climbers reported missing this week on California’s towering Mount Whitney have been found dead, officials said Thursday. A friend who had been with the climbers called authorities Tuesday night after they failed to arrive as planned at their campsite, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The friend

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Fisheries Agency has proposed expanding commercial whaling to fin whales, a larger species than the three allowed now. The proposal comes five years after Japan resumed commercial whaling along the country’s coast after withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission. The agency decided to propose adding fin

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii health officials say testing on west Maui residents shows no evidence of widespread lead exposure from last summer’s wildfires. Blood samples were taken from more than 500 people to screen for the toxic metal after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century ripped through the town of Lahaina, killing

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — India says Canada has shared no evidence to back its allegation that the Indian government was involved in the slaying of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada last year, despite the recent arrests of three Indian men in the crime. India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote Friday on a resolution that would grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and call on the Security Council to favorably reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations. The United States vetoed