AP National News

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A sports association official says seven female taekwondo athletes who fled Taliban-controlled Afghanistan have resettled in Melbourne. Australian Taekwondo’s chief executive Heather Garriock said the women are completing quarantine this week. Garriock said former Australia national soccer team captain and humanitarian advocate Craig Foster worked with the Australian government, Australian Taekwondo

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Developing economies in Asia will likely grow at a slower pace than earlier expected due to prolonged COVID-19 outbreaks and uneven progress in vaccinations, the Asian Development Bank said in a report Wednesday. The regional lender lowered its outlook for economic growth to reflect renewed coronavirus outbreaks as variants

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s government says its health minister has tested positive for the coronavirus in New York after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro spoke at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. The government statement Tuesday night says Marcelo Queiroga is in good health and will remain in isolation in the United States. The minister

By HOLLY MEYER Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — A top Southern Baptist Convention committee agreed Tuesday to fund a third-party investigation into its handling of sexual abuse allegations but held off on waiving its attorney-client privilege for the probe, delaying for the future a decision seen as a key demand of the thousands of

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The popular mayor of the Philippine capital said Wednesday he will run for president in next year’s elections, the latest aspirant in what is expected to be a crowded race to succeed the controversial Rodrigo Duterte. Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, a child scavenger before becoming an actor then entering politics, told

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A magnitude 5.9 earthquake caused slight damage in suburban Melbourne on Wednesday in an unusually powerful temblor for Australia. The quake hit about 130 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Australia’s second-most populous city near the town of Mansfield at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), Geoscience Australia said. Minor structural

By ANDREW DALTON AP ENTERTAINMENT WRITER LOS ANGELES (AP) — The projectors are rolling. The ruby slippers are on. Many an Oscar sits glistening. The shark has been hanging, and waiting, for nearly a year. Nine years after it was announced, four years after its first projected open date, and five months since its last

PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi sheriff’s department says it has identified the remains of a woman found nearly 44 years ago. Investigators believe Clara Birdlong was a victim of Samuel Little, the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history. Hunters found the remains in 1977 in Escatawpa in coastal Jackson County. Officers had referred

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two suspects in an attack on Jewish men outside a Los Angeles restaurant last spring have been charged with a hate crime. Police said the suspects were part of a pro-Palestinian caravan that stopped near Sushi Fumi on the city’s west side where diners were eating at outdoor tables on May

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Health care workers are exhausted and angry. Some of Idaho’s coronavirus vaccines are expiring because they have sat unused for so long. And coronavirus case numbers and deaths continue to climb, putting the state among the worst in the nation for the rate of new COVID-19

By AMY FORLITI Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — An Arizona man who allegedly told his father he “snapped and shot a couple of people” was charged Tuesday with murder, about a week after four bodies were found in an abandoned SUV in western Wisconsin. Antoine Suggs, 38, of Scottsdale, Arizona, faces four counts

By AMY TAXIN Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — California has the lowest coronavirus transmission rate of any state following a sharp decline in cases and hospitalizations after a summer surge. The nation’s most populous state is the only one experiencing “substantial” coronavirus transmission, the second-highest level on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Oh, the conversations that happen when powerful people meet. Could the “very special relationship” between the U.S. and the United Kingdom become even more secure now that President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson have bonded over their shared love of trains? Biden famously rode Amtrak

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — One of two teens charged as adults in the fatal stabbing of a college student in a New York City park pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder and robbery charges. Luchiano Lewis was accused of holding Barnard College freshman Tessa Majors in a headlock and preventing

By The Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte criticized rich nations at the U.N. General Assembly for hoarding COVID-19 vaccines while much of the developing world continues to suffer shortages. He accused them of hoarding vaccines while poor nations have none, and moving to administer booster shots while developing nations evaluate

NEW YORK (AP) — A second woman has accused billionaire Leon Black of rape in claims lawyers are seeking to add to a defamation lawsuit filed against him in the spring. The woman is identified only as Jane Doe. She added her claims late Monday to a lawsuit in New York state court that seeks

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The electric company subsidiary that provides electricity to New Orleans is responding to calls for an investigation of power losses during Hurricane Ida with options that include having the city assume control of municipal electrical service. That’s one of four options Entergy New Orleans outlined Tuesday

By CALEB JONES Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii officials are facing pressure to increase COVID-19 testing for travelers. The islands are weathering a record surge, and federal guidelines are being changed to require negative virus tests from both vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers to the U.S. State leaders have resisted the implementation of a two-test

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Who should represent Afghanistan at the United Nations this month? It’s a complex question with plenty of political implications. The Taliban, the country’s new rulers for a matter of weeks, are challenging the credentials of their country’s former U.N. ambassador and want to speak at

By SETH BORENSTEIN and CHRISTINA LARSON AP Science Writers The two biggest economies and largest carbon polluters in the world announced separate financial attacks on climate change Tuesday. Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country will no longer fund coal-fired power plants abroad, surprising the world on climate for the second straight year at the