AP National News

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s state TV is reporting that the country’s Interior Ministry has approved a new hard-line mayor for the capital, Tehran, after a city council election. Alireza Zakani, 55 heads a parliamentary research center, and he was one of the seven approved 2021 presidential candidates. He withdrew from the race to support

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Hundreds of Greek health care workers, accompanied by ambulances with sirens blaring, marched through central Athens on Thursday to protest regulations mandating coronavirus vaccines for anyone working in their sector. Under the regulation, which went into effect Wednesday, any health care worker who isn’t vaccinated against

BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors say they have filed charges against six suspects in the spectacular theft of 18th-century jewels from a Dresden museum in 2019. The men are all German nationals in their 20s and are accused of organized robbery and arson. They are alleged to have broken into the eastern city’s Green Vault

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s infectious diseases agency on Thursday urged countries to push ahead with their primary coronavirus vaccination programs and played down the need for booster shoots to ward off the delta variant among the general public. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said that

By BEV O’SHEA of NerdWallet Medical bills can throw a wrench in anyone’s budget. If you’re also trying to maintain a good credit score, the challenge is especially tough. Credit bureaus have some special provisions for medical debt, though, that can help you avoid, or at least delay, damage if you’re struggling to pay. Take

By OLEG CETINIC and SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Twelve million children in France went back to school Thursday for the new academic year, wearing face masks as part of rules aimed at slowing down the spread of the coronavirus in the country. In France as in other European countries, many fear

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 WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited injured U.S. troops at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Thursday night. There are 15 Marines at the hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington, who were wounded in an Aug. 26 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport. The

By SHEIKH SAALIQ and KRUTIKA PATHI Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — The death of a top separatist leader in disputed Kashmir and the ensuing crackdown on public movement and communications by Indian authorities have highlighted the turmoil seething just below the surface in the region. Here’s a closer look at what Syed Ali Geelani

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRDO CASTLE, Slovenia (AP) — Still reeling from the European Union’s shortcomings in Afghanistan, officials from the 27-nation bloc on Thursday discussed ways to improve their response to future crises and not be so reliant on the U.S. “Afghanistan has shown that the deficiency in our strategic autonomy comes with

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 said on Thursday. Most of the fatalities were

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Doctors at Poland’s main children’s hospital said Thursday a 5-year-old Afghan boy, recently evacuated from Kabul, has died and his 6-year-old brother, who has undergone a liver transplant, remains in life-threatening condition after they ate poisonous mushrooms. The boys and their older sister were hospitalized last week. The family picked and

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 appealed Thursday for 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 gathered Thursday to try a former immigration minister over a 2016 order to separate asylum-seeking couples when one of the pair was a minor. Inger Stoejberg, who served as integration minister from 2015 to 2019, appeared before the court that was convening for the first

By JOAN MATEU Associated Press ALCANAR, Spain (AP) — Many Spaniards on Thursday counted 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, dangerous in some eastern parts of Spain since Wednesday, didn’t lead to any direct

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) — With Hurricane Ida’s winds screaming and only a tent and tarp for shelter, Angelique Hebert clung to her husband under a bridge where the couple had sought refuge. “We’re gonna die in this hurricane,” Angelique told him. But he said: “Just hang on,

BERLIN (AP) — A court on Thursday 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