PHILADELPHIA — Levittown resident Elham Maaz said she couldn’t get in touch with relatives and friends in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, for weeks after a military coup and subsequent internet blackout.

All the while, Maaz, 17, read news reports of hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy protesters taking to the streets of Khartoum and other ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The gunshot was right outside her bedroom door.

Grace Campbell-McGuire was in bed about 3 a.m. Wednesday, awakened by what she thought was her father rummaging through a drawer outside her room. The 17-year-old was annoyed because she had to get up in a few hours for school.

Then came a loud bang, followed by the voice of a man...Read more

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A nationwide tradition viewed by some Americans as a patriotic display recognizing service and sacrifice represents for others a sectarian religious symbol amounting to desecration.

Complaints about the popular Wreaths Across America Day, when fresh evergreen wreaths are placed at gravesites of military veterans at ...Read more

HELENA, Mont. — One Montana hospital went into lockdown and called police after a woman threatened violence because her relative was denied her request to be treated with ivermectin.

Officials of another Montana hospital accused public officials of threatening and harassing their health care workers for refusing to treat a politically ...Read more

CHICAGO — About 90 years ago, just after New Year’s, in the dark of the Great Depression, the Chicago Board of Education began rooting through its proposed $93 million budget, eager to trim $7 million. It was looking for what it called “frills.” Instances of glaring, unnecessary excess. And soon they found one, a frill in the guise of a ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — For nearly a century, the cloistered nuns of the Monastery of the Angels have lived quietly on a rambling four-acre property just beneath the "H" of Los Angeles' famous Hollywood sign.

From this incongruous location, they bake their famous pumpkin bread and make candies to sell at their gift shop and online. They also send a ...Read more

After 23 years as a physician assistant, Leslie Clayton remains rankled by one facet of her vocation: its title. Specifically, the word “assistant.”

Patients have asked if she’s heading to medical school or in the middle of it. The term confounded even her family, she said: It took years for her parents to understand she did more than ...Read more

Wages are high, jobs are plentiful and more than a third of states cut taxes in the past year as their revenues soared despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet the highest inflation spike in three decades has many state and local policymakers digging for ways to ease the strain on families’ pocketbooks, as they consider measures as varied ...Read more

The Brazilian Supreme Court has ordered an investigation into President Jair Bolsonaro’s false comments linking COVID-19 vaccines with the development of AIDS.

The far-right leader made the allegations speaking during his weekly address to the nation on Oct. 21, according to the Brazilian news portal G1.

“Official reports from the U.K. ...Read more

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the U.S. will stand up to an “increasingly assertive and autocratic” China in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, calling its activity “disturbing.”

One way to counter China’s military modernization, growing nuclear capabilities and technological advances is to strengthen U.S. alliances in the ...Read more

President Vladimir Putin will visit New Delhi on Monday as billions of dollars of Russian weaponry flow into India that would normally attract U.S. sanctions. Eager to draw India into its efforts to contain China, the U.S. may look away this time.

Putin is making his first foreign trip in nearly six months for talks with Prime Minister Narendra...Read more

Venezuela’s recent elections were marked by unfairness and political repression, but in a positive change from recent years, they did allow greater participation for the opposition, Jimmy Carter’s Carter Center wrote in a report.

While the opposition got more votes, the ruling party won most of the available positions amid low turnout and ...Read more

DETROIT — The parents of the teen accused in the Oxford High School shooting were given a combined $1 million bond during their arraignments Saturday amid the judge's concerns about flight risk.

The names of the four Oxford High School students killed Tuesday — Tate Myre, Madisyn Baldwin, Hana St. Juliana and Justin Shilling — were read ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Seminole Tribe of Florida announced Saturday it is “temporarily suspending” sports betting in Florida. The decision comes after the Seminoles were denied an emergency request for a stay pending appeal Friday by a three-judge panel.

With legal sports betting in a holding pattern, Daniel Wallach, a nationally ...Read more

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a testy exchange over Ukraine at a dinner with dozens of their colleagues this week, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The verbal tension erupted as the U.S. and its European allies seek ways — including possible sanctions —...Read more

OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. — Even before their son, Ethan Crumbley, was charged with a murderous rampage at Oxford High School, his parents had left town.

Although James and Jennifer Crumbley were eventually captured days later following a half-day manhunt that ended in Detroit early Saturday morning, what led up to their apprehension has sparked ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The number of container ships headed for the busiest U.S. port complex has risen to close to 100 under a new counting method, underscoring the magnitude of the economy-restraining logjam that the Biden administration is trying to help alleviate.

The backup outside the adjacent ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will travel to the Kansas City area on Wednesday, according to White House officials, in a visit that comes as he continues to promote his new infrastructure law and build support for a federal social spending proposal.

The White House did not immediately announce the exact location of the visit — Biden’s ...Read more

Former President Donald Trump’s media company said Digital World Acquisition Corp. has agreed to a $1 billion investment following the combination of both companies.

Trump first announced the plan to merge with the so-called blank-check firm in October that would help enable him to regain a social media presence after he was kicked off ...Read more