The Taliban has called on President-elect Joe Biden to honor a U.S. agreement to withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan by May in order to secure intra-Afghan peace talks and end the two-decade-long war.

“Steps must now be taken to end the war, not to prolong it, and the agreement was made for the purpose,” Mohammad Naeem, a senior ...Read more

SAN DIEGO – Five more inmates have died from COVID-19 at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility over the past week, pushing the total number of fatalities to 14 since the pandemic erupted and making Otay Mesa prison the fourth-deadliest prison in the state.

Family members of people being held inside the prison describe horrific ...Read more

The European Union’s executive arm will urge member states to set a target for vaccinating at least 70% of the bloc’s population by this summer, according to a draft of the latest pandemic response recommendations due to be released Tuesday.

The European Commission will also vow to agree with member states by the end of this month on a ...Read more

California's top epidemiologist told healthcare providers on Sunday to stop using a batch of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine after a "higher than usual" number of people had apparent allergic reactions at a San Diego vaccination clinic.

Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist, said Sunday that "out of an extreme abundance of caution," providers ...Read more

Federal authorities have obtained an arrest warrant for a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, woman they suspect may have stolen House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's laptop during the Jan. 6 Capitol siege with the intent of selling the device to Russia's foreign intelligence services.

In an affidavit filed late Sunday evening, agents said they were contacted by ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Like heads of other Philadelphia-based agencies that support and defend immigrants, Cathryn Miller-Wilson has been staggered by the four-year onslaught of nationalist Trump administration directives, policies and rules.

The incoming Biden administration has pledged to undo as much as it can as fast as it can. But the hardest ...Read more

On the day Donald Trump was getting impeached in Washington, the lobby of his New York tower at 40 Wall St. was almost silent. Few footsteps smudged the shiny marble.

But up the dark and golden elevators, trouble was stirring in one of the billionaire’s most valuable properties. Inside one law office, two partners had clashed over whether to ...Read more

WASHINGTON — After four years of being relentlessly targeted by a Republican president who worked overtime to bait, punish and marginalize California and everything it represents, the state is suddenly center stage again in Washington's policy arena.

California is emerging as the de facto policy think tank of the Biden-Harris administration ...Read more

SEATTLE — Female orcas are most thrown off from foraging when boats and vessels intrude closer than 400 yards, according to new research — troubling findings for the endangered population of southern resident orcas that desperately needs every mother and calf to survive.

The research, gathered by attaching suction-cup electronic tags to the...Read more

NEW YORK — In his four years in the White House, Donald Trump gave the U.S. Constitution an unprecedented workout, challenging norms and laws in ways that left few parts of America’s foundational legal document untouched.

The president throughout his term faced suspicion of colluding with a foreign government, worries that his business ...Read more

WASHINGTON — White House officials are planning a farewell ceremony for Donald Trump as he leaves Washington on Wednesday morning for the last time as president, according to a copy of the invitation seen by Bloomberg News.

The event is scheduled for 8 a.m. Eastern time at Joint Base Andrews just outside the nation’s capital, where the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will resign from the Senate on Monday, according to a Harris aide. The California Democrat’s resignation will come two days before she becomes the nation’s first female vice president, and the first person of color to hold that office.

Harris has notified Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that ...Read more

CHICAGO — A California man who police said claimed to be too afraid to fly due to COVID-19 hid out for three months in a secured area of O’Hare International Airport until his weekend arrest, prosecutors said Sunday.

Aditya Singh, 36, is charged with felony criminal trespass to a restricted area of an airport and misdemeanor theft.

In bond...Read more

WASHINGTON — White House officials are planning a farewell ceremony for Donald Trump as he leaves Washington on Wednesday morning for the last time as president, according to a copy of the invitation seen by Bloomberg News.

The event is scheduled for 8 a.m. Eastern time at Joint Base Andrews just outside the nation’s capital, where the ...Read more

The website for Parler, the social media app popular with right-wing groups, returned to the internet Sunday afternoon with a message for the company’s “lovers and haters.”

“Now seems like the right time to remind you all — both lovers and haters — why we started this platform,” the message reads. “We believe privacy is ...Read more

As the U.S.’s next vice president, Kamala Harris is a person of many firsts: the nation’s first female, first Black, first South Asian American and first Jamaican American to hold the second highest office.

But on Sunday it was Harris’ Caribbean roots that took center stage, as artists, politicians and other luminaries from Antigua to ...Read more

President-elect Joe Biden may fulfill a pledge to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office, CBC News reported, citing people it didn’t identify.

The words “Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit” appeared on transition briefing note for Jan. 20 — Inauguration Day — circulated by Biden’s ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Fears of major protests by armed, far-right Trump supporters outside the Capitol and at state capitols Sunday proved unfounded, with only small groups, some carrying weapons, gathering in a handful of cities including Austin, Texas; Phoenix; Salem, Oregon; and Lansing, Michigan.

With large-scale contingents of local police, state...Read more