Month: October 2023

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia state Senate committee says it will start its own investigation of jail conditions in the state’s most populous county. The Thursday announcement comes three months after the U.S. Justice Department launched its own inquiry of Fulton County jail conditions. Senate Public Safety Committee Chairman John

By ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press PARIS (AP) — They creep, they crawl, they feast on your blood as you sleep. They may travel in your clothes or backpacks to find another person worth dining on — on the subway, or at the cinema. Bedbugs go where you go, and they have become a nightmare haunting

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel has quietly helped fuel Azerbaijan’s campaign to recapture Nagorno-Karabakh, supplying powerful weapons to Azerbaijan ahead of its lightening offensive last month that brought the ethnic Armenian enclave back under its control, officials and experts say. Just weeks before Azerbaijan launched its 24-hour assault on

By MARIAM FAM Associated Press There’s the Tunisian woman who fasts during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, though not for God. The Iraqi woman who, until recently, wore a hijab. And a man whose Egyptian identity card still identifies him as “Muslim.” Such are the ways that some of the religiously unaffiliated, or “nones”

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and NATACHA PISARENKO Associated Press CAPILLA DEL MONTE, Argentina (AP) — In the pope’s homeland, there’s a woman who believes in angels and calls them aliens. Another who proudly identifies as a witch. And a spiritual guru so turned off by the Vatican’s opulence that he left the church to help

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press ISOLA DEL GRAN SASSO, Italy (AP) — Two children scribbled petitions to St. Gabriele dell’Addolorata in the sanctuary where the young saint is venerated in this central Italian mountain village. Andrea, 6, asked for blessings for his family and pets, while Sofia, 9, offered thanksgiving for winning a dance competition.

By PETER SMITH Associated Press Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy “the beauty of the morning on the beach,” he recalled. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Momo Nomura, a graphic artist and entrepreneur, visits a shrine near her business meetings or trips almost weekly. She prays first according to the Shinto rules, then heads to the reception to get a Goshuin, a seal stamp certifying her visit that comes with elegant calligraphy and

By DEEPA BHARATH Associated Press CHENNAI, India (AP) — Despite India’s millennia-old history of nonreligious movements, most atheists and rationalists choose to keep quiet about their skepticism of faith — it’s easier and far less risky than going public in one of the world’s most religious countries. The space that does exist for debating religious

By MARIAM FAM Associated Press There’s the Tunisian woman who fasts during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, though not for God. The Iraqi woman who, until recently, wore a hijab. And a man whose Egyptian identity card identifies him as “Muslim,” despite his efforts to change it. Such are the ways that some of

By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Nearly every Alaskan will receive a $1,312 check starting this week, their annual share from the earnings of the state’s nest-egg oil fund. Some use the money for extras like tropical vacations but others — particularly in high-cost rural Alaska where jobs and housing are limited

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press KANO, Nigeria (AP) — When the megaphone called out for the daily Islamic prayers, the nonbeliever grabbed his prayer beads and ambled through the streets to join others at the mosque in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest city. Formerly a Muslim, he now identifies as an atheist but remains closeted, performing

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press ISOLA DEL GRAN SASSO, Italy (AP) — Two children scribbled petitions to St. Gabriele dell’Addolorata in the vast sanctuary where the young saint is venerated in this central Italian mountain village. Andrea, 6, asked for blessings for his family and pets. Sofia, 9, gave thanks for winning a dance competition.

By JANIE HAR Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and other national leaders praised the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein as a leader of uncommon integrity and defender of American values. But the first female mayor of San Francisco was also remembered at a memorial service Thursday as a talented artist

By WILL WEISSERT and BRIAN SLODYSKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Kevin McCarthy spent years raising mountains of Republican campaign cash, flying around the country to recruit top candidates in key districts and painstakingly building political relationships as he worked his way toward becoming speaker of the House. Now that he’s been ousted from the

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Three years after a Christopher Columbus statue was removed from a square in Providence, Rhode Island, the bronze cast has re-emerged, this time in a park in Johnston, Rhode Island, about 9 miles west of the capital. The sculpture had been targeted by vandals, at one point

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and NATACHA PISARENKO Associated Press CAPILLA DEL MONTE, Argentina (AP) — In the pope’s homeland, there’s a woman who believes in angels and calls them aliens. Another proudly identifies as a witch. And there’s a spiritual guru so turned off by the Vatican’s opulence that he left the church to help

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press Over the past two weeks, Donald Trump said shoplifters should be immediately shot, suggested the United States’ top general be executed and mocked a political opponent’s husband who was beaten with a hammer. The former president and current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination also in

By PETER SMITH Associated Press Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy the beauty of the morning. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I set foot in a church,”

By PETER SMITH Associated Press Thirty percent of Americans don’t identify with a religious group — but not all of them are atheists or agnostics. In fact, 43% of the group known as the “nones” say they believe in God, even if they largely dislike organized religion. Those are among the findings of a new

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press ISOLA DEL GRAN SASSO, Italy (AP) — In small towns like this mountain one a couple of hours east of Rome, and all across Italy, life has changed over the last generation as the Catholic faith loses relevance in people’s routines and choices. From cradle to casket — from buying

HAVANA (AP) — Authorities in Cuba say a building in the historic center of Havana that housed 13 families partially has collapsed, leaving three person dead and at least two injured. Officials in Havana said that among the three fatalities were one resident and two firefighters who got trapped in the building when they were