With surge in Liberia, Ebola cases top 4,200

 DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A surge in Ebola infections in Liberia is driving a spiraling outbreak in West Africa that is increasingly putting health workers at risk as they struggle to treat an overwhelming number of p…

Apple reveals smartwatch, larger iPhones

Idaho: Schools chief defends staff salary hikes

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — Idaho’s schools superintendent is defending the pay raises he gave his top staffers earlier this year as temporary hikes that are part of a strategy to ease the transition for his successor.

SIS beheads second captive Lebanese soldier

BEIRUT (AP) — The mother of a Lebanese soldier held captive by the militant Islamic State group said photographs posted online Saturday purporting to show his beheading appeared to be real. 

Egypt prosecutor orders 7 held for being gay

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s top prosecutor ordered Saturday seven men detained and physically examined over accusations of “debauchery,” a charge often leveled at gays, after a video emerged of a same-sex wedding party, t…

Sierra Leone to have lockdown amid Ebola crisis

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Authorities are ordering people in Sierra Leone to stay inside their homes for three days later this month as part of an effort to stop the spread of Ebola, which has killed more than …

Ukraine: Cease-fire appears to be holding

MARIUPOL, Ukraine — Children and parents rode ponies and fed pigeons in the park. A newlywed couple was showered with flower petals-the sixth wedding held Saturday, a registration official said. Life, it seemed, ha…

Somali terrorist group confirms leader killed by U.S. airstrike

JOHANNESBURG — The Somali terrorist group Shabab on Saturday confirmed the death of its leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, in an American airstrike early in the week and announced that it had chosen a new leader reportedly…

Ghost plane with unresponsive pilot crashes off Jamaica

 KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Shadowed by two U.S. fighter jets, a small plane with its windows frosted over and its pilot apparently incapacitated flew a ghostly 1,700-mile journey down the Atlantic Coast and beyond b…

Suspect in 4 killings arrested, boy found safe

HUDSON, Fla. (AP) — SWAT teams swarmed a downtown Tampa hotel early Friday, arresting a suspect in the killing of four people whose bodies were found piled on top of each other outside and being circled by birds. A…

U.S. doctor infected with Ebola in stable condition

 OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A doctor who became infected with Ebola while working in Liberia is sick, but in stable condition at the Nebraska Medical Center, officials said Friday.

Miners rescued after collapse

ZENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Exhausted, dusty but happy to be alive, 29 miners were pulled out one by one Friday from a trouble-plagued coal mine that collapsed a day earlier in central Bosnia. They left behin…

Ukraine, pro-Russian rebels sign cease-fire

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — A cease-fire took hold Friday night in eastern Ukraine after the president’s representative signed a deal with Russian-backed separatists in an effort to bring an end to nearly five months of …

NATO approves new force to deter Russia

 NEWPORT, Wales (AP) — Seeking to counter Russian aggression, NATO leaders approved plans Friday to create a rapid response force with a headquarters in Eastern Europe that could quickly mobilize if an alliance cou…

U.S. job growth drops sharply in August figures

The disappointing 142,000 net new jobs added to the economy in August — the second straight month of slower growth — appears to be an anomaly and is not reason to panic that the recovery is faltering once again, ec…