Accidents and disasters

An air tanker drops retardant while battling the Glass Fire in St. Helena, Calif., on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Associated Press
September 30, 2020 - 7:54 am

Hot, dry conditions stoke devastating California wildfires

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Flames devoured swaths of brush and trees in Northern California on Wednesday amid unseasonably hot and dry weather. High winds that spread new fires this week in the Napa and Sonoma wine country and in a far northern area of the state were reduced to breezes, but vegetation...
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FILE - In this Saturday, July 31, 2010, file photo, a ribbon of oil lines the bottom stalks of marsh grass at low tide in a cove in Barataria Bay on the coast of Louisiana. The April 20, 2010, explosion at the BP Deepwater Horizon offshore platform killed 11 men, and the subsequent leak released an estimated 172 million gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana will get nearly $215 million in BP oil spill money for two projects that will restore more than 4,600 acres of marsh and other habitat in the New Orleans area. Gov. John Bel Edwards says work on the projects should begin in 2021. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
September 29, 2020 - 10:39 pm

$215M In Bp Oil Spill Money To Restore Louisiana Marshes

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana will get nearly $215 million in BP oil spill money for two projects planned to restore more than 4,600 acres of marsh and other habitat in the New Orleans area, Gov. John Bel Edwards said. Work should begin next year on the projects, Edwards said in a news release...
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September 29, 2020 - 6:38 pm

Marine Jet Crashes After Mid-Air Collision In California

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Marine Corps fighter jet collided in mid-air with another plane during a refueling operation in a remote desert area of Southern California Tuesday afternoon. But the pilot ejected and the other aircraft landed safely, the military said. The F-35B jet collided with a Lockheed...
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Smoke rises over a vineyard as the Glass Fire burns, Monday, Sept. 28, 2020, in Calistoga, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Associated Press
September 29, 2020 - 2:44 pm

California's wine country residents face fire fatigue

NAPA, Calif. (AP) — Will Abrams and his family packed their pickup truck with laptops, clothes, sleeping bags and a tent and quickly left their rental home in California's wine country after seeing flames on a hill about a quarter-mile away Monday morning. It was their third hurried fire evacuation...
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Smoke rises over a vineyard as the Glass Fire burns, Monday, Sept. 28, 2020, in Calistoga, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Associated Press
September 28, 2020 - 10:02 pm

Dying winds give crews hope in northern California fires

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Firefighters say they hoped dying winds would enable them to bear down on a wildfire that exploded in the Northern California wine country, prompting tens of thousands of evacuations while a second blaze killed at least three people. The Glass Fire raged through Napa and Sonoma...
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A fire engine leaves a burning property as the Glass Fire tears through St. Helena, Calif., on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Associated Press
September 28, 2020 - 8:43 pm

Three killed in northern California wildfire; thousands flee

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Northern California's wine country was on fire again Monday as strong winds fanned flames in the already scorched region, destroying homes and prompting orders for nearly 70,000 people to evacuated. Meanwhile, three people died in a separate fire further north in the state. In...
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FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2020, file photo, cemetery workers place the coffin containing the remains of Jose de Arimateia, 65, who died from COVID-19 complications, into a niche at the municipal cemetery in Nova Iguacu, Brazil. The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed 1 million, nine months into a crisis that has devastated the global economy, tested world leaders' resolve, pitted science against politics and forced multitudes to change the way they live, learn and work. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)
Associated Press
September 28, 2020 - 5:54 pm

Worldwide death toll from Coronavirus eclipses 1 million

NEW DELHI (AP) — The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed 1 million on Tuesday, nine months into a crisis that has devastated the global economy, tested world leaders’ resolve, pitted science against politics and forced multitudes to change the way they live, learn and work. “It’s not...
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September 28, 2020 - 4:46 pm

Us Lawmakers Propose Tighter Rules For New Airplanes

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers who criticized regulators over the way they approved the Boeing 737 Max will propose changing the way that the Federal Aviation Administration certifies new plane designs and uses private-sector employees to perform safety analysis. Leading Democrats and Republicans on...
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The Templo Mayor archeological site stands in downtown Mexico City, once the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, Monday, Sept. 28, 2020. In light of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, it remains unclear how much humanity has learned from one of the greatest mass die-offs due to the smallpox epidemic, which gave rise to the first successful vaccine in 1796. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
September 28, 2020 - 1:53 pm

500 Years Ago, Another Epidemic Swept Mexico: Smallpox

MEXICO CITY (AP) — There were mass cremations of bodies; entire families died and the inhabitants of the city, afraid to pull their bodies out, simply collapsed their homes on top of them to bury them on the spot. The scene, beyond even the current coronavirus pandemic, was a scourge brought 500...
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Sabine ten Doesschate, left, and Boudewijn van Eijck, lawyers of Oleg Pulatov, attend the hearing in trial of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in the high-security courtroom of the Schiphol Judicial Complex, near Amsterdam, Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 28, 2020. (Piroschka van de Wouw via AP Photo, Pool)
September 28, 2020 - 5:31 am

Lawyer: Russian Suspect Denies Involvement In Downing Mh17

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — One of the suspects charged in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 denies any involvement and wants to speak in court to explain his version of events, his lawyer said Monday as the trial in absentia of three Russians and a Ukrainian...
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