GRINDAVIK, Iceland (AP) - A volcano erupted with lava spewing from a fissure on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland late Wednesday evening. It was its seventh eruption since December. Iceland's meteorological office that monitors seismic activity said Wednesday's eruption occurred at 11:14 p.m. creating a f...

GRINDAVIK, Iceland (AP) - A volcano erupted with lava spewing from the crater on the Rekjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland late Wednesday evening. It was its seventh eruption since December. The Associated Press

VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) - An Australian teenager has died after drinking tainted alcohol in Vang Vieng, Laos, Australia's prime minister said Thursday, and the U.S. State Department confirmed an American also died in the same party town, bringing the death toll to four in the poisoning incident. Australian Prime Minister ...

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Republican Nick Begich has won Alaska's U.S. House race, defeating Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola to claim the seat once held by his grandfather. Begich was among the opponents Peltola defeated during her special and regular election wins in 2022, following the death of Republican Rep. Don Young. Yo...

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Republican Nick Begich has won Alaska's U.S. House race, defeating Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola to claim the seat once held by his grandfather. Begich was among the opponents Peltola defeated during her special and regular election wins in 2022, following the death of Republican Rep. Don Young. Yo...

A Florida man was arrested Wednesday and charged in a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange this week, according to the FBI. Harun Abdul-Malik Yener, 30, of Coral Springs, Florida, was charged with attempt to use an explosive device to damage or destroy a building used in interstate commerce. The FBI began investiga...

Atlanta Braves left-hander Chris Sale won the National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday night after being the league's first pitching triple crown winner since 2011. In his first season with the Braves, Sale led the NL with 18 wins and 225 strikeouts, while his 2.38 ERA was the best among all MLB qualifiers. The 35-y...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans on the House Ethics Committee voted Wednesday against releasing a report on their long-running investigation into President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, the top Democrat on the panel said. Democratic Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania said the eth...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - A former University of Virginia student pleaded guilty Wednesday to fatally shooting three football players and wounding two other students on the Charlottesville campus in 2022. Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 25, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravate...

MALAGA, Spain (AP) - Two-time Grand Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini capped a breakthrough season by leading Italy to its first Billie Jean King Cup title since 2013 on Wednesday, defeating Rebecca Sramkova 6-2, 6-1 to seal a 2-0 victory over Slovakia in the final of the women's team competition. When Paolini's win ended,...

MALAGA, Spain (AP) - Two-time Grand Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini capped a breakthrough season by leading Italy to its first Billie Jean King Cup title since 2013 on Wednesday, defeating Rebecca Sramkova 6-2, 6-1 to seal a 2-0 victory over Slovakia in the final of the women's team competition. The No. 4-ranked Paolini ...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Louisiana's plan to make all of the state's public school classrooms post the Ten Commandments remains on hold under an order Wednesday by a federal appeals court in New Orleans. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a state request to temporarily stay an earlier order by U.S. District Judge...

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (AP) - Freddie Freeman's historic walk-off grand slam ball from Game 1 of the World Series is hitting the auction block. The Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman came to the plate on a sprained right ankle with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning against the New York Yankee...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Louisiana's plan to make all of the state's public school classrooms post the Ten Commandments remains blocked under an order Wednesday by a federal appeals court in New Orleans. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a state request to temporarily stay an earlier order by U.S. District Judge...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Susan Smith, the South Carolina mother convicted of killing her two sons by rolling her car into a lake in 1994 with the boys strapped in their seats inside, asked a parole board for her freedom on Wednesday. Smith, 53, is serving a life sentence after a jury convicted her of murder but decided no...

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) - A Venezuelan man has been convicted of murder in the killing of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, a case that fueled the national debate over immigration during this year's presidential race. Jose Ibarra was charged with murder and other crimes in Riley's February death, and the guilty verdict was...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Donald Trump says he has chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO, the bedrock Western alliance that the president-elect has repeatedly expressed skepticism about. Trump, in a statement, said Whitaker was "a strong warrior and loyal Patriot" who...

DAMASCUS (AP) - Syria's state-run media said a strike on the country's historic town of Palmyra on Wednesday killed 36 people and wounded more than 50, an attack that Damascus has blamed on Israel. The Israeli military declined to comment. The news agency SANA said the strikes also led to "significant material dam...

DAMASCUS (AP) - Syria's state-run media said a strike on the country's historic town of Palmyra on Wednesday killed 36 people and wounded more than 50, an attack that Damascus has blamed on Israel. The Israeli military declined to comment. The news agency SANA said the strikes also led to "significant material dam...

ROME (AP) - Pope Francis has revised the funeral rites that will be used when he dies, simplifying the rituals to emphasize his role as a mere bishop and allowing for burial outside the Vatican in keeping with his wishes. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano on Wednesday published details of the updated liturgica...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that the Biden administration will allow Ukraine to use American-supplied antipersonnel land mines to help fight off Russian forces. Speaking to reporters during a trip to Laos, he said the shift in policy follows changing tactics by the Russians. ...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - San Francisco Mayor London Breed lost her reelection race to Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie. The Associated Press called the race Tuesday. In conceding the race to Lurie, Breed, 50, pledged a smooth transition for the incoming mayor. "Being Mayor of San Francisco has been the greatest honor of...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - San Francisco Mayor London Breed lost her reelection race to Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie. The Associated Press called the race Tuesday. In conceding the race to Lurie, Breed, 50, pledged a smooth transition for the incoming mayor. "Being Mayor of San Francisco has been the greatest honor of...

SpaceX on Tuesday launched another Starship rocket, but passed up catching the booster with giant mechanical arms. Unlike last month's success, the booster was directed to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The catch was called off just four minutes into the test flight from Texas for unspecified reasons, and the boos...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - The U.S. government recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the "president-elect" of the South American country on Tuesday, months after President Nicolas Maduro claimed to have won the July contest. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized Gonz...

NEW YORK (AP) - New York prosecutors said Tuesday they'll oppose any effort to dismiss President-elect Donald Trump's hush money conviction as his sentencing looms, but they expressed some openness to delaying the case until after his impending second term. In a court filing Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney's o...

NEW YORK (AP) - New York prosecutors said Tuesday they'll oppose dismissing President-elect Donald Trump's hush money case as his sentencing looms, but they expressed some openness to delaying it until after his impending second term. In a court filing Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney's office said his forthcom...

VIENNA (AP) - Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels in defiance of international demands, according to a confidential report by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog seen Tuesday by The Associated Press . The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said that a...