World responds to Lebanon's plight, France's Macron to visit

PARIS (AP) — As Lebanese rescuers counted the dead and combed rubble for signs of life a day after a huge explosion shattered swaths of Beirut, nations near and far pledged Wednesday that the country, already trapp…

Poop scoop: Satellite images reveal Antarctic penguin haunts

BERLIN (AP) — British scientists say there are more emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica than previously thought based on evidence of bird droppings spotted from space.

Virus testing in the US is dropping, even as deaths mount

U.S. testing for the coronavirus is dropping even as infections remain high and the death toll rises by more than 1,000 a day, a worrisome trend that officials attribute largely to Americans getting discouraged ove…

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The Latest: US officials say no sign Beirut blast was attack

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the explosion in Beirut (all times local):

Girl Scouts sex-abuse claim included in NY civil case flurry

NEW YORK (AP) — As a Girl Scout growing up in upstate New York, Alice Weiss-Russell says she lived with a dark secret: The husband of her troop leader was sexually abusing her in the bathroom of a church basement w…

SpaceX's Mars test rocket makes 1st flight, landing upright

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX launched a prototype of its Mars rocketship hundreds of feet into the air, then landed it upright in a successful test flight.

AP source: Biden won't go to Milwaukee for acceptance speech

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will not travel to Milwaukee to accept his party’s White House nomination because of concerns over the coronavirus.

Iowa governor to sign order restoring felon voting rights

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will sign an executive order Wednesday granting convicted felons the right to vote, ending Iowa’s place as the only remaining state to broadly deny voting rig…

French intelligence agents charged in alleged murder plot

PARIS (AP) — The Paris prosecutor’s office says it has filed preliminary attempted murder charges against two agents from France’s foreign intelligence agency over an alleged plan to kill a 54-year-old woman last m…

Virginia first state to try pandemic app from Apple, Google

Virginia has rolled out a smartphone app to automatically notify people if they might have been exposed to the coronavirus, becoming the first U.S. state to use new pandemic technology created by Apple and Google.

The Latest: High demand for virus tests in South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. — In South Carolina, hospitals and the state health department say demand for coronavirus testing remains high even as testing numbers have dipped in the last two weeks.

Lebanon to put some Beirut port officials under house arrest

BEIRUT (AP) — Investigators began searching the wreckage of Beirut’s port Wednesday for clues to the cause of the massive explosion that ripped across the Lebanese capital as the government ordered port officials p…

Lebanon putting some Beirut port officials on house arrest

BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese government says it is putting an unspecified number of Beirut port officials under house arrest pending an investigation into how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the p…

The Latest: Lebanese government declares two-week emergency

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the explosion in Beirut (all times local):