North America

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s new moon rocket sprang another dangerous fuel leak Saturday, forcing launch controllers to call off their second attempt this week to send a crew capsule into lunar orbit with test dummies. The inaugural flight is now off for weeks, if not months.

The previous try on Monday at launching the 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket, the most powerful ever built by NASA, was also troubled by hydrogen leaks, though they were smaller. That was on top of leaks detected during countdown drills earlier in the year.

WEED, Calif. (AP) — The fire-stricken Northern California town of Weed has long been seen by passersby as a whimsical spot to stop along Interstate 5 and buy an ironic T-shirt, but residents say they’ve grown edgy in recent years due to a new danger: Dark skies, swirling ash and flames that race so quickly they leave little time for escape.

Their fears exploded to life again in recent days as California’s latest inferno burned homes and buildings and forced evacuations in the small community about 280 miles (451 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — On a quiet Saturday in an Omaha hotel, about 50 people gathered in a ballroom to learn about elections.

The subject wasn’t voter registration drives or poll worker volunteer training. Instead, they paid $25 each to listen to panelists lay out conspiracy theories about voting machines and rigged election results. In language that sometimes leaned into violent imagery, some panelists called on those attending to join what they framed as a battle between good and evil.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump isn’t the first to face criticism for flouting rules and traditions around the safeguarding of sensitive government records, but national security experts say recent revelations point to an unprecedented disregard of post-presidency norms established after the Watergate era.

Document dramas have cropped up from time to time over the years.

NEW YORK, Sep 03 (APP): Since India’s illegal annexation of Jammu and Kashmir three years ago, the Indian government has drastically intensified its repression of the people of the occupied state, including journalists and human rights defenders, by subjecting them to multiple human rights violations, according to a new report released by Amnesty International, a leading London-based rights watchdog.

WASHINGTON, September 3. /TASS/: The United States fails to realize how dangerous the ideology of Nazism is and has been encouraging crimes by neo-Nazi nationalists in Ukraine, the Russian embassy in Washington said in a comment on Friday.

WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has approved a potential $1.1 billion sale of military equipment to Taiwan, including 60 anti-ship missiles and 100 air-to-air missiles, with China threatening to take counter measures.

The Pentagon announced the package on Friday in the wake of China's aggressive military drills around Taiwan following a visit to the island last month by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking U.S. official to travel to Taipei in years. 

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Russia has asked for 56 visas from the United States to allow Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his delegation to travel to New York for the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations this month, but so far has received none.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- A White House spokesperson suggested on Friday that there should not be any conditionality between a revival of the Iran nuclear deal and the conclusion of watchdog probes.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made the remarks during a daily briefing, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and investigations related to Iran's obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

WEED, Calif. (AP) — A wind-swept wildfire in rural Northern California tore through a neighborhood and destroyed about 100 homes and other buildings, fire officials said Saturday after at least two people were injured and thousands were forced from their homes.

The Mill Fire started shortly before 1 p.m. Friday just north of Weed, a city of about 2,600 people 250 miles (402 kilometers) north of San Francisco. The flames raced into the Lincoln Heights neighborhood where a significant number of homes burned and residents had to flee for their lives.