North America

NEW YORK (AP) — Twenty years ago, the 11th of September dawned as just a date. By midnight, it was 9/11, the staggering starting point for a new era of terror, war, politics, patriotism and tragedy.

The U.S. marks the milestone anniversary Saturday under the pall of a pandemic and in the shadow of a frantic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which fell to the same militant rulers who gave safe haven to the plotters of the 2001 attacks.

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Olaf slipped back to tropical storm force on Friday after slamming into the Los Cabos resorts at the tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula and then drenching the region with torrential rains.

The storm came ashore near San Jose del Cabo late Thursday as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 100 mph (155 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

But winds had dropped to 50 mph (85 kph) by midday Friday, when it was centered about 20 miles (35 kilometers) south-southeast of Cabo San Lazaro.

TLALNEPANTLA, Mexico (AP) — A section of mountain on the outskirts of Mexico City gave way Friday, plunging rocks the size of small homes onto a densely populated neighborhood and leaving at least one person dead and 10 others missing.

Firefighters scaled a three-story pile of rocks that appeared to be resting on houses in Tlalnepantla, which is part of Mexico state. The state surrounds the capital on three sides.

NEW YORK (AP) — The dust cloud caught Carl Sadler near the East River, turning his clothes and hair white as he looked for a way out of Manhattan after escaping from his office at the World Trade Center.

Gray powder billowed through the open windows and terrace door of Mariama James’ downtown apartment, settling, inches thick in places, into her rugs and children’s bedroom furniture.

Barbara Burnette, a police detective, spat the soot from her mouth and throat for weeks as she worked on the burning rubble pile without a protective mask.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The head of the Louisiana State Police said Friday he wants to know why 67% of his agency’s uses of force in recent years have been directed at Black people, and would welcome a U.S. Justice Department “pattern and practice” probe into potential racial profiling if that is deemed necessary.

(AP) --- New U.S. studies released Friday show the COVID-19 vaccines remain highly effective against hospitalizations and death even as the extra-contagious delta variant swept the country.

One study tracked over 600,000 COVID-19 cases in 13 states from April through mid-July. As delta surged in early summer, those who were unvaccinated were 4.5 times more likely than the fully vaccinated to get infected, over 10 times more likely to be hospitalized and 11 times more likely to die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

FORT BLISS, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday provided the first public look inside a U.S. military base where Afghans airlifted out of Afghanistan are being screened, amid questions about how the government is caring for the refugees and vetting them.

“Every Afghan who is here with us has endured a harrowing journey and they are now faced with the very real challenges of acclimating with life in the United States,” Liz Gracon, a senior State Department official, told reporters.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s aggressive push to require millions of U.S. workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus is running into a wall of resistance from Republican leaders threatening everything from lawsuits to civil disobedience, plunging the country deeper into culture wars that have festered since the onset of the pandemic.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 10 (APP): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an end to attacks on schools, as he marked the International Day to Protect Education from Attack.

“The global community needs to speak with one voice: attacks on schools must stop. Schools must be places of learning, safety and peace,” he told a high-level event on Thursday this International Day, which falls on September 9.

Nevertheless, he added, “year after year, this fundamental right comes under attack”.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 10 (NNN-XINHUA) – President of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Volkan Bozkir, said yesterday that, 83 heads of state are expected to attend the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 76), which opens on Sept 14.

“To date, the heads of 83 states have personally announced their intention to attend, 26 have applied for a recorded performance,” Bozkir said, at his final press conference in his capacity as the UNGA president.