North America

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — Tens of thousands of people who fled South Lake Tahoe in the teeth of a wildfire were returning home as crews finally managed to stall the advance of flames scant miles from the resort.

But authorities warned that residents of the scenic forest area on the California-Nevada state line weren’t out of the woods yet, with risks ranging from smoky, foul air to belligerent bears.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 05 (APP): The world experienced a brief, sharp drop in emissions of air pollutants last year, especially in urban areas, amid lockdown measures and related travel restrictions put in place over the coronavirus pandemic, according to UN weather experts.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO’s) Air Quality and Climate Bulletin, said South East Asia saw a 40 per cent reduction in the level of harmful airborne particles caused by traffic and energy production in 2020.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) – UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, concluded his seven-day visit to Syria, Lebanon and Turkey, his first official mission in the region, since he assumed his functions, said the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which he heads.

HUIXTLA, Mexico, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Mexican security and migration officials early on Sunday blocked the passage of a new migrant caravan, detaining several people, as the government moved to break up the group just a day after it set off from southern Mexico for the United States.

At around 5 a.m. local time, members of Mexico's National Guard and the National Institute of Migration (INM) began surrounding the migrants on the edge of the southern town of Huixtla, prompting some of them to flee, a Reuters witness said.

LUCEDALE, Miss. (AP) — A teenager said she could hear the terrifying sounds of other vehicles crashing around — and on top of — the pickup truck where she and her mother were trapped after the truck plunged into a dark, muddy pit when a Mississippi highway collapsed during torrential rain brought by Hurricane Ida.

“I saw a black hole, then I blacked out and I woke up and my mom was leaned over toward me. She was choking on her blood and she couldn’t breathe or anything,” 16-year-old Emily Williams of Wiggins, Mississippi, told WLOX-TV in a video call from her hospital room.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top U.S. national security officials will see how the failed war in Afghanistan may be reshaping America’s relationships in the Middle East as they meet with key allies in the Persian Gulf and Europe this week.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are traveling to the Gulf separately, leaving Sunday. They will talk with leaders who are central to U.S. efforts to prevent a resurgence of extremist threats in Afghanistan, some of whom were partners in the 20-year fight against the Taliban.

WATFORD CITY, N.D. (AP) — First came the roughnecks and other oil field workers, almost all men.

Lured by steady wages as the nation climbed out of the Great Recession, they filled McKenzie County’s few motel rooms, then began sleeping in cars, tents, trailers — anything to hide from the cold wind cutting across the North Dakota prairie. Once empty dirt roads suddenly were clogged with tanker trucks. Crime rates spiked.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday that cleanup crews are responding to a sizable oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico following Hurricane Ida.

The spill, which is ongoing, appears to be coming from a source underwater at an offshore drilling lease about two miles (three kilometers) south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana. The reported location is near the site of a miles-long brown and black oil slick visible in aerial photos first published Wednesday by The Associated Press.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s top court and its election authority have tossed aside what seemed to be a constitutional ban on consecutive presidential reelection, setting the stage for President Nayib Bukele to potentially seek a second term in 2024.

The Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber on Friday told the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to permit a second term, and the electoral authority announced Saturday it would accept what it called a ruling that cannot be appealed.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters are making progress on a California wildfire threatening South Lake Tahoe, officials said Saturday, lifting hopes for tens of thousands of residents who are waiting this weekend to return to the resort town.

Lighter winds and higher humidity continue to reduce the spread of flames and fire crews were quick to take advantage by doubling down on burning and cutting fire lines around the Caldor Fire.