LONDON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Around 2,000 artefacts including gold jewellery and gems had been stolen from the British Museum over a long period of time, but recovery efforts were already under way, the museum's chair George Osborne said on Saturday.

The museum, one of London's most popular attractions whose treasures include the Rosetta Stone, an ancient Egyptian relic inscribed with hieroglyphs and other texts, said last week a member of staff had been dismissed after items dating from the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD had been taken from a storeroom.

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Families were torn asunder. A community is reeling with grief. More than 100 people have perished and hundreds more remain missing after flames and smoke barreled from the hills and annihilated the historic town of Lahaina.

But even in places overwhelmed by despair and devastation, the Hawaiian spirit known as ‘ohana endures.

NAIROBI, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Some 14 km from Garissa town, located in northeastern Kenya, sits one of the country's hidden gems in the energy sector.

Known as the Garissa Solar Power Plant, the 55 megawatts (MW) facility is the "largest grid-connected solar power plant in east and central Africa," according to Kenya's Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC).

NAIROBI, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Kenya's transport minister apologised on Saturday after a widespread electricity blackout the previous night left passengers at the main airport in Nairobi grappling in darkness.

Power went off in many parts of the country at 9.45 p.m. (1845 GMT) on Friday, the electricity distribution company Kenya Power (KPLC.NR) said in a statement, attributing the loss to "a system disturbance".

Florida school district officials apologized Thursday for an elementary school assembly in which Black students were singled out for a presentation on low test scores.

Officials at Flagler County’s school district in northeastern Florida said at a news conference that the assembly at Bunnell Elementary School was a “horrible, horrific mistake” that shouldn’t have happened, and that the school’s principal has been put on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA and SpaceX halted the countdown late Thursday for the launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station.

Mission managers rescheduled the liftoff for early Saturday morning, giving them an extra 24 hours to close out lingering issues, officials said. Nearly ideal weather was expected.

The four astronauts, representing four countries, had not yet headed to the SpaceX Falcon rocket awaiting them on the pad.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (AP) — When Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell delivers a high-profile speech Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, many analysts think he could make one thing clear: That the Fed plans to keep its benchmark interest rate at a peak level for longer than had been expected.

NEW YORK (AP) — A man fleeing New York City police officers on a motorcycle died Wednesday after a sergeant hurled a plastic picnic cooler at his head from close range, causing a violent crash, authorities said.

The sergeant, Erik Duran, was suspended without pay just hours after the death of Eric Duprey, 30, in the University Heights section of the Bronx, police said.

Surveillance video viewed by The Associated Press showed Duprey driving the gas-powered motorcycle on a sidewalk toward a group of people, including the sergeant, who was not in uniform.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will observe Monday’s 60th anniversary of the March on Washington by meeting with organizers of the 1963 gathering and relatives of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

The Oval Office meeting will be held six decades after President John F. Kennedy and King met at the White House on the morning of the march on Aug. 28, 1963.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican support for gun restrictions is slipping a year after Congress passed the most comprehensive firearms control legislation in decades with bipartisan support, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That’s led to a gap between Democrats and the GOP on the issue of guns that has widened in the last year. Democrats have consistently outpaced Republicans and independents in their belief that gun laws in the U.S. should be strengthened, but GOP support has dropped even further behind, the poll found.

ATLANTA  (AP) — A camera clicks. In a fraction of a second, the shutter opens and then closes, freezing forever the image in front of it.

When the camera shutter blinked inside a jail in downtown Atlanta on Thursday, it both created and documented a tiny inflection point in American life. Captured for posterity, there was a former president of the United States, for the first time in history, under arrest and captured in the sort of frame more commonly associated with drug dealers or drunken drivers. The trappings of power gone, for that split second.

COPENHAGEN, Aug 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Denmark on Friday said it plans to ban Koran burnings after a string of desecrations of Islam’s holy book in the Scandinavian nation sparked anger in Muslim countries.

The government will present a bill that will “prohibit the inappropriate treatment of objects of significant religious importance to a religious community,” Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told reporters.

He said the legislation was aimed especially at burnings and desecrations in public places.