125,000 without power as storm slams S.C.
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (AP) - Tropical Storm Gaston sloshed ashore in South Carolina on Sunday with near hurricane-force wind, spinning sheets of rain that flooded roads as the storm knocked out power to thousands of people. Gaston made landfall near McClellanville, a small fishing village that was walloped by Hurricane Charley earlier this month when it came ashore for a second time after devastating southwest Florida.
Explosion kills 7 at U.S. firm in Kabul
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A powerful car bomb detonated outside the office of a U.S. security contractor in the Afghan capital Sunday, killing at least seven people, including two Americans, and wounding several others, officials and witnesses said. Hours earlier, a blast wrecked a religious school in southeastern Afghanistan, reportedly killing at least eight children and one adult and underlining the country's fragile security as it moves toward its first post-Taliban election in October.
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French President presses for journalists release
PARIS (AP) - President Jacques Chirac dispatched his foreign minister to the Middle East on Sunday to work for the release of two French reporters abducted in Iraq, vowing to spare no effort to free them from kidnappers demanding the France scrap its ban on Islamic head scarves in state schools. Chirac appealed to the kidnappers with an implicit reminder that France opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. But he did not directly respond to their reported demand that the ban on head scarves and other religious apparel be overturned within 48 hours.
West Nile cases low in much of western Colorado
DURANGO, Colo. (AP) - La Plata County has reported only three human cases of West Nile virus this summer. Pitkin County has reported no cases and caught only one mosquito as part of its monitoring.
That has some health officials speculating that western Colorado may escape the waves of cases some feared would invade the area.
Colorado led the nation last year with 61 deaths and 2,947 cases, with most of those in eastern Colorado. The fear was western Colorado would be hit hard this year as the mosquito-borne disease continues sweeping west.
Mesa County has the most cases this summer: 105 out of a statewide total of 186 confirmed by the state Department of Public Health and Environment. The two West Nile deaths this summer were Mesa County residents.
Thousands demonstrate outside NYC convention
NEW YORK (AP) - Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched past a heavily fortified Republican convention hall on Sunday, chanting denunciations of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq as delegates flocked to the city to nominate President Bush for four more years in the White House. Vice President Dick Cheney campaigned his way into the convention city three days ahead of the president, praising him as "calm in a crisis, comfortable with responsibility and determined to do everything needed to protect our people." He spoke on Ellis Island, framed by a Manhattan skyline altered irrevocably by terrorism.
Aggressive bees attack Las Cruces man
LAS CRUCES (AP) - A Las Cruces man suffered between 150 and 200 bee stings during an attack while he worked under a tree.
The man, whose name was not released, was transported to Memorial Medical Center on Saturday and listed as stable. He was receiving treatment for pain, said Lt. Eric Palma of the Mesilla Volunteer Fire Department.
Authorities said they couldn't speculate on whether the bees were Africanized, but they were aggressive.
"We tried to take a look, but when we got within 30 or 40 feet of the tree, we were swarmed by bees ourselves and retreated," Palma said Saturday afternoon.
