COLU @ CONCEPTS

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Armed with extraordinary new U.N. sanctions, nations raced Monday to ensure that North Korea’s biggest trading partners actually carry them out, an elusive task that has undercut past attempts to strong-arm Pyongyang into abandoning its nuclear weapons. North Korea reacted angrily, vowing to bolster its nuclear arsenal and launch “thousands-fold” revenge against the United States. In a statement carried by state media, Kim Jong Un’s government called the sanctions a “violent infringement of its sovereignty” caused by a “heinous U.S. plot to isolate and stifle” North Korea. The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved tough new sanctions Saturday to punish North Korea for its escalating nuclear and missile programs including a ban on coal and other exports worth over $1 billion - a huge bite in its total exports, valued at $3 billion last year. (Aug. 5) As President Donald Trump demanded full and speedy implementation of the new penalties, h...

NEW YORK (AP) — Yawn. This year’s run to a record for the stock market has been one of the least eventful in decades. Seemingly every day, stocks have drifted by just a few tenths of a percent in a lazy ascent to new heights. Only twice this year have investors had to deal with a 1 percent drop for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index in a day. That’s far fewer than typical. The last time stocks sailed through such an uneventful first seven months was when a group of burglars was arrested for breaking into the Watergate complex in 1972. Broaden the scope to include when the S&P 500 fell or rose by 1 percent in a day, and this could be the least volatile year for stocks since 1964, if the current pace holds. Just don’t get too comfortable. As central banks start to wean markets off the stimulus they’ve injected into the global economy, many money managers say they’re preparing for a bumpier ride ahead. For now, markets have been so calm that the biggest loss for the S...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in suburban Minneapolis, like other U.S. mosques, occasionally receives threatening calls and emails. Its leaders say they’re more frightened now after an explosive shattered windows and damaged a room as worshippers prepared for morning prayers. “We feel like it’s much deeper and scarier than like something random,” Mohamed Omar, the center’s executive director, said Sunday. “It’s so scary.” Investigators are seeking suspects after an explosive device shattered windows and damaged an office at a suburban Minneapolis mosque. No one was injured in the Saturday morning blast at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington. (Aug. 6) No one was hurt in the blast, which happened around 5 a.m. Saturday. Windows of the imam’s office were shattered, either by what the FBI called an “improvised explosive device” or by an object thrown through them. The FBI is seeking suspects and trying to determine whether the incident was...

MAFRAQ, Jordan (AP) — Married at 15 and divorced at 16, a Syrian teen says she regrets having said yes to a handsome suitor — a stranger who turned into an abusive husband. Yet the reasons that transformed her into a child bride have become more prevalent among Syrians who live in Jordanian exile because of a six-year-old civil war back home. More families marry off daughters to ease the financial burden or say marriage is the way to protect the “honor” of girls seen as vulnerable outside their homeland. Figures from Jordan’s population census document the long suspected increase for the first time. In 2015, brides between the ages of 13 and 17 made up almost 44 percent of all Syrian females in Jordan getting married that year, compared to 33 percent in 2010. With Syrians expected to remain in exile for years, it’s a harmful trend for refugees and their overburdened host country, U.N. and Jordanian officials say. More Syrian girls will lose out on education, since most chi...

University professor and University of Oxford employee are in custody for the brutal stabbing death of a 26-year-old hair stylist in Chicago. The case has involved peculiar twists, including a cash donation by one of the two suspects in the victim’s name at a Wisconsin library and a videotaped confession sent to friends. The two men surrendered peacefully in California after eight days as fugitives. Northwestern microbiologist Wyndham Lathem and Oxford financial officer, Andrew Warren, were wanted on first-degree murder charges for the death of Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau. Lathem is due in court on Monday. Here’s a closer look at the case: THE CRIME The body of 26-year-old Cornell-Duranleau was found stabbed to death inside an apartment belonging to Lathem in an upscale neighborhood near downtown Chicago. The July 27 attack was so violent the blade of the knife believed to have been used in the stabbing was broken, police said. Authorities said the building’s front desk...

EL CERRITO, Calif. (AP) — In some ways, Rainbow Day Camp is very ordinary. Kids arrive with a packed lunch, make friendship bracelets, play basketball, sing songs and get silly. But it is also extraordinarily unique, from the moment campers arrive each morning. At check-in each day, campers make a nametag with their pronoun of choice. Some opt for “she” or “he.” Or a combination of “she/he.” Or “they,” or no pronoun at all. Some change their name or pronouns daily, to see what feels right. The camp in the San Francisco Bay Area city of El Cerrito caters to transgender and “gender fluid” children, ages 4 to 12, making it one of the only camps of its kind in the world open to preschoolers, experts say. Enrollment has tripled to about 60 young campers since it opened three summers ago, with kids coming from as far as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. - even Africa. Plans are underway to open a branch next summer in Colorado, and the camp has been contacted by parents and organization...

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence has pushed back against a news report suggesting he is laying groundwork for a possible presidential bid in 2020 if President Donald Trump does not run. In a statement released by the White House, Pence said Sunday’s story in The New York Times “is disgraceful and offensive to me, my family, and our entire team.” He added that “the allegations in this article are categorically false.” The formal rebuttal of a news report by the vice president was an unusual move. In it, Pence also said his team will “focus all our efforts to advance the president’s agenda and see him re-elected in 2020.” The report details efforts of several Republicans looking ahead to 2020, calling it a “shadow campaign.” It notes Pence’s political schedule and active fundraising, though it also says unnamed advisers have signaled that he’d only run if Trump doesn’t. The article noted Pence has set up a fundraising committee. Called the Great America Com...

VALENCIA, Venezuela (AP) — President Nicolas Maduro vowed that a band of anti-government fighters who attacked a Venezuelan army base will get the “maximum penalty” as his administration roots out his enemies. Troops killed two of the 20 intruders who slipped into the Paramacay base in the central city of Valencia early Sunday, apparently intent on fomenting a military uprising, Maduro said in his weekly broadcast on state television. One of the invaders was injured, seven captured and 10 got away, the embattled leader said. “We know where they are headed and all of our military and police force is deployed,” Maduro said. He said he would ask for “the maximum penalty for those who participated in this terrorist attack.” The attack came as Venezuela’s controversial constitutional assembly is getting down to work, signaling in its initial decrees last week that delegates will target Maduro’s foes as he had warned. The new assembly, whose powers supersede all other branches...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Trump administration has yet to decide how to respond to Russia’s move to expel hundreds of American diplomats, but plans to deliver a response to Moscow by Sept. 1, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday. A day after sitting down in the Philippines with Russia’s top diplomat, Tillerson said he’d asked “clarifying questions” about the Kremlin’s retaliation announced last month following new sanctions passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump. The Trump administration has struggled to determine how the move will affect the U.S. diplomatic presence in Russia, as well as the broader implications for the troubled relationship between the nuclear-armed powers. Despite the Russian move, which seemed to plunge the two countries even further into acrimony, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emerged from the meeting declaring a readiness for more engagement with the U.S. on North Korea, Syria and Ukraine, among other issues. T...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea vowed Monday to bolster its nuclear arsenal and launch “thousands-fold” revenge against the United States in response to tough U.N. sanctions imposed after its recent intercontinental ballistic missile launches. The warning came two days after the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved new sanctions to punish North Korea, including a ban on coal and other exports worth over $1 billion. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, called the U.S.-drafted resolution “the single largest economic sanctions package ever leveled against” North Korea. In a statement carried by state media, the North Korean government said the sanctions were a “violent infringement of its sovereignty” that was caused by a “heinous U.S. plot to isolate and stifle” North Korea. It said the U.N. sanctions will never force the country to negotiate over its nuclear program or to give up its push to strengthen its nuclear capability as long as U.S. hostility and ...