COLU @ CONCEPTS

HOUSTON (AP) — While the number of evacuees seeking refuge in Houston’s emergency shelters dwindled 10 days after Harvey struck, many people who had left by Monday still faced dire housing needs. Some returned to public housing complexes inundated with sewage and mud. More than 50,000 went to government-paid hotels, some far away from homes and schools. Others moved in with family and friends. Harvey did not discriminate, inundating exclusive neighborhoods and low-lying apartments for the poor,  and was blamed for at least 60 deaths.  Most of the evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center were lower-income, but some were from wealthier areas. Now, about 1,500 remain at the convention center, and several said they were homeless, disabled or from public housing. About 2,800 were at the NRG Center, another convention center that opened after George R. Brown reached double its original capacity. Harvey struck Texas on Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane, bu...

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian defense ministry says two Russian troops have been killed in shelling in Syria’s east. The ministry’s statement quoted by Russian news agencies late on Monday said the two men died when a convoy escorting Russian cease-fire monitoring staff came under mortar fire outside the eastern city of Deir el-Zour. The ministry said one man died on the spot and the other died later of wounds in a hospital. Russia has been providing air cover for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s offensive against Islamic State group militants since 2015. The Russian defense ministry said Monday that Russian jets had made 80 flights to back Assad’s offensive on Deir el-Zour, a key city that has been under IS siege for three years. Source: www.apnews.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) — J.D. Martinez hit four home runs for the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night, tying the major league record in a startling power show at Dodger Stadium. And get this: He struck out his first time up, then connected four times in a row, including shots in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. “It’s a blessing,” he said. Martinez became the 18th player in big league history to accomplish the feat and first for Arizona. He’s the 16th overall to do it since 1900 — Scooter Gennett of the Cincinnati Reds hit four straight homers on June 6 against St. Louis. Martinez hit a two-run homer in the fourth off Dodgers starter Rich Hill. He hit a solo drive off Pedro Baez in the seventh and another solo shot off Josh Fields in the eighth. Going into the ninth, Martinez was due up fifth. After three batters safely reached, Martinez stepped to the plate with history only one swing away. “Let’s go up there and keep doing what you’re doing,” he said he told himsel...

WELLESLEY, Mass. (AP) — Until last year, Ninotska Love would have been barred from attending Wellesley College. She’s an accomplished student who has persevered through hardship, but under longstanding rules, the college would have rejected her because she was assigned at birth as a boy. Now the rules have changed. This week, Love will become one of the first transgender women to attend Wellesley in the school’s 147-year history. “For me to be accepted to one of the best colleges for women in the nation, it is a big validation of the person that I have become. At first I couldn’t believe it,” said Love, 28, who was born in Ecuador but fled to the U.S. in 2009 after being kidnapped and threatened because of her gender identity. “I’m so thankful to be here.” Her arrival on campus reflects a quiet but momentous shift that’s taking place at a wave of women’s colleges that have begun allowing trans women. But even as many schools embrace shifting views on gender, some have been...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean warships conducted live-fire exercises at sea Tuesday as Seoul continued its displays of military capability following U.S. warnings of a “massive military response” after North Korea detonated its largest-ever nuclear test explosion. South Korea’s presidential office also said Washington and Seoul have agreed to remove bilaterally agreed warhead restrictions on South Korean missiles, which would allow the South to develop more powerful weapons that would boost its pre-emptive strike capabilities against the North. The South’s military exercises on Monday involved F-15 fighter jets and land-based ballistic missiles simulating an attack on North Korea’s nuclear test site to “strongly warn” Pyongyang over the recent detonation. The heated words from the United States and the military maneuvers in South Korea are becoming familiar responses to North Korea’s rapid, as-yet unchecked pursuit of a viable arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles th...

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AP) — With thousands of Rohingya refugees streaming daily across the swampy border into Bangladesh, one hospital was struggling to treat dozens of men who had arrived with broken bones, bullet wounds and horrific stories of death. Already, some 87,000 Rohingya Muslims have entered Bangladesh, fleeing violence in western Myanmar that erupted Aug. 25. They have filled three older refugee camps set up in the 1990s. “The existing refugees have taken in the new arrivals into their homes,” UNHCR spokeswoman Vivian Tan said Monday. Thousands more were sheltering in local villages, or in open fields — wherever they could find space. “What we desperately need is for land to be made available to get more emergency shelters up,” as well as help with other aid supplies, Tan said. “These people have been walking for days. They likely have not eaten since they left their homes,” Tan said. Many needed medical attention for respiratory diseases, infections and mal...

NEW YORK (AP) — Newspaper publisher Tronc has acquired the Daily News, a storied New York tabloid newspaper that won a Pulitzer Prize this year but has been buffeted by the changing media environment. Chicago-based Tronc Inc., the publisher of the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, announced the deal Monday night, and the Daily News posted a story on its website. It was first reported by The New York Times. Tronc CEO Justin Dearborn said acquiring the paper and its popular website would “provide us with another strategic platform for growing our digital business, expanding our reach and broadening our services for advertisers and marketers,” and both Tronc and Daily News executives said the company would maintain the quality of the paper’s journalism. “Over the past near-century, the New York Daily News has served New York City and its surrounding areas with its award-winning journalism and helped shape the dynamics of the city,” News owner Mort Zuckerman said in a re...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The Latest on North Korea’s nuclear test and the world reaction (all times local): 10 a.m. South Korea’s navy has conducted a live-fire exercise in waters off the country’s eastern coast as Seoul continued its displays of military capability following North Korea’s latest nuclear test. Seoul’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that warships including a 2,500-ton frigate, a 1000-ton patrol ship and 400-ton guided-missile vessels participated in drills aimed at retaliating against potential North Korean provocations. Seoul says more naval drills are planned from Wednesday to Saturday in the country’s southern seas. The South’s army and air force on Monday conducted a joint drill involving F-15 fighter jets and land-based ballistic missiles that simulated an attack on North Korea’s nuclear test site to “strongly warn” Pyongyang over its sixth and most powerful nuclear test to date. ____ 9:30 a.m. Australia’s prime minister says a war with No...

HOUSTON (AP) — While the number of evacuees seeking refuge in Houston’s emergency shelters dwindled 10 days after Harvey struck, many people who had left by Monday still faced dire housing needs. Some returned to public housing complexes inundated with sewage and mud. More than 50,000 went to government-paid hotels, some far away from homes and schools. Others moved in with family and friends. Harvey did not discriminate, inundating exclusive neighborhoods and low-lying apartments for the poor,  and was blamed for at least 60 deaths.  Most of the evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center were lower-income, but some were from wealthier areas. Now, about 1,500 remain at the convention center, and several said they were homeless, disabled or from public housing. About 2,800 were at the NRG Center, another convention center that opened after George R. Brown reached double its original capacity. Harvey struck Texas on Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane, bu...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A plan President Donald Trump is expected to announce to remove a shield from deportation for young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children is being embraced by some top Republicans and denounced by others as the beginning of a “civil war” within the party. The response was an immediate illustration of the potential battles ahead if Trump follows through with a plan that would hand a political hot potato to Republicans on the Hill who have a long history of dropping it. Two people familiar with Trump’s decision making said Sunday that the president was preparing to announce an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, but with a six-month delay intended to give Congress time to pass legislation that would address the status of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants covered by the program. The White House has said Trump’s decision would be announced Tuesday. The Justice Department announced late Monday that Attorn...