COLU @ CONCEPTS

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — One of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit Puerto Rico pummeled the island Wednesday, tearing off roofs and sending doors flying from hinges as officials warned Hurricane Maria would decimate the power company’s crumbling infrastructure and force the government to rebuild dozens of communities. Maria, which has killed at least nine in the Caribbean, made landfall early Wednesday in the southeast coastal town of Yabucoa as a Category 4 storm with winds of 155 mph (250 kph) winds, and it was expected to punish the island with life-threatening winds for 12 to 24 hours, forecasters said. People calling local radio stations reported that doors were flying off hinges and a water tank flew away in the island’s southern region. Meanwhile, widespread flooding was reported in the capital of San Juan, with water running down one apartment’s interior staircase. Gov. Ricardo Rossello warned of heavy rains and flooding but urged people to have faith: ...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The three-story school structure had pancaked into a pile of concrete slabs. The bodies of 21 children and four adults had been pulled out. But still sounds came from the collapsed structure on Wednesday — and finally a survivor was located. Rescuers were struggling to free a girl who had been one of many trapped under the rubble of a Mexico City school that collapsed due to yesterday’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake. Images broadcast by Mexican media showed helmeted workers working at the debris at the Enrique Rebsamen school. Foro TV reported that rescuers spotted the child and shouted to her to move her hand if she could hear them, and she did. A search dog subsequently entered the wreckage and confirmed she was alive. Several other children were rescued shortly after the quake. It was a ray of hope after a grim night, as rescuers dug at the pile of rubble and soldiers wedged in wooden beams to try to prevent it from crumbling further. Then a group of t...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Rescuers said Wednesday they have found a surviving child in the ruins of a school that collapsed in Mexico’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake, one of many efforts across the city to save people trapped in under schools, homes and businesses toppled by a quake that killed at least 225 people. Helmeted workers worked at the debris, sometimes calling for silence, as they tried to reach the girl at the Enrique Rebsamen school in southern Mexico City. Foro TV reported that rescuers spotted the child and shouted to her to move her hand if she could hear them, and she did. A search dog subsequently entered the wreckage and confirmed she was alive. Tuesday’s magnitude-7.1 quake struck on the 32nd anniversary of the 1985 earthquake that killed thousands. Just hours before it hit, people around Mexico had held earthquake drills to mark the date. One of the most desperate rescue efforts was at the Rebsamen primary and secondary school, where a wing of the three-story buil...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Police, firefighters and ordinary Mexicans dug frantically through the rubble of collapsed schools, homes and apartment buildings Wednesday, looking for survivors of Mexico’s deadliest earthquake in decades as the number of confirmed fatalities stood at 225. Adding poignancy and a touch of the surreal, Tuesday’s magnitude-7.1 quake struck on the 32nd anniversary of the 1985 earthquake that killed thousands. Just hours earlier, people around Mexico had held earthquake drills to mark the date. One of the most desperate rescue efforts was at a primary and secondary school in southern Mexico City, where a wing of the three-story building collapsed into a massive pancake of concrete slabs. Journalists saw rescuers pull at least two small bodies from the rubble, covered in sheets. Volunteer rescue worker Dr. Pedro Serrano managed to crawl into the crevices of the tottering pile of rubble that had been Escuela Enrique Rebsamen. He made it into a classroom, but fo...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The three-story school structure had pancaked into a pile of concrete slabs. The bodies of 21 children and four adults had been pulled out. But still sounds came from the collapsed structure early Wednesday — nobody knew if they were survivors pounding for help, or simply the noises of shifting rubble. After a wing of the Enrique Rebsamen primary and secondary school collapsed in Tuesday’s magnitude-7.1 earthquake, rescuers dug at the pile of rubble and soldiers wedged in wooden beams to try to prevent it from crumbling further. Then a group of them decided to head in. Pedro Serrano, a 29-year-old doctor, was one of the ordinary Mexicans who had volunteered to join the rescue effort. He crawled into a crevice amid the tottering pile. “We dug holes, then crawled in on our bellies,” Serrano said. With barely room to move, he wriggled deeper into the wrecked school. “We managed to get into a collapsed classroom. We saw some chairs and wooden tables,” Se...

WASHINGTON (AP) — It will come as no surprise if the Federal Reserve has an announcement to make when its latest policy meeting ends Wednesday: That it’s ready to begin paring its enormous $4.5 trillion portfolio containing Treasurys and mortgage bonds. The Fed expanded its bond holdings — the major assets on its balance sheet — in the years after the financial crisis erupted in 2008. It bought the bonds to try to hold down mortgage and other loan rates and support a fragile economy. The Fed stopped buying new bonds in 2014 but kept its balance sheet high by reinvesting the proceeds of maturing bonds. Now, with a much stronger economy, Fed officials are expected to announce a starting date to begin allowing the bond holdings to shrink gradually. No one is quite sure how the financial markets will respond over time. One thing not expected Wednesday is any change in the Fed’s key policy rate, which remains in a low range of 1 percent to 1.25 percent. The central bank may signa...

MADRID (AP) — Spanish police arrested at least 12 people Wednesday in raids on Catalan government offices, news reports said, as national authorities intensified a crackdown on the region’s preparations for a secession vote that Spain says is illegal. It was the first time Spanish authorities have detained Catalan officials since the campaign for a secession vote in Catalonia began to gather momentum in 2011. The move was the latest spike in tension in the standoff between authorities based in Madrid and pro-independence Catalans. Almost immediately after the news, hundreds of Catalans gathered to angrily protest the raids outside government offices in the region’s capital, Barcelona. Some demonstrators sat down in the street to block police cars, while others scuffled with officers. Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont blasted the police operations as “unlawful” and accused the national government of adopting a “totalitarian attitude.” Spain’s Europa Press news age...

NEW YORK (AP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told The Associated Press in an interview that he heard positive news in President Donald Trump’s United Nations address: “that the U.S. would not impose its way of life on others.” “I think it’s a very welcome statement, which we haven’t heard from an American leader for a very long time,” said Lavrov, who sat down with the AP and Russia’s Tass news agency Tuesday, directly after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Lavrov blamed the Obama administration for the collapse in relations between Moscow and Washington. The U.S. enacted a series of steps against the Russian and Russian diplomats in December, including new sanctions and expelling 35 Russian diplomats, to punish Russia for meddling in the U.S. elections, a charge Russia has denied. Moscow responded by limiting the size of the U.S. diplomatic staff in Russia. In his speech to the General Assembly, Trump said “We do not seek to impose our way of ...

NEW YORK (AP) — The United States will contribute nearly $32 million in humanitarian aid to help Rohingya Muslim refugees, the State Department said Wednesday, in the Trump administration’s first major response to the mass exodus from Myanmar. The new money for food, medical care, water, sanitation and shelter comes as the U.S. joins a growing chorus of international condemnation over the minority group’s plight. In less than a month, some 421,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest countries, as the United Nations and others raise allegations of ethnic cleansing. The crisis has threatened to jeopardize Myanmar’s U.S.-aided shift toward democracy after five decades of harsh military rule. Former President Barack Obama helped shepherd that transition in what is considered one of his key foreign policy achievements. President Donald Trump has been less attentive to the country, also known as Burma. The exodus has also emerged as major blemish on the ...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The first treaty to ban nuclear weapons was opened Wednesday for countries to sign, with the backing of over 100 nations but the opposition of nuclear-armed ones. “This treaty is an important milestone towards the universally held goal of a world free of nuclear weapons” at a time of increasing concern about their risk, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said as he opened a signing ceremony. It came alongside the U.N.’s biggest gathering of the year, the U.N. General Assembly meeting of world leaders. Many were set to address the assembly later in the day, while the Security Council had scheduled a high-level meeting on its far-flung peacekeeping operations. The nuclear treaty requires all countries that eventually ratify it “never under any circumstances to develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.” More than 120 countries approved it in early July over strong...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — One of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit Puerto Rico pummeled the island Wednesday, tearing off roofs and sending doors flying from hinges as officials warned Hurricane Maria would decimate the power company’s crumbling infrastructure and force the government to rebuild dozens of communities. Maria, which has killed at least nine in the Caribbean, made landfall early Wednesday in the southeast coastal town of Yabucoa as a Category 4 storm with winds of 155 mph (250 kph) winds, and it was expected to punish the island with life-threatening winds for 12 to 24 hours, forecasters said. People calling local radio stations reported that doors were flying off hinges and a water tank flew away in the island’s southern region. Meanwhile, widespread flooding was reported in the capital of San Juan, with water running down one apartment’s interior staircase. “This is going to be an extremely violent phenomenon,” Gov. Ricardo Rossello said. “We have n...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Latest on the U.N. General Assembly (all times local): 8:54 a.m. Countries have started signing on to the first treaty to ban nuclear weapons that is backed by over 100 nations. But the nuclear powers want no part of it. Brazilian President Michel Temer was first to sign at a ceremony Wednesday at the United Nations. Its treaty office said 51 countries were expected to sign on the opening day. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls the pact “an important step towards the universally held goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.” More than 120 countries approved the treaty in July over opposition from nuclear-armed countries and their allies. They boycotted negotiations. Supporters of the pact say it’s time to push harder toward eliminating atomic weapons than nations have done through the nearly 50-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Nuclear powers say a ban won’t work. ___ 8:30 a.m. The first treaty to ban nuclear weapon...

WASHINGTON (AP) — With time growing short, President Donald Trump and Republican Senate leaders are engaged in a frantic search for votes in a last-ditch effort to repeal and replace the Obama health law. The outcome is uncertain in a Capitol newly engulfed in drama over health care. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose failure to pass a repeal bill in July opened a bitter public rift with Trump, is pressing hard for the newly revived effort, which had been left for dead as recently as a week or two ago. But in a sign he remained short of votes, McConnell refused on Tuesday to commit to bringing the legislation up for a vote. As in July, much of the focus was on Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Would he step back in line with fellow Republicans now that there was a bill co-written by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., his best friend in the Senate? McCain wasn’t saying. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, another crucial vote, wasn’t disclosing her views, either. Republicans must a...