by Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON -Voters in Georgia turned out in record numbers as the battleground state opened early voting for the Nov. 5 presidential election between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, state officials said on Tuesday. At least 252,000 voters had cast ballots at early-voting sites as of 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT), nearly double the 136,000 who participated in the first day of early voting in the 2020 election, said Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s No. 2 election official. “Spectacular turnout,” he wrote on social media. Trump, at a campaign event in Atlanta, expressed enthusiasm for the early vote…

by Dietrich Knauth NEW YORK – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to 1,353 people who alleged that they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests, in the largest settlement by a U.S. diocese over decades-old abuse claims. Archbishop Jose H. Gomez expressed sorrow for the abuse in announcing the settlement on Wednesday. “I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart,” Gomez said in a statement. “My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have…

by Nandita Bose, Stephanie Kelly WASHINGTON CROSSING, Pennsylvania -Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris was grilled in a TV interview on Wednesday on the Biden administration’s efforts to tackle a surge in illegal immigration at the southern border, and laid the blame on Republicans for failing to pass a border bill. In a combative interview with Fox News host Bret Baier, Harris was also pressed to defend President Joe Biden’s mental fitness, her years as vice president and previous support of gender-affirming surgery for transgender inmates. Harris and Baier frequently talked over each other and Harris grew visibly frustrated. She was…

ABUJA -Nigeria’s oil regulator has rejected Shell’s proposed $1.3 billion sale of its onshore oilfields to Renaissance group because the buyer is not qualified to manage the assets, Lagos-based ThisDay newspaper reported on Wednesday. Shell, which owns the assets via Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), said it was providing the regulator with all the required information without directly confirming the newspaper report. The regulator and Renaissance did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Shell on Jan. 16 announced its exit from Nigeria’s onshore and shallow water operations after agreeing to sell the business to a consortium of five, mostly…

by Tom Hals WILMINGTON, Delaware -For Erika Worobec of Cecil, Pennsylvania, mail-in voting is a family ritual. For a primary election in April, she researched the candidates and issues with her young son before making her selections. “My son gets really excited when that envelope comes,” said Worobec, 45, who is in technical product marketing. Two months after that election, she learned she had inadvertently marked her ballot with an incomplete date and that hers was among the 259 mail-in ballots in her county that were not recorded because of a ballot error. “I felt it was un-American,” said Worobec,…

Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard will miss the entire preseason due to a right knee injury that calls into question his availability for the start of the regular season. With Los Angeles’ regular-season opener against the visiting Phoenix Suns set for Oct. 23, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said Monday of the immediate outlook for Leonard, “Continue to keep rehabbing. Keep getting better. Keep checking the boxes.” Leonard played in just Games 2 and 3 of the Clippers’ six-game loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the opening round of the Western Conference playoffs this past spring because of issues with…

NAIROBI – Kenya’s central bank said on Monday that it had authorised JPMorgan Chase to establish a representative office in the East African country. Representative offices of foreign banks in Kenya serve as marketing and liaison hubs for their parent banks and affiliates, the Central Bank of Kenya said in a statement. The JPMorgan Chase representative office will contribute to the diversity of Kenya’s financial sector and catalyse trade and investments, the statement added. Reuters reported last month, citing four sources familiar with the matter, that JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon planned to travel to Africa in mid-October in a…

by Costas Pitas WASHINGTON -Republican former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, will face each other in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election. Here is a timeline of events related to the election between now and Inauguration Day in January. – Nov. 5: Election Day – Later in November: It could take days for the election result to be known, especially if it is close and mail-in ballots are a factor. – Nov. 26: Trump, the first sitting or former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime, is due to be sentenced in a Manhattan…

by Jeff Mason and Gabriella Borter ERIE, Pennsylvania -Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Monday slammed Donald Trump for his ominous comments about “the enemy within” the United States and threat to deploy the military domestically, in a renewed effort to paint her Republican opponent as a threat to democracy. In a rare move at her own campaign rally in the political swing state Pennsylvania, the U.S. vice president showed a clip of Trump, the former president, telling his supporters “those people are more dangerous – the enemy from within – than Russia.” Harris, 59, has recently pressed Trump to…

by Jack Queen NEW YORK -Sean “Diddy” Combs was confronted with six new sexual abuse lawsuits on Monday, including one accusing the rap mogul of assaulting a minor. The civil lawsuits were filed a month after Combs was criminally charged for what prosecutors describe as a long-running scheme of sex trafficking and racketeering. Combs’ lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. The rapper has denied wrongdoing in other civil cases against him and pleaded not guilty in his criminal case. The lawsuits were filed in New York federal court by anonymous plaintiffs, including one man…