Thousands evacuated as Bali volcano rumbles

DENPASAR, Indonesia - Thousands of residents were evacuated from villages near an active volcano on the Indonesian island of Bali, officials said on Friday, as seismic tremors that began earlier this week rattled some areas and smoke rose above one of the world's most popular tourist spots.

IN BRIEF (Page 8)

Daring to turn heat up on the limits of human endurance

LONDON - What Christian Clot remembers most vividly from his days in Iran's boiling Dasht-e Lut Desert was having to stay completely still for 12 hours a day - or die.

S.Korea dogged by draft-dodging celebrities

SEOUL - Serving in the military is a duty that falls upon every able-bodied Korean male, but 73.9 percent of the country's entertainers have delayed enlistment, according to a lawmaker.

Simple lines that evolved into a universal language

TOKYO - The tiny smiley faces, hearts, knife-and-fork or clenched fist have become a global language for mobile phone messages. They are displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. They star in a new Hollywood film.

Merry Cemetery offers visitors grave art, dark humor

SAPANTA, Romania - Death isn't always tragic, at least not in this Romanian cemetery, where the dead beguile visitors with tales of their lives.

Parrot places online gift order

LONDON - A pet parrot managed to place an online shopping order by mimicking its owner on a voice-controlled smart speaker, a British newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Oliver, Olivia top UK name list

LONDON - Oliver and Olivia have emerged as the most popular names for babies born in England and Wales last year, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday.

Legendary 'moles' again on Mexico City home turf

MEXICO CITY - After earning fame burrowing into piles of rubble in disasters the world over, including the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, Mexico's "mole" rescue workers are on tragically familiar ground, pulling people from ruins in their home city.

Reprocessed nuclear fuel returned to Japan

TOKYO - Nuclear fuel reprocessed in France returned to Japan on Thursday for use in a reactor as the country tries to burn more plutonium amid international concerns about its stockpile.

US government sued over plan on border wall

LOS ANGELES - California's Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Wednesday announced a lawsuit against the Trump administration's plan to build a wall along the border between the United States and Mexico.

NZ calls in navy to beat fuel shortage

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A New Zealand navy vessel will ferry diesel fuel around the country as the government rushes to alleviate a dayslong fuel shortage that has cast air travel into disarray in the run-up to Saturday's national election.