NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Christa Pike was in critical condition Thursday and receiving “lifesaving care” at a hospital, her lawyers said, a day after a failed attempt to execute her in what Tennessee's governor called a “deeply disturbing” outcome. Pike, who was sentenced to death in a 1995 murder, was taken to a hospital Wednesday night after she received a double dose of the drug Tennessee uses to execute prisoners but survived. “We don’t have a sense of her prognosis or much on...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U. S. military is dispatching roughly 9,000 troops aboard a group of ships to the Middle East, a U. S. official said Thursday. The bolstering of the American military presence comes as President Donald Trump warned anew that new strikes against Iran could be on the horizon. The troop movement, which includes a third aircraft carrier, underscores the rapidly evolving dynamic of Trump's war against Iran as he ponders his next move, with midterm elections in the United and...

THE ATACAMA DESERT, Chile (AP) — Spring has finally arrived in the Southern Hemisphere and, in Chile, even the desert is blossoming. Known as the driest nonpolar desert on Earth, a massive portion of the Atacama Desert has been covered in flowers after the El Niño weather pattern brought heavy rains to the region earlier this year. The unusually large amount of water allowed millions of seeds and bulbs to sprout and bloom, many of them after remaining dormant for decades. “It is a unique...