Wildfires in eastern Washington state forced the evacuation of 60,000 people in the Spokane area while destroying at least 600 homes, businesses and other structures, authorities said Sunday. The fires in and around Spokane, the state's second largest city, burned about 8. 2 square miles (about 21 square kilometers), but they were among dozens across the Western U. S. that stretched the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them. A a total of about 390 square miles (1,000 have...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Key senators unveiled a short-term spending bill on Sunday that would keep federal agencies funded past the midterm elections and into early December as they look to avoid a government shutdown during the middle of campaign season. The Senate is likely to vote on the measure before leaving Washington at week's end for its traditional August recess, a period that many lawmakers want to spend shoring up their reelection prospects rather than working in the nation's capital. a...

For the first time in more than a century, a total solar eclipse is coming to mainland Spain with an even longer encore next summer. Toss in a crescendoing meteor shower and a six-planet parade on the same day, and the heavens will be overflowing with awe. Daytime darkness will descend Aug. 12 across the Iberian Peninsula close to sunset — plus slivers of Greenland and Iceland — as the sun, moon and Earth align perfectly in the sky. Starting near the North Pole before tracking south, will...