ATLANTA – At Georgia’s iconic Stone Mountain — where the Confederacy is enshrined in a giant bas-relief sculpture, the Ku Klux Klan once held notorious cross-burnings and rebel battle flags still wave prominently — officials are considering what to do about those flags. The park, which now offers family-friendly fireworks …

PHILADELPHIA – Pope Francis is a doll. No, really. The people organizing the pontiff’s September visit to Philadelphia launched an online store Wednesday featuring papal plush dolls and bobble heads. The World Meeting of Families website features posters, T-shirts and life-sized cutouts depicting the 78-year-old Francis in his trademark white …

BEIJING – A Chinese airline says a Bangkok-bound flight has made an emergency landing after an engine fire warning lit up. China Southern Airlines said Flight 3081, which took off from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Friday afternoon, made the emergency landing in Sanya, a city in Hainan …

JERUSALEM – Israel is welcoming the Greek foreign minister for a three-day visit as his country faces a financial crisis at home, with Greeks voting on a referendum about their country’s future. Emmanuel Nahshon, Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Sunday that the visit from Greek Foreign Minister Nikolaos Kotzias would …

MINSK, Belarus – The negotiating group aiming at resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine has ended its latest round of talks without firm results. Martin Sajdik, the envoy from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said Tuesday he hoped concrete agreements could be reached at the next round …

Hillary Clinton does no favors to her presidential campaign and her credibility bydeclaringthat, “I want to be the small business president — somebody who makes it easier for [small businesses] to get started, to grow… to try to optimize the opportunity side of the equation.” Neither the facts nor even …

ACCRA, Ghana – Ghana’s army says a thunderstorm forced a helicopter carrying the president and his wife to make an emergency landing about 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital. A statement issued by Ghana Armed Forces said the helicopter transporting President John Dramani Mahama and his wife, Lordina …

UNITED NATIONS – The conflict in Iraq has taken a terrible toll on civilians with nearly 15,000 killed and 30,000 wounded during a 16-month period ending on April 30, by the Islamic State group, Iraqi security forces and others, according to a U.N. report released Monday. The U.N. mission in …

NEW ORLEANS – An activist who sat in a cypress tree for 12 days to protest the construction of a new golf course on an overgrown chunk of City Park has pleaded guilty to trespassing and resisting arrest. The protester, Jonathan “Lloyd” Boover, 32, of New Orleans, was ordered to …

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. envoy for Iraq is warning that a lack of funds for desperately needed humanitarian aid has already cut food rations to millions of Iraqis and may be forcing communities and families to look to the Islamic State extremist group for life-saving assistance. Jan Kubis told …