Augusta, Chatham County | featured news

Read the obituaries. Henry Aldrich, Fairfax, SCDebra Richardson Bunch, Springfield, GAJessica LeAnn Creel, Bloomingdale, GAMs. Annie Daughtry, Sylvania, GAMr. Kadeem HaShaun Davis, Savannah, GASheila M. Garrett, Lyons, GAKenneth Lee Hawkins, Beauofrt, SCMs. Rose Howell Hunter, Sylvania, GA

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Sen. Ted Cruz continued his Colorado winning streak Friday, locking up the support of 21 total delegates to the Republican National Convention, representing a majority of the delegates Colorado will send to Cleveland in July.

Cruz builds support with Jewish leaders as Trump skips event
LAS VEGAS — Ted Cruz has hundreds of influential Republican donors and Jewish leaders all to himself this weekend in Las Vegas as he addresses the Republican Jewish Coalition.

WASHINGTON — In any other election year, more than half the country holding an unfavorable impression of a candidate for president would be cause for alarm.
This is not a normal year.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Bernie Sanders’ claim that Hillary Clinton isn’t qualified to be president landed with a boom this week. The blow was far from the first — and won’t likely be the last — from the candidate who pledged to stay away from negative campaigning.

BAGHDAD — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry backed Iraq’s prime minister on Friday in his efforts to resolve a mounting political crisis, underlining the importance of securing a “unified and functioning government” in the fight against the Islamic State. Kerry also pledged $155 million in new U.S. aid to Iraq.

Arrests provide new links between Paris, Brussels attacks
BRUSSELS — The arrest Friday of five men suspected of links to the Brussels bombings, including the last known fugitive in last year’s Paris attacks, raised new questions about the extent of the Islamic State cell believed to have carried out the intertwined attacks that left 162 people dead in two countries.

LONDON — The text message from a young boy, written in broken English on a no-frills cellphone, was frightening enough to set off a frantic, trans-Atlantic search that saved the lives of 15 migrants trapped in a locked truck in England.

DUBLIN — British Prime Minister David Cameron faced mounting pressure Friday over his involvement in offshore investments after he finally admitted he benefited from his father’s Panama-registered trust, an entity exposed by this week’s massive data leak at a law firm specializing in global tax avoidance.

Pope emphasizes flexibility over rules for modern families
VATICAN CITY — In a sweeping document on family life that opened a door to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, Pope Francis insisted Friday that church doctrine cannot be the final word in answering tricky moral questions and that Catholics must be guided by their own informed consciences.