ReutersTraffic has clogged some roads out of Louisiana as residents fleeTens of thousands of people are fleeing the US state of Louisiana as Hurricane Ida closes in from the Gulf of Mexico.
Ida is now a category four hurricane, one below the highest level, with up to 150mph (240km/h) sustained winds.
It is expected to make landfall on Sunday, bringing a "life-threatening" storm surge. Ida is likely to be stronger than Hurricane Katrina, which devastated much of New Orleans in 2005. Read More...
The American Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit against the NSA is gaining steam — and the support is coming from some interesting quarters. High-profile conservatives have begun filing amicus briefs on behalf of the ACLU. Among them is the National Rifle Association, which argues that the NSA's surveillance activity could allow the government to identify gun owners and potentially circumvent the Second Amendment:
Each of these programs standing on its own could provide the government with an extraordinary amount of information about those who communicate with the NRA for any reason. Read More...
American evangelical pastor Saeed Abedini is among the four Americans Iran who were released on Saturday, according to U.S. and Iranian officials. For more than three years, evangelical activists have pressed President Obama to push for his release, arguing that it should be part of a larger nuclear deal.
Abedini, 35, of Boise, Idaho, is a convert from Islam to Christianity and pastor who had been imprisoned since 2012 for organizing home churches. His case was the most high-profile religious persecution for Christians in recent years, regularly mentioned by evangelical pastors in pulpits across the country. Read More...