AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a second round of talks could happen "over the next two days," telling the New York Post the negotiations could be held again in Islamabad as diplomats worked through back channels to arrange them.

Regional officials said on Wednesday that the United States and Iran gave an “in principle agreement” to extend the two-week ceasefire, which is due to expire on April 22, to allow for more diplomacy.

One of the officials, who is involved in the mediation efforts, said mediators were working on a compromise to the three main disputed points — Iran's nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and compensation for Iran’s wartime damages.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

Children killed in Lebanon as Israeli strikes hit homes far from front lines of war with Hezbollah

BEIRUT (AP) — Jawad Younes, 11, and his cousins were playing soccer in the lot between their houses, as they often did. His little brother, 4-year-old Mehdi, had joined them but grew tired, so Jawad took him home and handed him off to their mother before returning to the game. Minutes later, an Israeli strike came.

The target was Jawad's uncle's home. The blast shook neighboring buildings and threw Jawad's siblings at home to the ground. As their mother, Malak Meslmani, scrambled to help them up, she could think only of Jawad.

“I was pulling my children off the floor in the house, but as I was running to pick them up, I screamed, ‘Jawad,’” she said. ”My heart told me.”

Her son was instantly killed in the March 27 Israeli strike in Saksakieh. So was one of his cousins — so close they were more like brothers. Several other children were wounded.

Jawad's uncle also was killed. He was an interior design engineer; Jawad wanted to be an engineer like him. Meslmani called him a civilian. But like many Shiite families in southern Lebanon, the family were loyal supporters of the militant group and political party Hezbollah, which formed in the 1980s to fight Israel’s occupation of the area.

Sudan enters a fourth year of war as officials lament an 'abandoned crisis'

CAIRO (AP) — Famine. Massacres. And now badly needed food and other supplies are under strain. Sudan on Wednesday enters a fourth year of war that's being called an “abandoned crisis,” as a new conflict in the Middle East throws into shadow the fighting that has forced 13 million people to flee their homes.

Sudan has been described as the world's largest humanitarian challenge, notably in terms of displacement and hunger. There is no end in sight to the fighting between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that witnesses and aid groups say has laid waste to parts of the vast Darfur region.

Growing evidence shows regional powers like the United Arab Emirates backing combatants behind the scenes. Attempts by the United States and regional powers, now distracted by the Iran war, have failed to establish a ceasefire.

“This grim and chastening anniversary marks another year when the world has failed to meet the test of Sudan,” United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said.

At least 59,000 people have been killed. At least 6,000 died over three days as the RSF rampaged through the Darfur outpost of el-Fasher in October, according to the U.N., with U.N.-backed experts concluding the offensive bore “the defining characteristics of genocide.” More than 11,000 people were missing over the course of the war, the Red Cross says.

At least 250 people missing, including Rohingya and Bangladeshis, after boat sinks in Andaman Sea

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — At least 250 people, including Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals, were missing after a boat capsized in the Andaman Sea recently on the way to Malaysia, according to the United Nations’ refugee and migration agencies.

While details remained sketchy, Bangladesh Coast Guard spokesperson Lt. Com. Sabbir Alam Suzan told The Associated Press on Wednesday that nine people, including three Rohingya and six Bangladeshis, were rescued on April 9. Suzan said the Bangladesh flag carrier M.T. Meghna Pride rescued the nine people when the crew found them floating at sea after the capsize.

When the boat sank and the status of any search Wednesday were unclear.

The U.N. high commissioner for refugees and the International Organization for Migration in a joint statement said Tuesday that the trawler departed from Teknaf in the southern Bangladeshi district of Cox’s Bazar carrying a large number of passengers to Malaysia.

Overcrowding, strong winds and rough seas caused the vessel to lose control and sink, the agencies said.

Teenage gunman opens fire at a school in Turkey, wounding 16 before killing himself

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A former student opened fire at a high school in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday, wounding at least 16 people, before killing himself, an official said.

The 18-year-old attacker fired randomly inside a vocational high school in Siverek, Sanliurfa province. He later killed himself with the same shotgun after being “cornered by police,” Gov. Hasan Sildak said.

The attack wounded 10 students, four teachers, a canteen employee and a police officer, Sildak said. While most of them were being treated in Siverek, five of the teachers and students were transferred to a hospital in the provincial capital because their conditions were more serious, the governor said.

The motive for the attack was unclear. School shootings are rare in Turkey.

The attacker did not have a criminal record, Sildak said. The school had been declared safe and no permanent police officer was assigned to protect it, he added, calling the shooting an “isolated incident.”

Sexual abuse allegations are spurring calls for a broader reckoning in Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — Resignations came quickly this week from two congressmen accused of sexual misconduct toward staff members. Yet for many of the women of Capitol Hill, the moment of accountability was years in the making — and far from enough.

Reps. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, and Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican, both announced within hours of each other Monday that they were leaving Congress. Their decisions came the day before the House returned to Washington and as both faced the prospect of being expelled from the chamber by their colleagues.

It was a reckoning of sorts for Capitol Hill, the most striking since the careers of roughly a dozen male politicians were toppled during the heights of the #MeToo movement. Yet some congresswomen said that the pair of resignations took too long and proved what they've long been saying: that more must be done to rid Capitol Hill of sexual predation.

“Today was an important turning point,” said Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. “That it should — that abuse of power — should never be accepted, and above all, in public office. And so, I think this is an important resetting point for the institution.”

A bipartisan group of congresswomen had threatened on Tuesday to file resolutions that could have forced votes on expelling Swalwell and Gonzales. Their moves forced the two men to act and came swiftly after the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN had reported Friday that a woman said Swalwell sexually assaulted her.

Trump urges extending foreign surveillance program as some lawmakers push for US privacy protections

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is set to take up the reauthorization of a divisive program that lets U.S. spy agencies pore over foreigners' calls, texts and emails, with supporters like President Donald Trump saying it has saved lives while critics point to longstanding concerns about warrantless surveillance of Americans.

A key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act permits the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and other agencies to collect and analyze vast amounts of overseas communications without a warrant. It incidentally sweeps up the conversations of any Americans who interact with those foreigners targeted for surveillance.

The program expires Monday, and critics want changes, including a requirement for warrants before authorities can access the emails, phone calls or text messages of Americans. They also want limits on the government's use of internet data brokers, who sell large volumes of personal information gleaned online, offering the government what critics say amounts to an end-run around the Constitution.

Despite bipartisan criticism, the chances of significant reforms dropped when Trump announced his support for the program's renewal, saying it had proven its worth in supplying information vital to recent U.S. actions in Venezuela and Iran.

“The fact is, whether you like FISA or not, it is extremely important to our military,” Trump said on social media Tuesday.

Pope heads to Cameroon as separatists announce 3-day pause in fighting

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Pope Leo XIV is heading to the central African nation of Cameroon with a message of peace for its separatist region and for talks with President Paul Biya, the 93-year-old leader whose grip on power was extended for an eighth term in a widely disputed election last year.

The Vatican says fighting corruption in the mineral-rich country and insisting on the correct uses of political authority are expected to be themes of Leo’s visit, which starts Wednesday with his arrival in Yaounde, the capital. Leo was traveling to Cameroon from Algeria, the first stop on his four-nation Africa tour.

The Vatican has made clear that Catholic social teaching disapproves of the types of authoritarian leaders that Leo is encountering on his visit, the first to the continent by history's first American pope.

Biya is the world’s oldest leader and has led the central African nation since 1982.

Leo will meet with Biya upon arrival at the presidential palace in the capital Yaounde. He’ll then address Cameroon government authorities, civil service representatives and diplomats before visiting an orphanage run by a Catholic religious order of nuns.

European shares are little changed after Asia finishes higher amid hopes for US-Iran talks

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares mostly rose in Wednesday trading, echoing the rally on Wall Street that came as oil prices eased on hopes the United States and Iran may try again on talks to end their war. Benchmarks in Europe were little changed in early trading.

France's CAC 40 dipped 0.7% in early trading to 8,268.60, while the German DAX was up less than 0.1% at 24,046.01. Britain's FTSE 100 inched up less than 0.1% to 10,611.74. U.S. shares were set to trade in a narrow range, with Dow futures slipping nearly 0.1% to 48,727.00. S&P 500 futures inched up less than 0.1% to 7,007.25.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.4% to finish at 58,134.24. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was little changed, inching up less than 0.1% to 8,978.70. South Korea's Kospi jumped 2.1% to 6,091.39. Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged up 0.3% to 25,947.32, while the Shanghai Composite added less than 0.1% to 4,027.21.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell 33 cents to $90.95 a barrel. Brent crude added 24 cents to $94.99. While that’s still above its roughly $70 price from before the war began in late February, it’s well below the peak level of $119.

Lower oil prices help bring down costs for all kinds of businesses. But some analysts noted the war was still ongoing, warning that the optimism may be unfounded.

Nature puts heat on blast as scorching temperatures in eastern US could smash records

ATLANTA (AP) — A long-lasting weather pattern is poised to blast hot air like a furnace across the eastern United States, with the unusual heat wave threatening to shatter record high temperatures on Wednesday in big cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

The heat is unusual for April, not only because it’s scorching much of the nation so early in the year but also for its duration. The near-record temperatures are expected to last into this weekend, forecasters say.

The potentially dangerous heat comes after severe storms tore through Kansas, Minnesota and Wisconsin on Monday, and more storms threaten Tuesday in the nation’s midsection.

While it's not unprecedented to see high temperatures climb toward 90 degrees (32 Celsius) on an April day, the length of such an April heat wave is rarely seen, experts say.

“That’s borderline unprecedented as far as the duration of it this time of year,” said John Feerick, senior meteorologist at the forecasting firm AccuWeather.com.