At least 489 people have died from a meningitis outbreak in Nigeria, according to Nigeria’s Minister of Health Isaac Adewole. During an emergency health meeting in the Nigerian state of Kaduna, Adewole said most of the victims are children aged 5 to 14.   Local and international health workers met with traditional rulers from Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim northern region to discuss how to contain and stop the outbreak.  Northern Nigeria’s traditional Islamic rulers wield enormous influence.  Many people trust them over government officials. These rulers have been instrumental in dispelling …

Bill O’Reilly is taking a vacation from his Fox News Channel show amid sponsor defections triggered by sexual harassment allegations. Announcing the break at the end of Tuesday’s show, O’Reilly made a point of saying it was planned and long in the works. He said he will return April 24. Around this time of year, “I grab some vacation, because it’s spring and Easter time. Last fall, I booked a trip that should be terrific,” he said. His vacation announcement comes as about 60 companies said they won’t advertise on …

Musician J. Geils, founder of the J. Geils Band, known for such peppy early ’80s pop hits as “Love Stinks,” “Freeze Frame” and “Centerfold,” has died in his Massachusetts home at age 71. Groton police said officers responded to Geils’ home about 4 p.m. Tuesday for a well-being check and found him unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene. “A preliminary investigation indicates that Geils died of natural causes,” police said in a statement. The J. Geils Band was founded in 1967 in Worcester, Massachusetts, while Geils, whose full …

It’s been years since Isabell Meggett Lucas has been inside the tiny house she was born in, a former slave cabin where her ancestors sought refuge from the hot South Carolina sun.   But the 86-year-old woman never envisioned that when she finally returned, the wooden two-room house would be viewed by millions of people inside the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture as an example of what home life was like for slaves in the South.   Visiting the new museum, open for a little over …

President Donald Trump told a group of chief executives Tuesday that his administration was revamping the Wall Street reform law known as Dodd-Frank and might eliminate the rules and replace them with “something else.” At the beginning of his administration, Trump ordered reviews of the major banking rules that were put in place after the 2008 financial crisis, and last week he said officials were planning a “major haircut” for them. “For the bankers in the room, they’ll be very happy because we’re really doing a major streamlining and, perhaps, …