NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on sexual harassment in entertainment (all times local): 9 p.m. Warner Bros. is severing ties with Brett Ratner amid multiple sexual harassment claims made against the producer and director. A person familiar with the decision said Wednesday that Ratner’s expired first-look production deal with the studio will not be … Continue reading
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three UCLA basketball players detained in China on suspicion of shoplifting are on a plane back to Los Angeles. Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said Tuesday the matter “has been resolved to the satisfaction of the Chinese authorities.” Freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley were detained in Hangzhou for questioning … Continue reading
ARPOL-E-ZAHAB, Iran (AP) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani launched an investigation Tuesday into why government housing built by his hard-line predecessor collapsed while others withstood a powerful earthquake near the border with Iraq that killed more than 530 people. In the Kurdish town of Sarpol-e-Zahab, which was reconstructed in the decades since the 1980s war … Continue reading
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tampa police blockaded a neighborhood and searched with a SWAT team and dogs for a possible serial killer Tuesday after a fourth person was shot dead for no apparent reason. Residents of the Seminole Heights neighborhood reported hearing shots just before 5 a.m. Tuesday. Officers quickly moved in, and found the … Continue reading
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Famously pro-cannabis San Francisco, where the 4/20 marijuana holiday is celebrated with a group smoke-out on Hippie Hill, is having a surprisingly difficult time establishing regulations for the broad legal pot market coming to California in January. Writing local rules in the weed-friendly city has taken a contentious turn as critics, … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators have approved the first drug with a sensor that can track whether patients have taken their medicine. The Abilify pill was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002 to treat schizophrenia, and the sensor technology was approved for marketing in 2012. The FDA said in a statement … Continue reading
Chris Brown, “Heartbreak on a Full Moon” (RCA) Chris Brown sure has some nerve, releasing a 45-song album when audience attention spans are notoriously short, while most artists agonize over trimming their set into a carefully curated bundle that precisely captures the latest evolution of their sound. But, alas, Brown doesn’t seem concerned about attention … Continue reading
CHICAGO (AP) — Prince Harry has made a stop in Chicago to talk about youth leadership during a summit planned by the Obama Foundation. He addressed a crowd of hundreds of civic leaders and artists gathered Tuesday for the two-day event. He says his years of military service helped him understand his life of privilege … Continue reading
BALTIMORE (AP) — Fellow police officers are testifying at a disciplinary hearing for a Baltimore police van driver. The hearing is expected to continue Wednesday for Officer Caesar Goodson, who drove the van in which 25-year-old Freddie Gray suffered a fatal injury after being arrested in April 2015. The police department is seeking to fire … Continue reading
NEW YORK (AP) — Investigators worked Wednesday to determine what led a truck driver to mow down people on a riverfront bike path near the World Trade Center, brandishing air guns and yelling “God is great!” in Arabic as his deadly route of terror ended with a crash, authorities said. Eight people were killed and … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Exasperated U.S. senators harshly criticized representatives of Facebook, Twitter and Google at a hearing Tuesday for not doing more to prevent Russian agents interfering with the American political process as early as 2015. At one point, Sen. Al Franken shook his head after he couldn’t get all the companies to commit to … Continue reading
NEW YORK (AP) — After the summer of Rachel Maddow, Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity ascended to the top of the cable news mountain. Hannity’s move to the 9 p.m. timeslot paid immediate dividends for the network. President Donald Trump’s biggest cable news backer averaged 3.2 million viewers in October, topping Maddow’s 2.5 million, the … Continue reading
GENEVA (AP) — The Latest on the donors conference for Asia’s Rohingya refugees (all times local): 1:50 p.m. The head of the U.N. agency that coordinates humanitarian aid says have pledged roughly $340 million to help more than 600,000 ethnic Rohingya who have fled Myanmar into Bangladesh since August. Mark Lowcock of the U.N. Office … Continue reading
MOSCOW (AP) — A well-known journalist for Russia’s leading news radio station was stabbed in the throat Monday by an unknown attacker who burst into her studio — the latest in a string of attacks on journalists or opposition activists in Moscow. The assailant broke into Ekho Moskvy, which has often been described as Russia’s … Continue reading
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s President Andrzej Duda signed a law Monday that will eventually increase the country’s spending on defense to at least 2.5 percent of GDP, well above the 2 percent required by membership in NATO. It is part of an effort by Poland’s conservative government to improve the nation’s defenses in reaction … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 