North Korea threatens to cancel US summit over drills
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korea on Wednesday canceled a high-level meeting with South Korea and threatened to scrap a historic summit next month between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over military exercises between Seoul and Washington that Pyongyang has long claimed are invasion rehearsals.
The surprise declaration, which came in a pre-dawn dispatch in North Korea's state media, appears to cool what had been an unusual flurry of outreach from a country that last year conducted a provocative series of weapons tests that had many fearing the region was on the edge of war. It's still unclear, however, whether the North intends to scuttle all diplomacy or merely wants to gain leverage ahead of the planned June 12 talks between Kim and Trump.
The statement by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency was released hours before the two Koreas were to meet at a border village to discuss how to implement their leaders' recent agreements to reduce military tensions along their heavily fortified border and improve their overall ties.
It called the two-week Max Thunder drills, which began Monday and reportedly include about 100 aircraft, an "intended military provocation" and an "apparent challenge" to an April summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, when the leaders met on their border in their countries' third summit talks since their formal division in 1948. KCNA said the U.S. aircraft mobilized for the drills include nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and stealth F-22 fighter jets, two of the U.S. military assets it has previously said are aimed at launching nuclear strikes on the North.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said the drills will go on as planned.
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4 states decide primaries; Trump's Senate pick wins in Pa.
Tuesday's primary elections will begin to settle swing state Pennsylvania's chaotic congressional landscape after a court fight ended with redrawn districts just three months ago.
Pennsylvania primary voters selected President Donald Trump's pick to be the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate. Idaho voters are set to pick their Republican gubernatorial nominee, while heavily Republican Nebraska and Democratic-leaning Oregon are also holding primaries Tuesday.
A look at some of the key races:
PENNSYLVANIA SCRAMBLE
Republicans outnumber Democrats in Pennsylvania's House delegation, though a new congressional map is making the state a focal point of Democrats' effort to reclaim House control in November.
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CIA nominee toughens interrogation stance, picks up support
WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump's CIA nominee appeared to be on a path toward confirmation as she picked up support from key Democrats Tuesday and toughened her public stance against harsh interrogation.
"With the benefit of hindsight and my experience as a senior agency leader, the enhanced interrogation program is not one the CIA should have undertaken," Gina Haspel said in written answers to more than 60 questions released by the Senate intelligence committee.
Haspel, who was involved in supervising a secret CIA detention site in Thailand, wrote that she had learned "hard lessons since 9/11." In comments aimed at clarifying her position on now-banned torture techniques, Haspel said that she would "refuse to undertake any proposed activity that is contrary to my moral and ethical values."
"I do not support use of enhanced interrogation techniques for any purpose," Haspel wrote.
The Senate intelligence committee is expected to vote Wednesday to recommend that the full Senate confirm her.
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Ex-CIA employee probed over leak likely facing new charges
WASHINGTON (AP) A prosecutor says the government hopes to bring new charges within weeks against a former CIA employee who is jailed on child pornography charges but is also a target of a probe of a massive leak of cyber hacking tools, according to court documents reviewed Tuesday by The Associated Press.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Laroche alluded to a "broader investigation" and a grand jury probe unrelated to child pornography charges as he informed a Manhattan judge last Friday that the government was hopeful it would bring new charges against 29-year-old Joshua Adam Schulte in about a month and a half.
"Because of the nature of the underlying investigation, that requires consultation with people outside of our office, which we are doing as quickly as we can. We're trying to get that done," Laroche told U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty. "We're consulting with a lot of folks that are not within our office."
The cryptic description led Assistant Federal Defender Sabrina Shroff, who entered the case in March, to demand more.
"Are they secret charges that I'm not allowed to know about? What are these charges?" Shroff said, adding that she wanted to know of possible charges, whether they be sedition or something else. "Are they charging him with espionage?"
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Malaysia's reformist icon Anwar freed, given royal pardon
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) Malaysia's reformist icon Anwar Ibrahim has been freed from custody after receiving a royal pardon, paving the way for a political comeback following his alliance's stunning election victory.
The 70-year-old Anwar was convicted of sodomy in 2015 in a case he said was aimed at crushing his alliance after making gains against Malaysia's long-ruling coalition government. His sentence expires June 8 but the unexpected election win of his alliance led by former leader Mahathir Mohamad in May 9 polls led to his swift release.
Anwar waved to reporters as he was whisked from a hospital Wednesday where he was recovering from a shoulder surgery. Party spokesman Fahmi Fadzil says he has been pardoned by the king.
He is prime minister-in-waiting but unlikely to take over quickly from Mahathir.
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Judge: Special counsel had authority to prosecute Manafort
WASHINGTON (AP) Special counsel Robert Mueller was working within his authority when he brought charges against President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a federal judge in Washington ruled Tuesday.
The decision was a setback for Manafort in his defense against charges of money-laundering conspiracy, false statements and acting as an unregistered foreign agent related to his Ukrainian political work. Manafort had argued that Mueller had exceeded his authority because the case was unrelated to Russian election interference.
But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson disagreed.
Citing Manafort's years of work in Ukraine, his prominent role on the Trump campaign and his publicized connections to Russian figures, Jackson said it was "logical and appropriate" for Mueller's team to scrutinize him as part of their investigation into Russian election meddling and possible coordination with Trump associates.
"Given what was being said publicly, the Special Counsel would have been remiss to ignore such an obvious potential link between the Trump campaign and the Russian government," Jackson wrote.
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In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega bends to Catholic Church
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) On a recent Sunday, Managua's auxiliary Roman Catholic Bishop Silvio Baez talked to those gathered for Mass about love and its many forms.
It soon became clear that Baez wasn't speaking just to the 300 people sitting on plastic chairs in the sweltering heat, but also to President Daniel Ortega.
Dozens of young protesters had been killed in several days of clashes with police and the president's supporters, during protests set off by proposed social security cuts but that then veered into calls for Ortega to step aside after a decade in power.
"To denounce and publicly demonstrate against the actions, historic processes, political decisions that go against the great majority is also to love," Baez said. And he added, if one's presence is causing instability "to relinquish, to leave can be an act of love."
So began the latest turn in a 40-year dance between Nicaragua's predominant religion and Ortega, the former Marxist guerrilla who once infuriated the Vatican but gradually forged an alliance with the church.
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As Gaza death toll rises, Israeli tactics face scrutiny
JERUSALEM (AP) Israel's high-tech military is coming under scathing international criticism for its use of live fire that killed scores of Palestinian protesters across a border even if the protesting Gazans were burning tires, launching fiery kites into Israeli farms and in some cases trying to rip apart a border fence.
The Israeli army has staunchly defended its actions. It points to the violent history of Gaza's Hamas rulers, says there have been bombing and shooting attacks against its forces and fears a mass border breach. It also says that in the open terrain of the Gaza border, with troops easily exposed, its military options are limited.
But with the death toll rising, and hundreds of unarmed people among the casualties, the criticism is mounting.
Here is a closer look at the debate over Israel's use of live fire:
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Facebook: We're better at policing nudity than hate speech
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Getting rid of racist, sexist and other hateful remarks on Facebook is more challenging than weeding out other types of unacceptable posts because computer programs still stumble over the nuances of human language, the company revealed Tuesday.
Facebook also released statistics that quantified how pervasive fake accounts have become on its influential service, despite a long-standing policy requiring people to set up accounts under their real-life identities.
From October to December alone, Facebook disabled nearly 1.3 billion accounts and that doesn't even count all the times the company blocked bogus profiles before they could be set up.
Had the company not shut down all those fake accounts, its audience of monthly users would have swelled beyond its current 2.2 billion and probably created more potentially offensive material for Facebook to weed out.
Facebook's self-assessment showed its screening system is far better at scrubbing graphic violence, gratuitous nudity and terrorist propaganda. Automated tools detected 86 percent to 99.5 percent of the violations Facebook identified in those categories.
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Celtics survive 42-point night by LeBron, down Cavs 107-94
BOSTON (AP) Jaylen Brown scored 23 points and the Boston Celtics withstood a 42-point night by LeBron James to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 107-94 on Tuesday and take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
Terry Rozier added 18 points, while Al Horford finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Boston improved to 8-0 this postseason at TD Garden. The Celtics have never blown a 2-0 series lead in the playoffs.
James added 12 assists and 10 rebounds. He scored 21 of Cleveland's 27 points in the first quarter , tying his playoff career high for points in a period. His 42 points marked his fifth 40-point game of this postseason. James had just 15 points and missed all five of his 3-point attempts in the Cavs' Game 1 loss.
But he didn't seem to play with the same force after straining his neck in a first-half collision and the Cavaliers wilted in the second half, with the Celtics outscoring them 59-39.