Associated Press stories, Page 2695
Trump says changes coming on high-tech visas
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says changes are coming in the way that the U.S. handles temporary H1-B visas, which allow American companies to bring high-tech and other skilled workers into the U.S. from abroad. Trump tweeted Friday that those who hold the temporary H1-B visas can “rest assured” because...
Video shows Waffle House workers put food on unconscious man
LITHONIA, Ga. — A video shows two Waffle House employees putting salt, a slice of cheese and ketchup on an unconscious man’s head and now the company says the workers at the Atlanta area location have been fired. News outlets report the video on Instagram also shows the employees playing...
GM raises 2018 forecast, predicts stronger 2019 earnings
DETROIT — General Motors strengthened its pretax profit estimate for 2018 and predicted even stronger performance for this year as it executives made a presentation to investors on Friday. Shares jumped 7 percent at the opening bell. CEO Mary Barra also says the company doesn’t foresee any further job cuts...
Death toll in Mexico border shootings rises to 29
MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities said Friday that five attackers have died in a clash with soldiers the northern border state of Tamaulipas, bringing the state’s death toll in two days of presumed gang-related violence to 29. A group of armed assailants attacked a military patrol Thursday on a highway...
Cheaper gas sends U.S. consumer prices down 0.1 percent
WASHINGTON — Consumer prices slipped 0.1 percent last month, pulled down by sharply lower gas prices and cheaper air fares, used cars, and mobile phone plans. The Labor Department said the consumer price index rose just 1.9 percent in December from a year earlier, the first time it has fallen...
China broadcasts spacecraft pictures from moon’s far side
BEIJING — China on Friday broadcast pictures taken by its rover and lander on the moon’s far side, in what its space program hailed as another triumph for the groundbreaking mission to the less-understood sector of the lunar surface. The pictures on state broadcaster CCTV showed the Jade Rabbit 2...
Verna Bloom, dean’s wife in ‘Animal House,’ dead at 80
BAR HARBOR, Maine — Verna Bloom, the actress who portrayed the wife of the dean in the movie “Animal House,” has died. She was 80. Family spokesman Mike Kaplan tells The Hollywood Reporter that Bloom died Wednesday in Bar Harbor, Maine, of complications from dementia. In the 1978 John Landis...
Rare penny sells for more than $200K at auction
BOSTON — A rare copper penny that a Massachusetts man found in his lunch money more than 70 years ago has been sold at an auction for more than $200,000. The 1943 penny is one of 20 that were accidentally minted when the federal government was trying to conserve copper...
U.S. official says troop withdrawal from Syria has started
BAGHDAD — After days of back and forth over U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pullout American troops from Syria, a U.S. military official said Friday the process of withdrawal has begun, declining to comment on specific timetables or movements. Col. Sean Ryan, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting the...
Surgeon fined $3,000 for removing kidney he thought was tumor
WELLINGTON, Fla. — The Florida Board of Medicine says a West Palm Beach surgeon has agreed to pay a $3,000 fine for removing a woman’s healthy kidney that he thought was a tumor. The Palm Beach Post reports Ramon Vazquez was responsible for cutting Maureen Pacheco open in 2016 so...
Report: U.S. approved thousands of child bride requests
WASHINGTON — Thousands of requests by men to bring in child and adolescent brides to live in the United States were approved over the past decade, according to government data obtained by the Associated Press. In one case, a 49-year-old man applied for admission for a 15-year-old girl. The approvals...
Kyodo: ex-Nissan chair Ghosn indicted for breach of trust
TOKYO — Nissan ex-Chairman Carlos Ghosn was charged Friday with breach of trust in the latest blow for the star executive, according to the Tokyo District Court. Ghosn was detained Nov. 19. Earlier, he was charged with falsifying financial reports in underreporting his income by about 5 billion yen ($44...
Tearful Andy Murray says Australian Open could be his last tournament
MELBOURNE, Australia — Andy Murray is still hoping to make it to one more Wimbledon tournament before his problematic hip forces him into retirement. For now, he’s only committing to the Australian Open. In an emotional news conference Friday, when a tearful Murray had to leave the room shortly after...
Penn State men lose as Nebraska wins 20th straight at home
LINCOLN, Neb. — Isaiah Roby scored a career-high 22 points and made a couple big defensive plays late, and Nebraska beat Penn State, 70-64, on Thursday night for its school-record 20th straight home win. The Cornhuskers (12-4, 2-3 Big Ten) bounced back from two straight road losses that knocked them...
At the border, Trump moves closer to emergency declaration
McALLEN, Texas — Taking the shutdown fight to the Mexican border, President Donald Trump edged closer Thursday to declaring a national emergency in an extraordinary end run around Congress to fund his long-promised border wall. Pressure was mounting to find an escape hatch from the three-week impasse that has closed...
Feds to examine limo 3 months after wreck that killed 20
ALBANY, N.Y. — Some federal employees furloughed under the government shutdown may be recalled to start examining a limousine that crashed in rural upstate New York three months ago, killing 20 people, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday. An NTSB statement said with the help of the county court,...
Local Texas GOP rejects outing vice chair over his faith
FORT WORTH, Texas — Republicans in one of the most populous counties in Texas voted Thursday to keep a Muslim doctor as their party vice chairman following infighting over some members’ claims about his beliefs. The executive committee of the Tarrant County Republican Party voted 139-49 to reject the effort...
Offensive star power headlines Colts-Chiefs showdown
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Eric Ebron has seen the forecast for Saturday’s divisional playoff game between the Indianapolis Colts and Kansas City Chiefs, where even the most optimistic of meteorologists are pegging the chances of rain or snow at about 50 percent. It doesn’t bother him. The Colts tight end...
Wisconsin man, 21, arrested in teen’s abduction, her parents’ killing
BARRON, Wis. — A 21-year-old man is jailed in the deaths of a Wisconsin couple he killed because he wanted to kidnap their teenage daughter, investigators said Friday, a day after the girl approached a stranger along a rural road saying she’d been abducted in October and held against her...
Republicans slam Rep. Steve King for what they call racist remarks
WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Thursday criticized a fellow GOP lawmaker for making what they said were “racist” comments. Rep. Steve King of Iowa was quoted in The New York Times saying, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” The comment drew a denunciation...
Rams’ Whitworth looking for 1st playoff win in 8th trip
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Seven trips to the postseason and no wins can wear on a person. Los Angeles Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth has managed to keep his sense of humor. “This is the furthest I’ve been in the playoffs, even though we didn’t play last week,” Whitworth said....
Bruce Arians confident Buccaneers not far from playoff contention
TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay’s bid to lure Bruce Arians out of retirement and back to the NFL included a pitch from baseball manager Joe Maddon. The 66-year-old Arians, a longtime Steelers offensive coordinator, grew up in York, not far from Maddon’s hometown of Hazelton. He and the Chicago Cubs...
Kentucky lawmaker hopes state’s action leads to demise of Roe v. Wade
FRANKFORT — With Kentucky embroiled in three abortion-related court cases and lawmakers considering tougher restrictions almost certain to draw a legal challenge, a leading Republican senator said Thursday that he hopes the state’s actions lead to a Supreme Court review of the Roe v. Wade ruling. Anti-abortion lawmakers hope to...
Report: Ex-Nazi camp guard deported by U.S. dies in Germany
BERLIN — Jakiw Palij, a former Nazi concentration camp guard who lived an unassuming life in New York City for decades until his past was revealed and he was deported to Germany last year, has died, German media reported Thursday. He was 95. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Westfaelische Nachrichten...
Lawyer: Vegas police seek Ronaldo DNA in rape investigation
LAS VEGAS — Cristiano Ronaldo is being asked by police in the U.S. to provide a DNA sample in an ongoing investigation of a Nevada woman’s allegation that he raped her in his Las Vegas hotel penthouse in 2009, the soccer star’s lawyer in Las Vegas said Thursday. Attorney Peter...
