Associated Press stories, Page 2305
China’s virus death toll surpasses SARS but new cases fall
BEIJING — Mainland China’s death toll from the new virus outbreak has risen to 811, surpassing the number of fatalities in the 2002-2003 SARS pandemic. However, the number of new cases reported over the last 24 hours on Sunday fell significantly from the previous period, something experts see as a...
No. 1 Baylor earns top seed in NCAA committee’s initial rankingsVideo
San Diego State has rolled through its schedule, charging into February as the only Division I team still undefeated. But if teams were selected for the NCAA Tournament today, the Aztecs would travel across the country to play in New York. The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee gave San...
Robert Morris beats Sacred Heart, runs win streak to 5 games
FAIRFIELD, Conn. — Charles Bain scored 16 points, AJ Bramah added 14 and Robert Morris held off Sacred Heart, 61-58, on Saturday to win its fifth straight. Sacred Heart closed to 60-58 on Aaron Clarke’s 3-pointer with 10 seconds left, but Jon Williams iced it with a free throw, and...
Lamar Stevens leads No. 22 Penn State over MinnesotaVideo
UNIVERSITY PARK — Lamar Stevens was celebrated as an elite scorer and a published author Saturday. Penn State’s do-it-all forward, who wrote a children’s book that was distributed to fans before No. 22 Penn State’s game against Minnesota, is well on his way to authoring another story. Maybe one for...
New XFL kicks off with entertaining debut in DCVideo
WASHINGTON — The debut of the new XFL had a punt blocked for a touchdown, a juiced-up crowd roaring for big plays and a player swearing during an in-game TV interview. The actual football was hit and miss. College national championship-winning former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones was the biggest...
Spring training: time for pitchers, catchers and cheatersVideo
ORLANDO, Fla. — Baseball returns to the field next week when pitchers, catchers and cheaters report to spring training. Fans await the annual sunny scenes of favorites stretching on bright green grass in Florida and Arizona. This year the players bring along dark clouds of scandal — the 2017 World...
Pennsylvania’s big higher education problem gets a spotlight
HARRISBURG — Gov . Tom Wolf’s proposal to start a major new scholarship program for students at Pennsylvania’s state-owned universities caused a stir over his idea to divert the money from a sacred cow, but it also spotlit an uncomfortable truth about Pennsylvania’s ragged performance on higher education funding. By...
No. 13 West Virginia falters at Doolittle-led OklahomaVideo
NORMAN, Okla. — It had been awhile since Kristian Doolittle was Oklahoma’s top offensive option. The Sooners needed it Saturday and Doolittle delivered, scoring 27 points and grabbing 12 rebounds as Oklahoma knocked off No. 13 West Virginia, 69-59, at home. Doolittle hadn’t scored in double figures in three weeks,...
U.S. says 2 soldiers killed, 6 wounded in Afghanistan attack
KABUL, Afghanistan — Two U.S. soldiers were killed and six wounded in a so-called insider attack in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province late Saturday when an Afghan dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire, the U.S. military said. Afghanistan’s defense ministry said one Afghan soldier was also killed and three...
Soldier kills 27 in bloodiest shooting spree in Thailand
NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand — Thai officials said a soldier who went on a shooting rampage and killed a reported 27 people and wounded 57 others has been shot dead inside a mall in northeastern Thailand. Thailand’s prime minister said 27 people are dead, including the gunman who went on the...
New virus has infected more than 34,800 people globally
A viral outbreak that began in China has infected more than 34,800 people globally. The latest figures reported by global health authorities as of Saturday in Beijing: — China: 722 deaths and 34,546 confirmed cases on the mainland. In addition, Hong Kong has had 25 cases, including one death. Macao...
Actor-comedian Orson Bean, 91, hit and killed by car in LA
LOS ANGELES — Orson Bean, the witty actor and comedian, was hit and killed by a car in Los Angeles, authorities said. He was 91. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office confirmed Bean’s Friday night death, saying it was being investigated as a “traffic-related” fatality. The coroner’s office provided the...
Ben Platt named Hasty Pudding’s 2020 Man of the Year
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Award-winning actor and musician Ben Platt was named 2020 Man of the Year by Harvard University’s famed Hasty Pudding theater troupe on Monday. Platt, 26, is the youngest recipient in the 54-year history of the award, handed out annually by the troupe that dates to the late...
Payback: Trump ousts officials who testified on impeachment
WASHINGTON — Exacting swift punishment against those who crossed him, an emboldened President Donald Trump ousted two government officials who had delivered damaging testimony against him during his impeachment hearings. The president took retribution just two days after his acquittal by the Senate. First came news Friday that Trump had...
Keegan-Michael Key still making people laugh but flexing his drama chops
Keegan-Michael Key is transitioning out of over-the-top comedies to focus more on dramatic films, and for him, it’s no laughing matter. “We’ve been moving in a little bit of a new direction, where it’s a Keegan with a little more gravitas and a Keegan that still does humor, but it’s...
AP fact check: Democrats skew health care, Iraq facts in debate
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says the world is witnessing a great American economic revival that he brought on by reversing course from the Obama years. Yet the economy is not so different from the robust one he inherited and disparages at every turn. Trump’s State of the Union speech...
Key takeaways from Democratic debate in New Hampshire
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Three days before the critical New Hampshire Primary, seven Democratic presidential candidates debated, with many of them fighting to survive in the race to challenge President Donald Trump. Here are some key takeaways. MAYOR PETE MAKES HIS CASE Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend.,...
Front-runners Buttigieg and Sanders beat back debate attacks
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Democratic presidential front-runners Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg beat back a barrage of attacks during a Friday night debate as rivals raised persistent questions about their ideology and experience, hoping to sow doubts about their ability to defeat President Donald Trump. Reeling from a weak finish in...
Judge strikes blow to US immigration enforcement tactics
SAN DIEGO — A federal judge has prohibited U.S. immigration authorities from relying on databases deemed faulty to ask law enforcement agencies to hold people in custody, a setback for the Trump administration that threatens to hamper how it carries out arrests. The ruling applies only to the Central District...
Kansas GOP lawmakers fail in anti-abortion amendment effort
TOPEKA, Kan. — Republican lawmakers in Kansas on Friday failed to get a proposed anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution on the ballot, stalling efforts to ensure that its Bill of Rights does not secure a right to an abortion. Neither side expected Friday’s vote in the Kansas House to...
Michael Avenatti considering testifying at extortion trial
NEW YORK — California lawyer Michael Avenatti may decide to testify at his New York trial on charges that he tried to extort Nike for millions of dollars, his lawyer said Friday. Attorney Scott Srebnick said he’ll file arguments Saturday asking a judge to exclude any questions about allegations that...
Judge: Kesha made a false claim about producer Dr. Luke
NEW YORK — Pop singer Kesha made a false claim that Dr. Luke raped Katy Perry when there’s “no evidence whatsoever” that he did, a judge ruled this week while sending a long-running clash between Kesha and her former mentor toward trial. Kesha’s lawyers said in a statement that they...
New Mississippi AG reviewing 6-trial murder case
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi’s new attorney general must decide whether to take a quadruple murder case to a seventh trial. Curtis Flowers has had two mistrials and four reversed convictions in connection with the 1996 slayings of four people at a furniture store. Flowers was sentenced to death in the...
Defective software could have doomed Boeing’s crew capsule
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Defective software could have doomed Boeing’s crew capsule during its first test flight, a botched trip that was cut short and never made it to the International Space Station, NASA and company officials said Friday. The Starliner capsule launched without astronauts in December, but its automatic...
More planes with quarantined China passengers arrive in US
SAN DIEGO — Hundreds more people evacuated from the virus zone in China began arriving Friday at military bases across the U.S. to begin a two-week quarantine. There were no signs of illness among those who flew into Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, said Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, deputy...
