Q&A: Measles cases pop up in California, 3 other states in outbreak linked to Disney parks
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Measles cases have been popping up around California in an outbreak linked to visits to Disney theme parks in Orange County during the winter holiday.
The highly contagious respiratory illness was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, but health officials have seen a surge of measles infections in the country in recent years.
A question-and-answer look at the latest measles outbreak, how the disease spreads and how it can be stopped:
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Q: How many people have been sickened with measles in connection with the Disney outbreak?
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Supreme Court to decide if same-sex couples have the right to marry everywhere in America
WASHINGTON (AP) - Setting the stage for a potentially historic ruling, the Supreme Court announced Friday it will decide whether same-sex couples have a right to marry everywhere in America under the Constitution.
The justices will take up gay-rights cases that ask them to overturn bans in four states and declare for the entire nation that people can marry the partners of their choice, regardless of gender. The cases will be argued in April, and a decision is expected by late June.
Proponents of same-sex marriage said they expect the court to settle the matter once and for all with a decision that invalidates state provisions that define marriage as between a man and a woman.
“We are now that much closer to being fully recognized as a family, and we are thrilled,” said April DeBoer, a hospital nurse from Hazel Park, Michigan, after the justices said they would hear an appeal from DeBoer and partner Jayne Rowse. “This opportunity for our case to be heard by the Supreme Court gives us and families like ours so much reason to be hopeful.”
Attorney General Eric Holder said the Obama administration would urge the court “to make marriage equality a reality for all Americans.”
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Obama, Cameron weigh privacy versus security in aftermath of France terror attacks
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama argued Friday that a resurgent fear of terrorism across Europe and the United States should not lead countries to overreact and shed privacy protections, even as British Prime Minister David Cameron pressed for more government access to encrypted communications used by U.S. companies.
Obama and Cameron met at the White House just over a week after terror attacks in France left 17 people dead and stirred anxieties on both sides of the Atlantic. In the wake of the attacks, Cameron has redoubled efforts to get more access to online information, while the French government plans to present new anti-terrorism measures next week that would allow for more phone-tapping and other surveillance.
“As technology develops, as the world moves on, we should try to avoid the safe havens that could otherwise be created for terrorists to talk to each other,” Cameron said in a joint news conference with Obama.
The response to the Paris attacks could reinvigorate the debate over balancing privacy and security, even as governments and companies still grapple with the backlash against surveillance that followed the 2013 disclosures from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. With some in France calling the attacks their country’s Sept. 11, there are also fears that the government could respond with laws akin to the sweeping USA Patriot Act that the American Congress quickly approved after the 2001 attacks.
Obama avoided taking a public position on Cameron’s call for U.S.-based technology companies like Google, Facebook and Apple to give governments more access to encrypted communications. He urged caution, saying he did not believe the threat level was so great that the “pendulum needs to swing” toward more invasive security measures.
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Earth warms like a broken record; For 3rd time in 10 years, globe sets mark for hottest year
WASHINGTON (AP) - For the third time in a decade, the globe sizzled to the hottest year on record, federal scientists announced Friday.
Both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA calculated that in 2014 the world had its hottest year in 135 years of record-keeping. Earlier, the Japanese weather agency and an independent group out of University of California Berkeley also measured 2014 as the hottest on record.
NOAA said 2014 averaged 58.24 degrees Fahrenheit (14.58 degrees Celsius), 1.24 degrees (0.69 degrees Celsius) above the 20th-century average.
But NASA, which calculates temperatures slightly differently, put 2014’s average temperature at 58.42 degrees Fahrenheit (14.68 degrees Celsius) which is 1.22 degrees (0.68 degrees Celsius) above the average of the years 1951-1980.
Earth broke NOAA records set in 2010 and 2005. The last time the Earth set an annual NOAA record for cold was in 1911.
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NCAA agrees to restore 112 football wins to Penn State, reinstate Paterno as winningest coach
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) - The NCAA agreed Friday to restore 112 football wins it had stripped from Penn State and Joe Paterno in the Jerry Sandusky child-molestation scandal and to reinstate the venerated late coach as the winningest in major college football history.
The agreement, swiftly approved by the boards of the NCAA and the university after intermittent talks heated up this week, lifts the last of the sanctions imposed in 2012 and wipes away the black marks that had tainted one of the nation’s most celebrated college athletics programs.
After more than two years of criticism that the NCAA had overstepped its authority, officials with college sports’ governing body did not back down. Instead, they said they were focused on ending litigation that had held up distribution of the university’s $60 million fine to fund child abuse-prevention programs.
Before the deal, the NCAA had agreed last year to eliminate some of the sanctions, including reinstating Penn State’s full complement of scholarships and letting the team participate in post-season play.
Friday’s agreement threw out the rest of the sanctions, including eliminating a five-year probation period and scholarship and transfer rules, and restoring the wins that had been wiped out. It also bowed to Pennsylvania officials’ desire to see the $60 million fine spent in Pennsylvania, not spread to abuse-prevention programs around the nation.
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Man accused of killing 3 fights extradition in Idaho shootings case
COLFAX, Wash. (AP) - A man suspected of fatally shooting three people - including his mother - before leading authorities on a high-speed chase is fighting extradition back to Idaho.
John Lee’s decision Friday to not waive the formal extradition process means Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter will have to request extradition from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. Lee faces three counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree attempted murder in Idaho.
Lee, 29, carried out the shootings on Jan. 10, authorities say.
“He’s not going to waive extradition at this time,” defense attorney Steve Martonick said Friday.
The short hearing was held in a packed courtroom that included friends of the victims. Lee, who remains on suicide watch, said little other than to plead not guilty to the eluding charge, the result of the chase that occurred after the slayings. Lee has offered no motive for the killings, Whitman County Prosecutor Denis Tracy said.
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Police: Teenage sweethearts disappear from Kentucky hometown, go on crime spree across South
LEITCHFIELD, Ky. (AP) - Police say two teenage sweethearts have blazed a trail of crime across the South, leaving in their path a string of stolen vehicles and pilfered checks and stirring concern about their increasingly bold behavior.
The 18-year-old and his 13-year-old girlfriend - who had apparently convinced the boy and his family that she was 19 - have so far eluded capture and are now believed to be cruising around in a stolen truck with two guns.
“There’s going to come a time when we’re not going to see him as an 18-year-old kid,” said Norman Chaffins, sheriff in Grayson County, Kentucky, where the pair disappeared nearly two weeks ago.
“We’re going to see him as someone who’s stolen three vehicles with two handguns in them, and the outcome is not going to be good for either one of them if they don’t turn themselves in.”
Dalton Hayes and Cheyenne Phillips vanished Jan. 3 from their small hometown in western Kentucky, the sheriff said. Since then, authorities believe the two have traveled to South Carolina and Georgia.
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France and Belgium: plots may be unconnected, but they have more similarities than differences
PARIS (AP) - France and Belgium have been rocked by back-to-back events linked to terrorism, but the sole connection for now seems to be their common objective: to strike a blow at an advanced Western democracy.
Officials don’t believe there is a direct link between last week’s attacks in Paris and a foiled plot this week in Belgium. Yet the parallels are numerous. Both involved people known or suspected of close ties to radical Islam. Both groups had acquired battlefield-caliber weapons that gave them enormous kill power.
Here is a glance at what is known about the three men who killed 17 people in Paris last week and the terrorist plot that Belgian authorities announced they foiled on Thursday night.
THE SUSPECTS
In France, the attackers - all subsequently killed by police - were native-born French citizens of North African and African origin. One, Amedy Coulibaly, had a lengthy criminal record including three convictions for armed robbery. He and another Paris attacker, Cherif Kouachi, had prior convictions for conspiracies that involved fellow Islamic militants.
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POPE WATCH: Philippine typhoon survivor hopes pope can help her accept loss of loved ones
Pope Francis is visiting Tacloban, the Philippine city devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, on his trip to Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Here are some glimpses of his trip as it unfolds:
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QUICKQUOTE: “HELP US FORGET AND ACCEPT”
“I hope the pope can help us forget and help us accept that our loved ones are gone. We still cry often and don’t talk about what happened.”
- Joan Cator, a 23-year-old woman waiting for the pope in Tacloban. She lost two aunts and four nephews and nieces when Typhoon Haiyan hit in November, 2013.
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After Mideast gains, Islamic State group reaches to Taliban heartland of Afghanistan, Pakistan
CAMP SHORABAK, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan and Pakistan, home to al-Qaida and Taliban militants and the focus of the longest war in U.S. history, face a new, emerging threat from the Islamic State group, officials have told The Associated Press.
Disenchanted extremists from the Taliban and other organizations, impressed by the Islamic State group’s territorial gains and slick online propaganda, have begun raising its black flag in extremist-dominated areas of both countries.
In Pakistan, an online video purportedly shows militants beheading a man while pledging their allegiance to the IS. In Afghanistan, there have even been reports of militant rivalries, with clashes erupting between Taliban fighters and Islamic State militants.
Analysts and officials say the number of IS supporters in the Afghan-Pakistan region remains small and that the group faces resistance from militants with strong tribal links. However, the rise of even a small Islamic State affiliate could further destabilize the region and complicate U.S. and NATO efforts to end the 13-year Afghan war.
The Taliban remain the region’s pre-eminent insurgency, with nearly 20 years of experience battling Afghan warlords and international troops. But the Taliban are “not a particularly sexy ideology or military force, and the risk lies in the Taliban looking increasingly out of date,” said a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
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