In Brief: Nation & World: 8-15-16

California wildfire destroys 4 homes as fire reaches town

LOWER LAKE, Calif. — A wildfire destroyed at least four homes and forced thousands of people in two Northern California towns to flee on Sunday as flames jumped a road and moved into populated areas.

The fire reached Main Street in Lower Lake, a town of about 1,200, and burned the post office, a winery, a Habitat for Humanity office and several businesses and restaurants as black smoke loomed over the four-block strip. Staff at a hospital in Clearlake, a neighboring town of about 15,000, rushed to transfer 16 patients to another hospital 25 miles away while firefighters carried goats and other animals to safety as homes burned around them.

Officials confirmed four homes were destroyed, although eyewitnesses could see many more.

The fire broke out Saturday afternoon and grew to more than 3 square miles as firefighters struggled to get a handle on the largely out-of-control blaze amid hot, windy conditions.

The fire was creating its own weather pattern and shifted northward into Lower Lake in the afternoon, said Suzie Blankenship, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Trump goes on tear against media, not Clinton

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s campaign on Sunday went on a new tear against the media, blaming the “disgusting” press for a week of distractions at a time when Republicans have urged him — again — to focus on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump will get another chance to reset his campaign on Monday when he is expected to lay out his plan for defeating what running mate Mike Pence on Sunday called, “radical Islamic terrorism” with “real specifics” on how to make the United States safer.

But Trump set up that address with extensive new complaints about the latest disastrous week of coverage and reports of campaign chaos. Not to blame, Trump suggested, were his own remarks that gun rights supporters could “do something” if Hillary Clinton becomes president and appoints liberal judges, or his repeated insistence on the falsehood that President Barack “Obama founded ISIS.”

“If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn’t put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20 percent,” he tweeted before noon. That tweet was followed by: “My rallies are not covered properly by the media. They never discuss the real message and never show crowd size or enthusiasm.” His anti-media tweet storm topped a half-dozen posts by midafternoon.

It was the latest in a series of implicit acknowledgements by the Republican presidential nominee that he is not winning and in fact could be headed for a big loss to Clinton on Election Day in less than three months. Signs were popping up across the political landscape that Trump’s year-plus flirtation with presidential politics was in danger of not advancing much further.

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Police: Man shot in Milwaukee had a gun in his hand

MILWAUKEE — The black man whose killing by police touched off rioting in Milwaukee was shot by a black officer after turning toward him with a gun in his hand, the police chief said Sunday, as Wisconsin’s governor put the National Guard on standby against any further violence on the city’s mostly black north side.

Police Chief Edward Flynn cautioned the shooting was still under investigation and authorities were awaiting autopsy results, but that based on the silent video from the unidentified officer’s body camera, he “certainly appeared to be within lawful bounds.”

At the same news conference, Mayor Tom Barrett said a still image pulled from the footage clearly showed the gun in 23-year-old Sylville K. Smith’s hand as he fled a traffic stop Saturday.

“I want our community to know that,” Barrett said. But he also called for understanding for Smith’s family.

“A young man lost his life yesterday afternoon,” the mayor said. “And no matter what the circumstances are, his family has to be hurting.”

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Boko Haram: Some abducted Chibok girls killed in air strikes

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — The mother of one of the Chibok girls kidnapped more than two years ago by Nigeria’s Islamic extremists on Sunday saw the first proof her daughter is alive — a video of her begging Nigeria’s government to exchange detained militants for the girls’ freedom.

Chibok community leader Pogu Bitrus told The Associated Press the video was being watched at the weekly rally of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign at Unity Fountain in Abuja, the capital.

Some of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls have been killed by Nigerian military air strikes, according to a new video from Boko Haram, which shows one kidnap victim pleading for authorities to bow to the extremists’ demands that they release detained militants in return for the girls.

It’s not clear how many schoolgirls have died among the 218 who remain missing.

The video posted Sunday on Twitter shows a young woman, covered in a hijab with just her face showing, who was one of the students abducted from a remote school in northeastern Nigeria in April 2014. She claims that some of her kidnapped classmates died in aerial bombardments by the Nigerian Air Force. She also said that 40 have been “married” to fighters.

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Rising floodwater leaves thousands homeless in Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. — Robert and Gwen Arceneaux endured a sleepless night Sunday after noticing floodwater creeping into their home — in a neighborhood that had never seen water before.

They gathered up their dogs and a few bags of belongings and fled out the back door, eventually wading through waist-deep water to a passing National Guard truck. Now safe at a movie studio-lot-turned-shelter their worries weren’t over, as they tried to get medication for Robert, who suffers from lung cancer.

“We need to get somewhere safer,” Gwen said, as her dogs panted heavily under the hot sun.

Across southern Louisiana Sunday, residents scrambled to get to safety as rivers and creeks burst their banks, swollen from days of heavy rain that in some areas came close to two feet over a 48-hour period.

In high-water vehicles, boats and helicopters, emergency crews hurried to rescue scores of south Louisiana residents as the governor warned that it was not over.

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Iraqi Kurds advance near Islamic State-held city

IRBIL, Iraq — Iraqi Kurdish forces say they have retaken five villages east of the Islamic State-held city of Mosul in an operation launched early Sunday.

U.S.-backed Kurdish forces known as peshmerga aim to “clear several more villages” in “one of many shaping operations” that will increase pressure on the extremist group, the Kurdish region’s Security Council said in a statement.

Peshmerga Brig. Gen. Dedewan Khurshid Tofiq described the operation outside Mosul as “ongoing.” Rudaw, a local television network, showed footage of smoke rising from a village in the distance as armored vehicles pushed across a field.

The council’s statement said the area cleared is about 50 square kilometers (20 square miles). It said the U.S.-led coalition is supporting the operation with airstrikes, one of which destroyed a car bomb.

Iraq’s Health Ministry meanwhile said a fire which swept through the maternity ward of a hospital in Baghdad last week was a “crime” and not an accident, without providing further details. The blaze in the capital’s Yarmouk hospital killed 13 people, according to the ministry’s statement.

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Friends call imam slaying a hate crime; cops say no motive

NEW YORK — The daylight slaying of a mosque leader and his associate set off fear and anguish Sunday among Bangladeshi Muslims in a New York City neighborhood, with some saying the killings appear to be an anti-Muslim hate crime. But police said there is no evidence so far to support that.

Police hunted for the gunman who killed Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and Thara Uddin, 64, near the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in Queens as they left afternoon prayers Saturday in their traditional religious attire. Both men were shot in the head.

“This was a hate crime. One hundred percent, there’s no doubt about it,” said Monir Chowdhury, who worshipped daily with the two men.

He said he had moved to the community because of its large Bangladeshi immigrant population, but in recent months has been harassed by people shouting anti-Muslim epithets.

In one incident, a man called him “Osama” as he walked to the mosque with his 3-year-old son. With the killer still on the loose, Chowdhury decided it would be best to drive to prayer services.

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Lochte: US swimmers are ‘safe and unharmed’ after robbery

RIO DE JANEIRO — Ryan Lochte and three other American swimmers were robbed at gunpoint early Sunday by thieves posing as police officers who stopped their taxi and took their money and belongings.

In the latest security incident to hit the Rio de Janeiro Games, Lochte told NBC that one of the robbers put a gun to his forehead before taking his wallet. No one was injured.

“While it is true that my teammates and I were the victims of a robbery early Sunday morning, what is most important is that we are safe and unharmed,” Lochte said in a message posted on Instagram. “I look forward to getting home so that I can begin to map out the plans for my future with an eye on representing #TeamUSA at the #2020 Tokyo Olympics.”

Lochte and his teammates were returning to the athletes’ village by taxi after a night out at the French Olympic team’s hospitality house in the Rodrigo de Freitas area in the upscale south zone of the city. The outing was several hours after Olympic swimming ended Saturday night at the Rio Games.

“Their taxi was stopped by individuals posing as armed police officers who demanded the athletes’ money and other personal belongings,” U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky said in a statement. “All four athletes are safe and cooperating with authorities.”

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Lululemon’s CEO sees lots of room to grow

NEW YORK (AP) — Lululemon Athletica is having a Zen moment. After two tough years, the company known for yoga wear is enjoying a rebound in sales and CEO Laurent Potdevin is optimistic that Lululemon can keep the momentum going.

The company has benefited from the shift in athletic wear becoming everyday fashion. But lots of other brands want part of those sales, from Victoria’s Secret to Gap to H&M.

Potdevin has set ambitious goals: to double sales to $4 billion by 2020, push innovation in products like swimwear and menswear, add more stores in North America and catch up in e-commerce. Lululemon, which has nearly 400 stores globally in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Australia and elsewhere, wants 20 percent to 25 percent of its total sales to come from outside the U.S. by 2020.

The company is going back to taking risks following a major product hitch in 2013 that cost the company millions and sent the stock tumbling. Lululemon recalled thousands of its stretchy black yoga pants after customer complaints that they were too sheer.

Christine Day, who assumed the helm in 2008, announced she was leaving the company and said it was a personal decision. Then, founder Chip Wilson resigned as chairman after suggesting some women’s bodies were not made for Lululemon’s clothing.

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Adele: I won’t sing at Super Bowl; show ‘not about music’

LOS ANGELES — Multiple Grammy Award-winning singer Adele says she turned down an offer to perform at the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show.

The British singer told an audience Saturday at her Los Angeles concert that she was asked to perform at the event.

“First of all, I’m not doing the Super Bowl,” Adele says from the stage in a video posted on Twitter. “I mean, come on, that show is not about music. And I don’t really — I can’t dance or anything like that. They were very kind, they did ask me, but I did say no.”

She adds: “I’m sorry, but maybe next time.”

Performers at previous halftime shows have included Beyonce, Madonna, the Rolling Stones and Prince.