AP News in Brief 03-17-18

Dead man walking: Court rejects Romanian’s claim he’s alive

BUCHAREST, Romania — Constantin Reliu learned in January that he was dead.

After more than 20 years of working as a cook in Turkey, the 63-year-old returned home to Romania to discover that his wife had had him officially registered as dead.

He has since been living a legalistic nightmare of trying to prove to authorities that he is, in fact, alive. He faced a major setback Thursday when a court in the northeastern city of Vaslui refused to overturn his death certificate because his request was filed “too late.”

The decision, the court said, is final.

“I am a living ghost,” Reliu told The Associated Press in a phone interview Friday from his home in Barlad, northeastern Romania.

In Syria, at least 100 killed in attacks as more people flee

BEIRUT — Airstrikes in Syria killed more than 100 people on Friday as civilians, weary and many wounded, fled besieged areas for the second straight day.

Syrian government forces stepped up their offensive in the rebel-held eastern suburbs of the capital, Damascus, capturing a major town and closing in on another under the cover of Russia’s air power.

The majority of the deaths occurred in eastern Ghouta, where government forces have been on a crushing offensive for three weeks, capturing 70 percent of the besieged area. The weekslong violence has left more than 1,300 civilians dead, 5,000 wounded and forced thousands to flee to government-controlled areas.

Friday’s staggering death toll came a day after Syria passed the seven-year mark in its relentless civil war that has killed some 450,000 people and displaced half the country’s population.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said bombing and shelling by government and Russian forces killed a total of 76 people in eastern Ghouta, including 64 killed in Kafr Batna and another 12 in Saqba. Government forces also captured the nearby town of Jisreen, it said.

Trump’s possible China tariffs bring loud protests in US

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is considering sweeping tariffs on imports from China, with an announcement possible as early as next week. And that has industry groups and some lawmakers scrambling to prevent the next front in a potential trade war that could reverberate across the U.S. economy.

Early indications from the White House have officials braced for tariffs across a wide variety of consumer goods, from apparel to electronics, and even on imported parts for products made in the U.S. The size and scope remain under debate, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is warning that annual tariffs of as much as $60 billion on Chinese goods would be “devastating.”

Trump’s focus on China could be even more consequential, both at home and abroad, than the recently announced penalty tariffs on steel and aluminum. And amid the staff turmoil at the White House, it’s being read as a sign of rising influence for the administration’s populist economic aides, led by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and adviser Peter Navarro.

Even Larry Kudlow — an avowed free trader tapped to replace Gary Cohn as director of the White House National Economic Council — has said that China deserves a “tough response” from the United States and its friends. He told CNBC this week, “The United States could lead a coalition of large trading partners and allies against China.”

But with these tariffs, the Trump administration appears so far to be content to go it alone.

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Appeals court nixes some FCC rules on robocalls

MENLO PARK, Calif. — A federal appeals court rolled back rules intended to deter irritating telemarketing robocalls, saying they were too broad.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that 2015 regulations from the Federal Communications Commission could wrongly classify every smartphone as an autodialing device subject to anti-robocall fines. Those 2015 rules attempted to graft modern definitions onto a 1991 law that predated the iPhone by more than 15 years.

The court also struck down rules that could levy fines on telemarketers who repeatedly call phone numbers reassigned to people who have opted out of such calls.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in a tweet the ruling was “not good.” In a statement, she said, “robocalls will continue to increase unless the FCC does something about it.”

The court said the FCC’s Obama-era rules were “unreasonably expansive” and could have swept up just about anyone. Its ruling offered the example of someone organizing a get-together and texting 10 people without obtaining their prior consent, which under the rules could subject her to a potential fine of $500 per person.

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Report: Abortion is safe but barriers reduce quality of care

WASHINGTON — Abortions in the U.S. are very safe but getting one without facing delays and false medical information depends on where women live, says a broad examination of the nation’s abortion services.

Friday’s report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine shows abortion increasingly is performed early in pregnancy, when it’s safest. The risk of maternal death is higher from tonsillectomies, colonoscopies and childbirth, according to the independent panel, which advises the government on scientific issues.

While state restrictions may be intended to reduce overall abortions, the panel said those barriers can reduce the quality of care for women who undergo the procedure by preventing them from receiving the type of abortion that best meets their needs in a timely, equitable, science-based manner.

Among the examples cited in the report: Missouri and four other states require waiting 72 hours after mandated abortion counseling. Large studies show abortion doesn’t lead to breast cancer, contrary to patient information provided by five states including Kansas. Fourteen states require a medically unnecessary pre-abortion ultrasound, and 17 require that all methods, even the abortion pill mifepristone, be offered in clinics that meet hospital-like standards.

“Clearly some of the regulations are having a real impact on quality,” said panel co-chair Dr. Helene Gayle, a public health specialist and president of Chicago Community Trust.

Senators want CIA to lift veil on nominee’s black site past

WASHINGTON — Gina Haspel’s long spy career is so shrouded in mystery that senators want documents declassified so they can decide if her role at a CIA black site should prevent her from directing the agency.

It’s a deep dive into Haspel’s past that reflects key questions about her future: Would she support President Donald Trump if he tried to reinstate waterboarding and, in his words, “a lot worse”? Is Haspel the right person to lead the CIA at a time of escalating Russian aggression and ongoing extremist threats?

Haspel’s upcoming confirmation hearing will be laser-focused on the time she spent supervising a secret prison in Thailand. The CIA won’t say when in 2002 Haspel was there, but at various times that year interrogators at the site sought to make terror suspects talk by slamming them against walls, keeping them from sleeping, holding them in coffin-sized boxes and forcing water down their throats — a technique called waterboarding.

Haspel also is accused of drafting a memo calling for the destruction of 92 videotapes of interrogation sessions. Their destruction in 2005 prompted a lengthy Justice Department investigation that ended without charges.

“We should not be asked to confirm a nominee whose background cannot be publicly discussed and who cannot then be held accountable for her actions,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, who joined other Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee in asking the CIA to declassify more details about Haspel. “The American public deserves to know who its leaders are.”

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As rumors of an exodus swirl, White House pushes back

WASHINGTON — With whispers of a staffing purge permeating the West Wing, the White House pushed back Friday and insisted that reports of tumult and imminent departures are overblown.

Chief of staff John Kelly, himself the subject of rumors that his days are numbered, assured a group of staffers their jobs were safe, at least for now.

“The chief of staff actually spoke to a number of staff this morning reassuring them that there were no immediate personnel changes at this time and that people shouldn’t be concerned,” said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

But days after President Donald Trump’s secretary of state was ousted, many close to the president think more upheaval is coming soon.

Trump has been moving toward replacing national security adviser H.R. McMaster but has not settled on exact timing or a successor, according to four people with knowledge of White House deliberations. Kelly has also worn on the president, confidants of the president said. And Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, under fire for ethics violations, appears to be grasping to keep his job.

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Lawyer: Porn star who alleges Trump affair has faced threats

LOS ANGELES — A porn actress who said she had sex with Donald Trump before he became president has been threatened with physical harm, her attorney said Friday.

Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has been seeking to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement she signed days before the 2016 presidential election in order to discuss their relationship, which she said began in 2006 and continued for about a year.

Clifford’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, told The Associated Press his client had been “physically threatened,” but he didn’t provide details. He would not comment on whether the threats came from anyone tied to the president, the Trump campaign or the Trump Organization.

Clifford will discuss the threats during a segment on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” which is scheduled to air later this month. Avenatti said he was confident that people would believe her after watching her interview.

“There’s the act and there’s the cover-up, and the American people are going to learn about both in the interview and beyond,” the lawyer said during an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday.

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