China space lab mostly burns up on re-entry in south Pacific
BEIJING — China’s defunct Tiangong 1 space station mostly burned up on re-entry Monday into the atmosphere over the central South Pacific, Chinese space authorities said.
The experimental space laboratory re-entered around 8:15 a.m., the China Manned Space Engineering Office said.
Scientists monitoring the craft’s disintegrating orbit had forecast the craft would mostly burn up and would pose only the slightest of risks to people. Analysis from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center showed it had mostly burned up.
Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist at Australian National University, said Tiangong 1’s re-entry was “mostly successful” and that it would have been better if the space station had not been spinning toward Earth.
“It could have been better obviously, if it wasn’t tumbling, but it landed in the Southern Pacific Ocean and that’s kind of where you hope it would land,” Tucker said.
Trump on deal to protect ‘Dreamer’ immigrants: ‘NO MORE’
PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump on Sunday declared “NO MORE” to a deal to help “Dreamer” immigrants and threatened to pull out of a free trade agreement with Mexico unless it does more to stop people from crossing into the U.S. He claimed they’re coming to take advantage of protections granted certain immigrants.
“NO MORE DACA DEAL!” Trump tweeted one hour after he began the day by wishing his followers a “HAPPY EASTER!”
He said Mexico must “stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!” The U.S., Canada and Mexico are participating in tense negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement at Trump’s insistence. Trump says NAFTA is bad for the U.S.
“Mexico has got to help us at the border,” Trump, holding his wife’s hand, told reporters before the couple attended Easter services at an Episcopal church near his Palm Beach home. “If they’re not going to help us at the border, it’s a very sad thing between our two countries.”
CHP: Deadly SUV cliff crash may have been intentional
MENDOCINO, Calif. — The cliff-side plunge that killed a Washington state family riding in an SUV may have been intentional, California Highway Patrol officials said Sunday night.
Information pulled from the SUV’s software shows the vehicle was stopped at a flat, dirt pull-off area before it accelerated straight off the cliff, said Capt. Greg Baarts with the CHP Northern Division.
Baarts said the electronic information combined with the lack of skid marks or signs the driver braked led authorities to believe it was intentional.
Authorities don’t know exactly when the wreck took place. A passing motorist discovered the wreck Monday, three days after social service authorities opened an investigation apparently prompted by a neighbor’s complaint that the children were being deprived of food.
Five members of the Hart family were found dead. The search continued for three more children believed to have been in the vehicle when it went over a scenic coastal overlook and landed on rocks in the Pacific Ocean below. The missing children may have been washed out to sea, authorities say.
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Ruling party candidate easily wins Costa Rica presidency
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Costa Rica’s governing party won a big presidential election victory Sunday as many voters rejected an evangelical pastor who had jumped into political prominence by campaigning against same-sex marriage.
The head of the Supreme Electoral Council, Luis Antonio Sobrado, said that with 95 percent of ballots counted Sunday night, Carlos Alvarado of the ruling Citizen Action Party had 60.8 percent of the votes in the runoff election. His opponent, Fabricio Alvarado of the National Restoration party, had 39.2 percent. The two men are not related.
Fabricio Alvarado rose from being a political unknown to the leading candidate in the election’s first round in February after he came out strongly against a call by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for Costa Rica to allow same-sex marriage.
Carlos Alvarado, a novelist and former labor minister who finished second in February to get the final spot in the runoff, spoke in favor of letting gays wed.
The victor wrote in his Twitter account, “Let’s celebrate our 200 years of Indpendence with a government worthy and up to date with the times.”
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Ogunbowale encore! Final Four hero lifts Notre Dame to title
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Arike Ogunbowale hit the shot of her life — again.
Ogunbowale floated in a 3-pointer from the corner with 0.1 seconds left, lifting Notre Dame to its second women’s basketball title with a thrilling 61-58 comeback victory over Mississippi State in the NCAA championship game on Sunday night.
It was the second straight game that the junior guard hit a shot in the final second to carry the Irish. Her jumper with one second remaining in overtime knocked off previously unbeaten UConn in the semifinals Friday.
With this game tied, Ogunbowale took the inbounds pass from Jackie Young, dribbled twice toward the corner and, closely guarded, lofted home an off-balance 3 from in front of the Notre Dame bench, nearly the same angle as her shot that beat the Huskies.
“It just felt right,” said Ogunbowale, who scored 16 of her 18 points in the second half. “I practice late-game all the time. I just ran to Jackie and said, ‘Throw it to me, throw it to me.’”
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China raises tariffs on US pork, fruit in trade dispute
BEIJING — China raised import duties on a $3 billion list of U.S. pork, fruit and other products Monday in an escalating tariff dispute with President Donald Trump that companies worry might depress global commerce.
The Finance Ministry said it was responding to a U.S. tariff hike on steel and aluminum that took effect March 23. But a bigger clash looms over Trump’s approval of possible higher duties on nearly $50 billion of Chinese goods in a separate argument over technology policy.
The tariff spat is one aspect of wide-ranging tensions between Washington and Beijing over China’s multibillion-dollar trade surplus with the United States and its policies on technology, industry development and access to its state-dominated economy.
Forecasters say the immediate impact should be limited, but investors worry the global recovery might be set back if it prompts other governments to raise import barriers. Those fears temporarily depressed financial markets, though stocks have recovered some of their losses.
On Monday, stock market indexes in Tokyo and Shanghai were up 0.5 percent at midmorning.
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Malala Yousafzai ending 1st visit to Pakistan since shooting
ISLAMABAD — Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai is ending her first visit to Pakistan since being shot in 2012 by Taliban militants trying to kill her for promoting girls’ education.
Yousafzai and her family were at Benazir Bhutto International Airport on Monday morning to return to London after the four-day visit.
Touching scenes were witnessed when the now-20-year-old university student left her hotel and thanked Pakistani officials for giving her a helicopter to see her home in the northwest town of Mingora in the Swat Valley.
Youzafzai said in her hometown that she had waited for the moment for more than five years and said she often looked at Pakistan on the map, hoping to return. She said she plans to permanently return to Pakistan after completing her studies in Britain.
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Steven Bochco, creator of ‘Hill Street Blues,’ dies at 74
LOS ANGELES — Steven Bochco, a writer and producer known for creating the groundbreaking police drama “Hill Street Blues,” died Sunday. He was 74. A family spokesman says Bochco died in his sleep after a battle with cancer.
Bochco, who won 10 primetime Emmys, created several hit television shows including “L.A. Law,” ”NYPD Blue,” and “Doogie Howser, M.D.”
Premiering in January 1981, “Hill Street Blues” challenged, even confounded the meager audience that sampled it. Then, on a wave of critical acclaim, the series began to click with viewers, while scoring a history-making 27 Emmy nominations its first year.
During its seven-season run, it won 26 Emmys and launched Bochco on a course that led to dozens of series and earned him four Peabody awards, in addition to the 10 Emmys.
“Hill Street Blues” had a sprawling universe of engaging yet flawed characters, a zippy pace and layers of overlapping, scripted dialogue, shot in a documentary style.
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Data breach hits Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord &Taylor stores
A data breach at department store chains Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off Fifth and Lord &Taylor has compromised the personal information of customers who shopped at the stores.
The chains’ parent company, Canada-based Hudson’s Bay Co., announced the breach of its store payment systems on Sunday. The company said it was investigating and taking steps to contain the attack.
The disclosure came after New York-based security firm Gemini Advisory LLC revealed on Sunday that a hacking group known as JokerStash or Fin7 began boasting on dark websites last week that it was putting up for sale up to 5 million stolen credit and debit cards. The hackers named their stash BIGBADABOOM-2. While the extent of its holdings remains unclear, about 125,000 records were immediately released for sale.
The security firm confirmed with several banks that many of the compromised records came from Saks and Lord &Taylor customers.
Hudson’s Bay said in a statement that it “deeply regrets any inconvenience or concern this may cause,” but it hasn’t said how many Saks or Lord &Taylor stores or customers were affected. The company said there’s no indication that the breach affected its online shopping websites or other brands, including the Home Outfitters chain or Hudson’s Bay stores in Canada.
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Cosby jury being picked amid anti-sexual misconduct movement
PHILADELPHIA — Jury selection is set to get underway in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault retrial in a cultural landscape changed by the #MeToo movement, posing new challenges for both the defense and the prosecution.
Experts say the movement could cut both ways for the comedian, making some potential jurors more hostile toward him and others more likely to think men are being unfairly accused.
“We really have had this explosion of awareness since that last trial and it has changed the entire environment,” said Richard Gabriel, a jury consultant who has worked on over 1,000 trials. “It is a huge challenge for the defense, but it could also provide an avenue and open up the topic.”
The process of picking 12 jurors was to begin on Monday in suburban Philadelphia.
A jury deadlocked last June at the former TV star’s first trial after Cosby’s lawyers managed to sow enough doubt in the minds of a few jurors. That was before the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct started toppling famous men in rapid succession, among them Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Kevin Spacey and Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken.