AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT
Biden faces new scrutiny from Dems over behavior with women
WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday defended his interactions with women, saying he doesn't believe he's ever acted inappropriately. But a Nevada politician's assertion that Biden's kiss on the back of her head made her feel uncomfortable prompted some Democrats to question whether the 76-year-old is too out of step with his own party to run a successful 2020 presidential campaign.
The episode, recounted by Democrat Lucy Flores, highlighted an aspect of Biden's persona that has been publicly known for years: the affectionate whispers, hugs and shoulder squeezes he has long doled out to women, often on camera and at high-profile public events. In a moment of national reckoning over sexual harassment and the treatment of women by powerful men, some Democrats said Biden's actions have taken on a new light.
"It looks different in 2019," said Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist. Cardona said that while Biden's behavior is not automatically disqualifying for the presidency, "it all depends on how he continues to respond to this. He has to acknowledge that his behavior made some women uncomfortable."
In a statement on Sunday, Biden said it was never his intention to make women feel discomfort.
"In my many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort," he said. "And not once - never - did I believe I acted inappropriately. If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully."
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Chief: Ride-share mistake led to death of SC college student
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The man accused of killing a woman who got into his car thinking it was her Uber ride had activated the child locks in his backseat so the doors could only be opened from the outside, police in South Carolina say.
Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook also said investigators found the victim's blood in Nathaniel David Rowland's vehicle. Rowland, 24, was arrested and charged in the death of 21-year-old Samantha Josephson, a University of South Carolina student from Robbinsville, New Jersey.
Investigators would not say what they think Rowland did to Josephson from the time she got into his black Chevrolet Impala in Columbia's Five Points entertainment district around 1:30 a.m. Friday until her body was dumped in woods off a dirt road in Clarendon County about 65 miles (105 kilometers) away.
Josephson had numerous wounds to her head, neck, face, upper body, leg and foot, according to arrest warrants released Sunday by the State Law Enforcement Division. The documents didn't say what was used to attack her.
Josephson's blood was found in the trunk and inside Rowland's car along with her cellphone, bleach, window cleaner and cleaning wipes, Holbrook said.
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Trump's battle with 'Obamacare' moves to the courts
WASHINGTON (AP) - After losing in Congress, President Donald Trump is counting on the courts to kill off "Obamacare." But some cases are going against him, and time is not on his side as he tries to score a big win for his re-election campaign.
Two federal judges in Washington, D.C., this past week blocked parts of Trump's health care agenda: work requirements for some low-income people on Medicaid, and new small business health plans that don't have to provide full benefits required by the Affordable Care Act.
But in the biggest case, a federal judge in Texas ruled last December that the ACA is unconstitutional and should be struck down in its entirety. That ruling is now on appeal. At the urging of the White House, the Justice Department said this past week it will support the Texas judge's position and argue that all of "Obamacare" must go.
A problem for Trump is that the litigation could take months to resolve - or longer - and there's no guarantee he'll get the outcomes he wants before the 2020 election.
"Was this a good week for the Trump administration? No," said economist Gail Wilensky, who headed up Medicare under former Republican President George H.W. Bush. "But this is the beginning of a series of judicial challenges."
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One of Russia's richest women dies in plane crash in Germany
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - One of Russia's richest women, S7 Group co-owner Natalia Fileva, died Sunday in a plane crash in Germany, the airline operator said.
Fileva, 55, was aboard a single-engine, six-seat Epic LT aircraft that crashed and burned in a field as it approached the small airport at Egelsbach, a town in southwestern Germany, at about 3:30 p.m. (1330 GMT), the airline said in an email.
German police said there appeared to be three people aboard the plane, including the pilot of the flight, which originated in France. They said the two passengers were believed to be Russian citizens but that positive identification of the occupants would require further investigation.
German aviation authorities were probing the cause of the crash. Egelsbach is about 10 kilometers (six miles) south of Frankfurt.
The business publication Forbes.ru estimated Fileva's fortune at $600 million.
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Pope defends decision to keep French cardinal after cover-up
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) - Pope Francis defended his decision to reject French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin's resignation after he was convicted of covering up for a predator priest, saying Sunday the appeals process must run its course before a final decision is made.
Francis also explained why he rejected proposals by U.S. bishops to respond to the sex abuse scandal there, saying they neglected the spiritual dimension required for a true reform.
The pope referred to both cases during an in-flight news conference en route home Sunday from Morocco.
Francis' papacy has been thrown into turmoil by the eruption of the scandal on multiple continents and his own handling of cases at the Vatican. Currently, two of his cardinals - Barbarin and Australian Cardinal George Pell - have criminal abuse-related convictions hanging over them, though both are appealing.
Asked Sunday about Barbarin, Francis said the archbishop of Lyon was entitled to the presumption of innocence as long as the case remained open.
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Bait crisis could take the steam out of lobster this summer
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - The boom times for the U.S. lobster industry are imperiled this year because of a shortage of a little fish that has been luring the crustaceans into traps for hundreds of years.
Members of the lobster business fear a looming bait crisis could disrupt the industry during a time when lobsters are as plentiful, valuable and in demand as ever. America's lobster catch has climbed this decade, especially in Maine, but the fishery is dependent on herring - a schooling fish other fishermen seek in the Atlantic Ocean.
Federal regulators are imposing a steep cut in the herring fishery this year, and some areas of the East Coast are already restricted to fishing, months before the lobster season gets rolling. East Coast herring fishermen brought more than 200 million pounds of the fish to docks as recently as 2014, but this year's catch will be limited to less than a fifth of that total.
The cut is leaving lobstermen, who have baited traps with herring for generations in Maine, scrambling for new bait sources and concerned about their ability to get lobster to customers who have come to expect easy availability in recent years.
"If you don't have bait, you're not going to fish. If the price of bait goes up, you're not going to fish," said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen's Association. "We have to take the big picture, and make sure our communities continue to have viable fisheries."
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In an uncertain era, expressing certainty is a potent weapon
In the course of a single week, there has been all of this:
"I have been truthful and consistent on every level since day one," actor Jussie Smollett told the world after prosecutors dropped 16 felony counts that accused him of making a false police report about being the target of a racist, anti-gay attack.
"I am highly confident," high-profile lawyer Michael Avenatti said after being accused of trying to extort money from Nike, "that I will be fully exonerated and justice will be done."
"Complete and total EXONERATION," Donald Trump tweeted after the attorney general's summary of the Mueller report's "principal conclusions" was released. And on Thursday night, before a huge crowd: "The greatest hoax in the history of our country."
Such certainty across the board. Such vigorous, declarative statements - crystallized, workshopped, simplified into sound bites containing a single message: It didn't happen. I didn't do anything wrong. Case closed. End of story. Incontrovertible. Don't question it.
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Ukraine comedian leads presidential election, runoff likely
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - A comedian with no political experience was leading in Ukraine's presidential election on Sunday, an exit poll and minimal early results said, but far short of the absolute majority needed to win outright in the first round.
The poll said Volodymyr Zelenskiy garnered the most votes, while incumbent President Petro Poroshenko was in a distant second place closely followed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
The election was shadowed by allegations of widespread vote buying. Police said they had received more than 2,100 complaints of violations on voting day alone in addition to hundreds of earlier voting fraud claims, including bribery attempts and removing ballots from polling places.
Zelenskiy, who stars in a TV sitcom about a teacher who becomes president after a video of him denouncing corruption goes viral, led the field of 39 candidates with 30.4 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology and the Razumkov public opinion organization. Poroshenko tallied with 17.8 percent support and Tymoshenko had 14.2 percent, it said. The poll claimed a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.
The country's elections commission said that with a little more than 1 percent of the ballots counted, Zelenskiy had 27 percent of the vote. Poroshenko and Tymoshenko each were about 10 percentage points behind.
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Turkey's ruling party leads local elections but loses Ankara
ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party led Sunday's mayoral elections but suffered setbacks as the opposition regained hold of the capital Ankara and made significant inroads in other parts of Turkey. The elections, which the Turkish strongman had depicted as a fight for the country's survival, were largely seen as a test of his support amid a sharp economic downturn.
Erdogan's conservative, Islamic-based Justice and Development Party, or AKP, took nearly 45 percent of the votes in the elections after 90 percent of the more than 194,000 ballot boxes were counted, according to state broadcaster TRT. The secular, main opposition party, the Republican People's Party, or CHP had 30 percent.
The CHP's mayoral candidate for Ankara, Mansur Yavas, however, won control of Ankara after 25 years of rule by the AKP and a predecessor party. The 63-year-old lawyer received more than 50 percent of the votes, according to TRT. The CHP and its allies also posted gains elsewhere, increasing the number of city mayoral seats from 14 in the previous local elections in 2014 to 20, according to the preliminary results.
"History is being written in Ankara," said deputy CHP leader Haluk Koc, while thousands of supporters celebrated outside the party's headquarters in Ankara.
Former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, the ruling party's candidate for mayor of Istanbul declared victory even though the race in Turkey's largest city and commercial hub was too close to call. Yildirim garnered 48.71 percent of the votes against the opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu's 48.65 percent. CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu rebuked Yildirim for declaring victory "in haste."
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TIPPING OFF: Krzyzewski-Izzo matchup highlights Elite Eight
A coaching matchup for the ages highlights Sunday's regional finals in the NCAA Tournament.
Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Michigan State's Tom Izzo face off in the East Region. Krzyzewski has 12 Final Four trips and five national titles. Izzo has seven Final Four appearances and a national championship since taking over at Michigan State in 1995.
Izzo looks forward to competing against his longtime friend.
"We know that Duke is the No. 1 overall seed. And they've earned all their stuff, too, with the way that program has been, Coach K and the players," Izzo said. "So hopefully it will be as good as a game as the billing."
History favors Duke against Michigan State - the Blue Devils have won nine of the past 10 and seven straight in the series, including a victory in the 2015 Final Four. Krzyzewski downplayed it on Saturday.
