AP News in Brief 10-20-18

Saudis admit Jamal Khashoggi killed in consulate

ISTANBUL — Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in a “fistfight” in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, the kingdom said early Saturday, acknowledging the writer’s death for the first time. Authorities said 18 Saudi suspects were in custody for his slaying and intelligence officials had been fired.

The overnight announcements in Saudi state media came more than two weeks after Khashoggi, 59, entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul for paperwork required to marry his Turkish fiancée, and never came out. Since his disappearance, the kingdom had rejected Turkish fears he was killed and dismembered there as “baseless,” but growing international pressure and comments by U.S. officials up to President Donald Trump appears to have forced the kingdom to acknowledge the slaying.

While it fired officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom stopped short of implicating the heir-apparent of the world’s largest oil exporter. King Salman, his father, appointed him to the committee that will restructure the kingdom’s intelligence services after Khashoggi’s slaying. No major decisions in Saudi Arabia are made outside of the ultraconservative kingdom’s ruling Al Saud family.

It also appeared to downplay the fact that Turkish officials say an “assassination squad” from the kingdom including an official from Prince Mohammed’s entourage and an “autopsy expert” flew in ahead of time and laid in wait for Khashoggi at the consulate.

In a statement Friday night, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the U.S. will closely follow international investigations into Khashoggi’s death and will advocate for justice that is “timely, transparent and in accordance with all due process.”

Caravan migrants break Guatemala border, rush Mexico

TECUN UMAN, Guatemala — Migrants traveling in a mass caravan burst through a Guatemalan border fence and streamed by the thousands toward Mexican territory on Friday, defying Mexican authorities’ entreaties for an orderly crossing and U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of retaliation.

On the Mexican side of a border bridge, they were met by a phalanx of police with riot shields. About 50 managed to push their way through before officers unleashed pepper spray and the rest retreated.

The gates were closed again, and police used a loudspeaker to address the masses, saying, “We need you to stop the aggression.”

Mexican federal police chief Manelich Castilla, speaking from the border town of Ciudad Hidalgo, told Foro TV that his forces achieved their main objective of preventing a violent breach by the 3,000-plus migrants. In a separate interview with Milenio television, he accused people not part of the caravan of attacking police with firecrackers and rocks.

“It will be under the conditions that have been said since the start,” Castilla said. “Orderly, with established procedures, never through violence or force as a group of people attempted.”

Russian charged in first 2018 election meddling case

WASHINGTON — The U.S. accused a Russian woman on Friday of helping oversee the finances of a sweeping, secretive effort to sway American public opinion through social media in the first federal case alleging foreign interference in the 2018 midterm elections.

The criminal complaint against Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova alleges that Russians are using some of the same techniques to influence U.S. politics as they relied on ahead of the 2016 presidential election, methods laid bare by an investigation from special counsel Robert Mueller into possible coordination between Russia and Donald Trump’s campaign.

Justice Department prosecutors claim that Khusyaynova, of St. Petersburg, helped manage the finances of a hidden but powerful Russian social media effort aimed at spreading distrust for American political candidates and causing divisions on hot-button social issues like immigration and gun control.

The Justice Department unsealed the criminal complaint on the same day that U.S. intelligence agencies, in a rare public statement , asserted that Russia, China, Iran and other countries are engaged in continuous efforts to influence American policy and voters in the upcoming elections and beyond. National security adviser John Bolton heads to Russia on Saturday.

The U.S. is concerned about the foreign campaigns “to undermine confidence in democratic institutions and influence public sentiment and government policies,” said the statement from national security officials.

From wire sources

The statement, which provided no details about any such efforts, said, “These activities also may seek to influence voter perceptions and decision-making in the 2018 and 2020 U.S. elections.”

Alaska’s independent governor drops re-election bid

JUNEAU, Alaska — Alaska Gov. Bill Walker dropped his re-election bid Friday, three days after the sudden resignation of his lieutenant governor over what Walker described as an inappropriate overture toward a woman.

Walker’s announcement, made at the Alaska Federation of Natives conference in Anchorage shortly before he was to participate in a debate, was met with gasps and cries of “No!” from the audience.

“‘Alaska First’ is and cannot be just a campaign slogan,” he said. With less than three weeks until the election, Walker, an independent, said it became clear he could not win a three-way race against Republican former state Sen. Mike Dunleavy and Democratic former U.S. Sen. Mark Begich.

Alaskans deserve a competitive race, “and Alaskans deserve a choice other than Mike Dunleavy,” he said.

Walker, a former Republican and the only independent governor in the country, told reporters he doesn’t agree with Begich on a lot of things. But he said Begich would be better for Alaska than Dunleavy.

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Train mows down crowd at India festival, at least 58 dead

NEW DELHI — A speeding train ran over a crowd watching fireworks during a religious festival in northern India on Friday evening, killing at least 58 people and injuring dozens more, police said.

The train failed to stop after the accident on the outskirts of Amritsar, a city in Punjab state, said the state governing Congress party politician, Pratap Singh Bajwa. Police Commissioner S. S. Srivastava said 58 bodies had been recovered.

The Press Trust of India news agency said two trains arrived from the opposite direction on separate tracks at the same time, giving little opportunity for people to escape. The casualties were caused by one of the trains, it quoted officials as saying.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was extremely saddened by the accident. “Have asked officials to provide immediate assistance that is required,” Modi said on Twitter.

A witness said the train didn’t even sound its whistle as it sped past the site, where hundreds were watching the burning of an effigy of demon Ravana during the Hindu festival of Dussehra. As the effigy was lit and the fireworks started, a section of the crowd started retreating toward railroad tracks while observing the event.

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USC agrees to pay $215M to settle doctor sex abuse claims

LOS ANGELES — The University of Southern California said Friday that it would pay $215 million to settle claims of sexual abuse and harassment by a school gynecologist, but lawyers for hundreds of the accusers say it’s not enough money and the university has yet to fully disclose what it knew about the doctor’s behavior.

The tentative settlement, which needs a judge’s approval, will provide compensation ranging from $2,500 up to $250,000 to women who say Dr. George Tyndall abused them between 1988 and 2016, USC Interim President Wanda Austin said in a statement .

About 500 current and former students have now made accusations against Tyndall and filed various lawsuits. They contend he routinely made crude comments, took inappropriate photos, forced them to strip naked and groped them under the guise of medical treatment.

Tyndall spent about three decades as a USC staff gynecologist before retiring last year after a university investigation concluded there was evidence that he sexually harassed students during exams.

Tyndall has denied the allegations and has not been charged with a crime. Los Angeles police and Los Angeles County prosecutors are reviewing the claims.

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12-pound lunar meteorite sells for more than $600,000

BOSTON — A 12-pound (5.5 kilogram) chunk of the moon that fell to the Earth as a lunar meteorite has been sold at auction for more than $600,000.

Boston-based RR Auction announced Friday the $612,500 winning bid for the meteorite, composed of six fragments that fit together like a puzzle, came from a representative working with the Tam Chuc Pagoda complex in Ha Nam Province, Vietnam.

RR predicted it would get $500,000 at auction.

The meteorite was found last year in a remote area of Mauritania in northwest Africa.

It is considered one of the most significant lunar meteorites ever found because of its large size and because it has “partial fusion crust” caused by the tremendous heat that sears the rock as it falls to Earth.

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Radio host Delilah shares advice about losing a child

NEW YORK — One year ago, syndicated radio host Delilah Renee Luke — known professionally as just Delilah — experienced the unimaginable: Her teenage son Zack killed himself at 18.

She took some time away from her job to grieve but is now back on the air and also has a new book out called “One Heart at a Time,” sharing personal stories and life lessons to hopefully inspire others to examine their own lives and find purpose about what really matters.

Delilah, who also lost her son Sammy in 2012 at 16 from complications from sickle cell anemia, has raw advice for people on what not to say to parents who lose their children.

“The worst thing you can do is say, ‘I know how you feel.’ Please don’t say that to somebody who has lost a child because unless you have lost a child, you don’t know how I feel. Please don’t say ‘He’s in a better place.’ I have an amazingly strong faith and I believe that my two boys are at rest with my Lord. I don’t want them there. I want them here, so telling me they’re in a better place is a knife to my heart,” she said. “They are supposed to be in a better place when they’re 70 or 80 or 90, not 17 or 18.”

She continued: “Don’t say to somebody who has lost a child, ‘Well, they’re a little angel now looking out for you.’ My son is not a little cherub floating. He wasn’t a cherub here on Earth, for God’s sake. You know, he was a wild child. He was passionate and he was crazy.”