AP News in Brief 04-21-18

Israeli fire in new Gaza border protest kills four Palestinians

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli soldiers firing Friday from across a border fence killed four Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, and wounded more than 150 others, health officials said, as several thousand people in blockaded Gaza staged a fourth round of weekly protests on the border with Israel.

Huge black plumes of smoke from burning tires engulfed the border area. Some of the activists threw stones toward the fence or flew kites with flaming rags dangling from their tails.

The latest deaths brought to 32 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli troops in protests since late March. More than 1,600 have been wounded by live rounds in the past three weeks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The rising Palestinian casualty toll signaled that Israel’s military is sticking to its open-fire rules despite international criticism of the use of lethal force against unarmed protesters. Israel says it’s defending its border, and alleges Gaza’s ruling Hamas uses protests as cover for attacks.

DOJ looks into how AT&T, Verizon handle defecting customers

NEW YORK — The Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation into whether AT&T, Verizon and a standards-setting group worked together to stop consumers from easily switching wireless carriers.

The companies confirmed the inquiry in separate statements late Friday in response to a report in The New York Times.

The U.S. government is looking into whether AT&T, Verizon and telecommunications standards organization GSMA worked together to suppress a technology that lets people remotely switch wireless companies without having to insert a new SIM card into their phones.

The Times, citing six anonymous people familiar with the inquiry, reported that the investigation was opened after at least one device maker and one other wireless company filed complaints.

Verizon, which is based in New York, derided the accusations on the issue as “much ado about nothing” in its statement.

From wire sources

It framed its efforts as part of attempt to “provide a better experience for the consumer.”

CDC expands warning in E. coli outbreak from Arizona lettuce

PHOENIX — The U.S. Centers for Disease expanded its warning Friday surrounding a multistate E. coli outbreak tied to tainted romaine lettuce from Arizona, which has now sickened more than 50 people.

The agency said information from new cases of illness prompted them to caution against eating any forms of romaine lettuce that may have come from Yuma. Previously, CDC officials had only warned against chopped romaine by itself or as part of salads and salad mixes. But they are now extending the risk to heads or hearts of romaine lettuce.

People at an Alaska correctional facility recently reported feeling ill after eating from whole heads of romaine lettuce. The vegetable was traced to lettuce harvested in the Yuma region, according to the CDC.

So far, the outbreak has infected 53 people in 16 states. At least 31 have been hospitalized, including five with kidney failure. No deaths have been reported.

Symptoms of E. coli infection include diarrhea, severe stomach cramps and vomiting.

For Trump, Giuliani adds toughness, star power to legal team

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — For weeks, President Donald Trump had grown increasingly frustrated with the cable news chatter that he couldn’t hire a big-name attorney for his legal team.

But the president boasted to a confidant this week that he had struck a deal that he believed would silence those critics: He was hiring “America’s F—-ing Mayor.”

With the addition of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump gains a former U.S. attorney, a past presidential candidate and a TV-savvy defender at a time when the White House is looking for ways to bring the president’s involvement with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation to a close. Trump has been weighing whether to sit for questioning by Mueller’s team, and his lawyers have repeatedly met with investigators to define the scope of the questions he would face.

Giuliani will enter those negotiations, filling the void left by attorney John Dowd, who resigned last month.

The deal was finalized over dinner in the last week at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s coastal Florida retreat. On Monday, Giuliani was spotted at a West Palm Beach hotel, gleefully puffing on a cigar but declining to talk to the press.

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens charged over charity donor list

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis prosecutors on Friday charged Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens with a felony for using a charity donor list for his 2016 political campaign, adding to the woes of the first-term Republican governor who responded by calling it another effort to “smear” him.

The charge of tampering with computer data is in addition to an earlier charge alleging Greitens took and transmitted a nonconsensual photo of a partially nude woman with whom he had an extramarital affair in 2015. The new charge accuses Greitens of disclosing the donor list from The Mission Continues in 2015 without permission from the St. Louis-based charity that Greitens founded.

The Associated Press first reported in October 2016 that Greitens’ campaign obtained a list of top donors to The Mission Continues and raised nearly $2 million from donors who were on it.

Greitens has been facing increasing pressure to resign — including from fellow Republicans — since a special House investigative committee’s report released April 11 that detailed allegations from the woman with whom he had the affair. She testified that Greitens restrained, slapped, grabbed, shoved and threatened her during a series of sexual encounters that at times left her crying and afraid.

Greitens has denied committing any crimes and vowed to remain in office, calling the investigations into him a “political witch hunt.” On Friday, he accused Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, a Democrat, of wasting “thousands and thousands of taxpayer dollars.”

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FAA orders more engine inspections after Southwest accident

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday ordered ultrasound inspections of hundreds of jet engines like the one that blew apart at 32,000 feet in a deadly accident aboard a Southwest Airlines plane.

The agency said the directive affects 352 engines on new-generation Boeing 737s, a twin-engine jet that is a workhorse of the aviation industry, used by airlines around the world.

The National Transportation Safety Board believes one of the engine fan blades snapped on the Southwest jet Tuesday, hurling debris that broke a window and led to the death of a passenger who was sucked partway out of the 737.

NTSB investigators said the fan blade was showing signs of metal fatigue — cracks from repeated use that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. The FAA’s directive reflected concerns that more planes could have faulty blades.

At issue are engines made by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric Co. and France’s Safran SA. Under the FAA order, all CFM 56-7B engines that have gone through at least 30,000 flights during their lifetime must be inspected within 20 days.

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About 2,500 mourners pay respects to Barbara Bush at viewing

HOUSTON (AP) — His daughter standing behind him, former President George H.W. Bush sat at the front of the cavernous sanctuary of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church. He gazed up at the rose-draped casket holding his wife of 73 years.

After a few moments, an aide came forward to help Bush with his wheelchair, turning it so he faced the rest of the sanctuary. A string of mourners began to approach: adults and children, many of the women wearing his wife’s favorite color, blue, and trademark pearls. He offered his hand and smiled as people shook it.

By Friday evening, officials said around 2,500 people stopped by to pay their respects to Barbara Bush, wife of the nation’s 41st president and mother of the nation’s 43rd. Among them was Houston social worker Varney Johnson, who like other mourners said he wanted to honor her work supporting literacy. “This woman dedicated her life to educating children,” he said.

Barbara and George Bush were married longer than any other presidential couple when she died Tuesday at their home in Houston. One of just two first ladies to have a child elected president, Barbara Bush was widely admired for her plainspoken style and her advocacy for causes including literacy and AIDS awareness.

A hearse containing the former first lady’s casket arrived before daybreak at St. Martin’s, which is the nation’s largest Episcopal church. Her body was to be in repose from noon until midnight. A spray of dozens of roses covered the closed light-colored metallic casket.