AP News in Brief 06-04-18

At least 6 killed, 20 hurt by erupting volcano in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY — One of Central America’s most active volcanos erupted in fiery explosions of ash and molten rock Sunday, killing at least six people and injuring 20 while a towering cloud of smoke blanketed nearby villages in heavy ash.

National Disaster Coordinator Sergio Cabanas said an undetermined number of people were missing following the eruption of the Volcan de Fuego, Spanish for “volcano of fire,” which lies 27 miles from Guatemala City.

Cabanas said four people, including a disaster agency official, died when lava set a house on fire in El Rodeo village, and two children were burned to death as they watched the volcano’s second eruption this year from a bridge.

Guatemala’s disaster agency said 3,100 people had evacuated nearby communities, and the eruption was affecting an area with a population of about 1.7 million people. Shelters were opened for those forced to flee.

Ash was falling on the Guatemala City area as well as the departments of Sacatepequez, Chimaltenango and Escuintla, which are in south-central Guatemala around the volcano. Streets and houses were covered in the colonial town of Antigua, a popular tourist destination.

Giuliani: Trump would fight any effort to subpoena him

WASHINGTON — An attorney for President Donald Trump stressed Sunday that the president’s legal team would contest any effort to force the president to testify in front of a grand jury during the special counsel’s Russia probe but downplayed the idea that Trump could pardon himself.

Rudy Giuliani, in a series of television interviews, emphasized one of the main arguments in a newly unveiled letter sent by Trump’s lawyers to special counsel Robert Mueller back in January: that a president can’t be given a grand jury subpoena as part of the investigation into foreign meddling in the 2016 election.

But he distanced himself from one of their bolder arguments in the letter, which was first reported Saturday by The New York Times, that a president could not have committed obstruction of justice because he has authority to “if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon.”

“Pardoning himself would be unthinkable and probably lead to immediate impeachment,” Giuliani told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” ”And he has no need to do it, he’s done nothing wrong.”

The former New York City mayor, who was not on the legal team when the letter was written, added that Trump “probably does” have the power to pardon himself, an assertion challenged by legal scholars, but says the president’s legal team hasn’t discussed that option, which many observers believe could plunge the nation into a constitutional crisis.

Fallon to Parkland students: ‘Don’t let anything stop you’

SUNRISE, Fla. — Graduating seniors at the Florida high school where a gunman killed 17 people in February received diplomas Sunday and heard from surprise commencement speaker Jimmy Fallon, who urged them to move forward and “don’t let anything stop you.”

Four families received diplomas on behalf of loved ones slain in the attack that gave rise to a campaign by teens for gun control. Principal Ty Thompson underscored the honors for the dead students in a tweet.

“Remember those not with us, and celebrate all the successes the Class of 2018 has brought to the community and the world!” Thompson tweeted.

The “Tonight Show” host offered similar praise, saying, “You are not just the future — you are the present. Keep changing the world. Keep making us proud.”

In a video of his address, Fallon joked that the students “won’t be classmates any more. You’ll be adults who will Facebook search each other at 2 in the morning for the next 10 years.”

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5 years on, US government still counting Snowden leak costs

WASHINGTON — Whistleblower or traitor, leaker or public hero?

National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the lid off U.S. government surveillance methods five years ago, but intelligence chiefs complain that revelations from the trove of classified documents he disclosed are still trickling out.

That includes recent reporting on a mass surveillance program run by close U.S. ally Japan and on how the NSA targeted bitcoin users to gather intelligence to combat narcotics and money laundering. The Intercept, an investigative publication with access to Snowden documents, published stories on both subjects.

The top U.S. counterintelligence official said journalists have released only about 1 percent taken by the 34-year-old American, now living in exile in Russia, “so we don’t see this issue ending anytime soon.”

“This past year, we had more international, Snowden-related documents and breaches than ever,” Bill Evanina, who directs the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said at a recent conference. “Since 2013, when Snowden left, there have been thousands of articles around the world with really sensitive stuff that’s been leaked.”

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Many breast cancer patients can skip chemo, big study finds

CHICAGO — Most women with the most common form of early-stage breast cancer can safely skip chemotherapy without hurting their chances of beating the disease, doctors are reporting from a landmark study that used genetic testing to gauge each patient’s risk.

The study is the largest ever done of breast cancer treatment, and the results are expected to spare up to 70,000 patients a year in the United States and many more elsewhere the ordeal and expense of these drugs.

“The impact is tremendous,” said the study leader, Dr. Joseph Sparano of Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Most women in this situation don’t need treatment beyond surgery and hormone therapy, he said.

The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, some foundations and proceeds from the U.S. breast cancer postage stamp. Results were discussed Sunday at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago and published by the New England Journal of Medicine. Some study leaders consult for breast cancer drugmakers or for the company that makes the gene test.

MOVING AWAY FROM CHEMO

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Preliminary results put right-wing party ahead in Slovenia

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — A right-wing opposition party led by a former Slovenian prime minister won the most votes in Slovenia’s parliamentary election Sunday, but not enough to form a government on its own, according to preliminary results.

The State Election Commission said after counting some 90 percent of the ballots that Janez Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic Party received around 25 percent of the vote. The anti-establishment List of Marjan Sarec trailed in second place with over 12 percent.

The Social Democrats, the Modern Center Party of the outgoing prime minister, Miro Cerar, and the Left all received around 9 percent.

The preliminary tally means no party secured a majority in Slovenia’s 90-member parliament, and the likely next step is negotiations to form a coalition government.

Slovenia was once part of the former Yugoslavia and is the native home of U.S. first lady Melania Trump. Bordering Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy and a slice of the Adriatic Sea, the country joined the European Union in 2004 and has used the euro as its official currency since 2007.

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Officer wounds self during pursuit near San Diego marathon

SAN DIEGO — A San Diego police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg Sunday while pursuing a hit-and-run suspect who pointed a weapon at officers and was eventually arrested on the roof of a parking structure near the finish line of an annual marathon, authorities said.

Officers fired at the woman but missed after she brandished the weapon at the parking facility at the edge of a downtown plaza shared by City Hall, police Chief David Nisleit told reporters.

The suspect, who the police did not identify, threw the weapon from the top of the structure to the street below before being taken into custody, Nisleit said. It was unclear what type of weapon it was, but investigators were looking into whether it was a pellet gun that resembles the real thing, the chief said.

Detectives were also investigating whether the woman was connected to a kidnapping in nearby Chula Vista, Nisleit said. In that incident a man called police to report that he was bound and gagged at gunpoint but managed to escape, he said.

In announcing the woman’s arrest, police said the scene was secure and there was no threat to the area near the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, which brought thousands of people downtown along with a heavy police presence. Organizers said there were 27,000 registered runners in the marathon and half-marathon.

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China warns US trade deals are off if tariffs go ahead

BEIJING — China said Sunday it wouldn’t step up its purchases of American products if President Donald Trump goes ahead with his threat to tax billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese imports. White House advisers insisted on fundamental changes in ties between the world’s two biggest economic powers.

China’s warning came after delegations led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and China’s top economic official, Vice Premier Liu He, wrapped up a meeting on Beijing’s pledge to narrow its trade surplus. Ross said at the start of the event they had discussed specific American exports China might purchase, but the talks ended with no joint statement and neither side released details.

“Both sides appear to have hardened their negotiating stances and are waiting for the other side to blink,” said Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University. “Despite the potential negative repercussions for both economies, the risk of a full-blown China-U.S. trade war, with tariffs and other trade sanctions being imposed by both sides, has risen significantly.”

Asked specifically on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures” if the U.S. is willing to throw away its relationship with China by proceeding with threatened tariff hikes, Peter Navarro, director of the White House National Trade Council, pointed in part to an unfair relationship involving a multi-billion dollar trade deficit, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ warning of China’s activities in the South China Sea and the threat of China stealing U.S. intellectual property.

“That’s a relationship with China that structurally has to change,” he said. “We would love to have a peaceful, friendly relationship with China. But we’re also standing firm that the president is the leader on this.”

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Lawyer fights for Harvey Weinstein, in court and out

NEW YORK — A powerful public figure is accused of sexual assault in a Manhattan hotel room. There’s media frenzy. Enter go-to defense attorney Ben Brafman.

Brafman, 69, was on the winning end of that scenario in 2011 when he helped former International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn beat an attempted rape charge.

Seven years later, Brafman has an even bigger challenge: defending Harvey Weinstein against sex crime charges.

“I’m trying my best to save him in somewhat of an impossible situation he finds himself in,” Brafman told The Associated Press.

Saving unpopular clients in impossible situations is something of a specialty for Brafman, whose list of past clients includes professional athletes, celebrities and wealthy businessmen in trouble, some so vilified many lawyers would shy away from them.