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{ "text": [ "ATLANTA (AP) — Former Attorney General Eric Holder will participate in a panel discussion on race.\nHolder, the first black U.S. attorney general, served under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2015. The panel discussion will be held at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta.\nThe panel includes authors Michael Eric Dyson and Elizabeth Hinton, Black Lives Matters co-founder DeRay McKesson and Pulitzer Prize winner Douglas Blackmon.\nThe event co-sponsored by The Miller Center at the University of Virginia and is part of that institution's First Year Project, which is described as a three-year initiative to develop bipartisan insight and recommendations for the first year of the new administration." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics has reported a surge in quarterly earnings thanks to its record-breaking chip business.\nThe South Korean company said Wednesday that its October-December earnings jumped 74 percent to 12 trillion won ($11.2 billion), compared with 6.9 trillion won a year earlier.\nSales and operating profit also rose in line with Samsung's earlier guidance.\nSamsung's flagship semiconductor business continued making record-high profits. The division, which supplies chips that help data centers, servers, mobile devices and computers save data and run multiple programs rapidly, generated 10.9 trillion won in operating income during the quarter on sales of 21.11 trillion won, an unusually lucrative record for a manufacturing company.\nProfits have not suffered from the vice chairman's bribery conviction. Company heir Lee Jae-yong is waiting for an appeal ruling next week." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joel Embiid had 25 points and 19 rebounds and Ben Simmons had a triple-double to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a 108-94 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night.\nSimmons had 11 points, 12 rebounds and 15 assists to help the Sixers keep alive their shot at finishing fourth in the Eastern Conference and earning home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.\nThe 76ers have one of the easiest schedules of any team the rest of the season. The Sixers would have to pass Washington and Indiana to grab the No. 4 seed and stave off a potential Toronto or Boston matchup for at least a round.\n\"Our goal is to make the playoffs,\" coach Brett Brown said. \"Now, seemingly, we are pretty close to doing that. Now we all get greedy and say, 'Let's get a home court.' And I'm the captain of that new club. And it can only happen if we guard. And that's the message to our team.\"\nHow's this for D?\nThe Hornets missed 17 of 21 shots in the third (1 of 5 on 3s) to crush their chances of stretching a seven-point halftime lead.\n\"Nothing matters unless we play defense,\" Brown said. \"It's how we set the tone in this program since the day I arrived.\"\nThe 76ers have had countless dark days since Brown arrived in 2013.\nThe 19-, 18- and 10-win seasons that give birth to The Process have paid off this year, and the Sixers are set to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2012.\nThey are the favorites in the majority of their games and have become the team that now has to worry about playing down to the level of their competition.\nPhiladelphia could never really shake Charlotte until late.\nEmbiid hit two straight 3s and JJ Redick hit one to give the Sixers a 58-56 lead in the third. Marco Belinelli hit consecutive 3s late in the third to make it 72-64. He hit one more 3 for a 10-point lead to help the Sixers beat their third straight sub.-500 team (New York, Brooklyn).\nEmbiid hit one more 3 at the top of the arc to close the quarter.\nDario Saric hit a 3 in the fourth for an 88-83 lead and Robert Covington, who scored 18 points, sealed it with Philadelphia's 16th 3 of the game for a 12-point edge late in the fourth.\nKemba Walker led the Hornets, coming off a 124-101 loss to the Knicks, with 24 points. Wily Hernangomez scored 17 points off the bench in just 12 minutes in the first half to help the Hornets lead 56-49 at the break.\nTIP-INS\nHornets: The Hornets made all 14 free throws in the first half. ... Hernangomez scored 15 points in the second quarter. ... Jeremy Lamb started start in place of injured guard Nicolas Batum (Achilles).\n76ers: The 76ers went just 3 for 4 from the free-throw line in the first half. ... The loudest ovation of the night came when Hernangomez missed two straight free throws in the third to win every fan a free fast-food treat. ... Allen Iverson was in the house.\nUP NEXT\nHornets: Play Wednesday at Brooklyn.\n76ers: Host Memphis on Wednesday.\n___\nMore NBA basketball: https://apnews.com/tags/NBAbasketball" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Justice Department won't retry Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and co-defendant after judge acquitted them on some counts." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Sports doctor Larry Nassar's return to court to face another prison sentence for molesting gymnasts could unfold much the same as a hearing last week in another Michigan county.\nJudge Janice Cunningham has set aside several days for roughly 60 people who want to confront Nassar or have their statement read in court. This time Nassar is to be confronted by gymnasts from an elite Michigan club run by an Olympic coach.\nLast week Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison.\nThe hearing starting Wednesday in Eaton County centers on his assaults at Twistars, a Lansing-area gymnastics club that was run by 2012 Olympic coach John Geddert. Nassar admits penetrating three girls with his hands when he was supposed to be treating them for injuries." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "BERLIN (AP) — An activist group on Tuesday published a database of information on suspected chemical attacks in Syria , adding to a growing collection of videos and images documenting alleged war crimes during the seven-year conflict.\nThe Syrian Archive, which works with human rights groups such as Amnesty International, said it has verified 861 videos covering some 212 attacks — most of them believed to have been carried out by government forces.\nThe material comes from 193 sources and much of it was uploaded to social media by ordinary Syrians, the group's co-founder, Hadi al-Khatib, told an audience in Berlin.\nAl-Khatib, who has lived in Germany since 2014, said the group wants to preserve sensitive material from disappearing , so that it might eventually be used to bring those responsible for war crimes to trial. But the team, which is spread across Europe and the Middle East, also wants to \"add value\" to the raw material, such as by determining the location where a video was taken and, most importantly, verifying that it shows what is claimed.\nThe Syrian Archive cooperates with the open source journalism site Bellingcat that has made a name for itself forensically examining footage from war zones.\nWhile most of the chemical attacks documented by the group are alleged to have been carried out by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, including most recently in the town of Douma near Damascus, a handful have been attributed to rebel forces and the Islamic State extremist group, said Abdulrahman al-Jaloud, one of the Syrian Archive's researchers.\nAl-Khatib said he and fellow activists try not to get disheartened by the fact that efforts to bring those responsible for war crimes in Syria to trial have so far been unsuccessful.\n\"That doesn't mean we should stop,\" he said. \"We are looking forward to the day when we can use this material, because the reconstruction of Syria must include acknowledging, investigating and prosecuting crimes.\"" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is encouraging other U.N. Security Council countries to set aside the nuclear deal loathed by President Donald Trump and focus on cracking down on Iran's missile and other non-nuclear transgressions, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Monday.\nHaley, who brought fellow Security Council ambassadors on a field trip to Washington, suggested that a concerted global effort to punish Iran for violating Security Council resolutions on ballistic missiles could persuade Trump it was worthwhile to remain in the nuclear deal. She noted that France, a key member of the group that negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal, had recently \"started hitting\" Iran rhetorically for violating ballistic missile resolutions.\n\"It's working,\" Haley said after meeting with Trump and the other ambassadors. \"They're starting to realize, 'If we don't start talking about the violations, if we don't call them out, then the U.S. is going to say this whole thing is a sham.'\"\nAn outspoken critic of Iran, Haley brought the other Security Council envoys to a U.S. military base in Washington to view missile parts that the U.S. calls evidence of Iran's illicit transfer of prohibited missiles to Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Trump administration maintains that fragments from those missiles, recovered in Saudi Arabia after being launched from Yemen by the Houthis, contain markings proving they were Iranian-made, though some security experts have questioned whether the evidence is foolproof.\nHaley's bid to persuade key nations about Iranian misbehavior comes as world leaders fret about the future of the Iran deal, which Trump has threatened to scuttle unless it can be improved to his liking. With dim prospects for re-opening the deal, Trump's administration has instead been looking to add requirements to the U.S. law governing implementation of the deal so that sanctions, waived as part of the deal, could be put back in place if Iran continues with non-nuclear activity that the U.S. deems unacceptable.\nThe Trump administration has also been trying to persuade the European nations that negotiated the deal with the Obama administration to accept side deals under which they would join the U.S. in re-imposing sanctions if Iran continues ballistic missile testing or refuses U.N. inspections of sensitive sites. Trump's threats to rip up the painstakingly negotiated deal have become a key point of tension between the U.S. and European nations.\nChina and Russia, two Security Council nations that are part of the nuclear deal, have been particularly reluctant to impose additional conditions on Iran, and have cast doubt on U.S. allegations that Tehran is funneling weapons to the Houthis to be used against U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia. Haley said that skepticism came across as their ambassadors viewed the missile parts on display in Washington.\n\"The Chinese just took notes,\" Haley said. \"The Russians questioned the missiles, how they got to Yemen.\"\nHaley's message to the Russians: \"How do you dispute this? It's got 'Made in Iran' welded on it,\" she said, referring figuratively to markings on the missiles that U.S. defense officials say suggest Iranian origin.\nDuring the daylong visit, Haley took ambassadors to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum with national security adviser H.R. McMaster and to lunch at the White House with Trump, where discussions focused on international hotspots such as Syria, North Korea and terrorism.\nEach ambassador had the chance to take a photo with the president — including Russia's envoy to the U.N., who took the president up on the opportunity, Haley said.\nShe said several ambassadors later conveyed to her a similar impression of the president: \"He wasn't anything like what we see on TV.\"\n____\nReach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Norwegian aluminum maker operating in Brazil is apologizing for polluting a river and promising to make changes so that it doesn't happen again.\nIn a statement Monday, the CEO of Norsk Hydro, Svein Richard Brandtzaeg, called the discharge of rain and surface water into the Para River \"unacceptable.\" Brandtzaeg went on to apologize and say an ongoing environmental review of its practices would be expanded.\nThe company's plant is located in the city of Barcarena in the northern state of Para. Last month, residents alerted environmental authorities to a reddish hue in puddles and flooded areas near the river after some heavy rains.\nAuthorities said they found areas of irregular discharge. The company initially said it had not released untreated water into the environment, then said it would investigate." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "President Donald Trump's new immigration plan is stirring up controversy with its proposals on legal immigration. Much of the public debate to this point has been about young immigrants brought to this country as children illegally.\nBut the plan's potential impact on legal immigration has sparked fierce Democratic opposition and appears it may sink chances for a bipartisan deal in Congress.\nThe proposal outlined Thursday by the White House would end much family-based immigration and the visa lottery program, moves that some experts estimate could cut legal immigration into the United States nearly in half.\nThe plan would also protect some 700,000 young immigrants from deportation and provide a pathway to citizenship, a top Democratic goal." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "NEW YORK (AP) — On college campuses and in workplaces, gender-neutral pronouns are more than just a new wave of political correctness. They're the focus of debate that stretches back hundreds of years.\nUniversity of Illinois language historian Dennis Baron says early pronoun scrappers were usually more concerned with grammatical correctness over a keen commitment to inclusivity in avoiding the generic \"he\" and singular \"they\" as a replacement.\nIn 1884, the invented pronoun \"thon\" was publicized by the coiner, C.C. Converse, as an expedient pronoun for all genders.\nThis time around, \"they\" and \"them\" seem to be winning the race of acceptance as gender neutrals. Baron says time will tell whether they're afforded broad acceptance." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "TOP STORY:\nSOC--ENGLISH ROUNDUP\nMANCHESTER, England — Manchester United and Chelsea couldn?t afford any slip-ups if they were to have even the slightest chance of catching Manchester City in the final months of the Premier League. By Steve Douglas. SENT: 707 words, photos.\nNEW/DEVELOPING:\nSOC--EUROPE-TRANSFERS\nThe Premier League had already spent a record amount in the January transfer window before the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea added to their squads on the final day. By Rob Harris. UPCOMING: 700 words by 0100 GMT, photos.\nCAR--F1-WOMEN ON GRID\nPARIS — There will be no more \"grid girls\" before Formula One races and no more \"podium girls\" celebrating with the drivers after them. By Jerome Pugmire. SENT: 387 words, photos.\nGYM--DOCTOR-SEXUAL ASSAULT\nCHARLOTTE, Michigan — Another wave of victims confronted Larry Nassar on Wednesday, this time about sexual abuse at an elite Michigan gymnastics club where young athletes felt they had to use the disgraced doctor's services and could not question the adults who ran the facility. By David Eggert. SENT: 868 words, photos, video.\nOLY--RUSSIAN DOPING-PUTIN\nMOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has told the country's athletes to forget about doping scandals when they compete at the Pyeongchang Olympics. SENT: 387 words, photos.\nFOOTBALL:\nSOC--SPANISH ROUNDUP\nMADRID — Leganes boosted its chances of reaching the Copa del Rey final for the first time by salvaging a 1-1 draw against Sevilla on Wednesday, netting the equalizer after a mistake by Sevilla goalkeeper Sergio Rico. By Tales Azzoni. SENT: 164 words, photos.\nSOC--ITALIAN ROUNDUP\nMILAN — AC Milan drew 0-0 at home to Lazio in the first leg of their Italian Cup semifinal on Wednesday and could be left counting the cost of an embarrassing miss by Hakan Calhanoglu. SENT: 322 words, photos.\nSOC--FRENCH ROUNDUP\nPARIS — First-half goals from Radamel Falcao sent Monaco back into the League Cup final after a 2-0 home win against Montpellier on Wednesday. SENT: 297 words, photos.\nSOC--GERMANY TRANSFERS\nBERLIN — Borussia Dortmund dominated the end of the transfer window in Germany with a flurry of activity that saw star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leave and Michy Batshuayi take his place on Wednesday. By Ciaran Fahey. SENT: 698 words, photos.\nSOC--ITALY-TRANSFERS\nMILAN — Roma was the only one of the top-five Serie A clubs to make a major signing as the Italian transfer window closed on Wednesday, with the capital club bringing in Argentina left back Jonathan Silva on loan from Sporting Lisbon. By Daniella Matar. SENT: 346 words, photos.\nSOC--SPAIN-TRANSFERS\nMADRID — Real Sociedad signed veteran Mexico defender Hector Moreno on a day without major transfers involving Spain's top clubs. By Tales Azzoni. SENT: 382 words, photos.\nWINTER OLYMPICS:\nOLY--LUG-GERMAN GREATNESS\nThere has never been a women's luge athlete who has won more World Cup medals than Natalie Geisenberger. Same goes for world championship medals, same goes for Olympic medals. Her resume is beyond compare. So she's the best ever to slide, right? \"No,\" she says, adamantly. \"I'm not the best.\" SENT: 801 words, photos.\nTENNIS:\nTEN--FED CUP-FRANCE\nPARIS — Kristina Mladenovic, Pauline Parmentier and Amandine Hesse were named in France's Fed Cup team on Wednesday for the first-round match against Belgium. SENT: 267 words.\nTEN--ST PETERSBURG LADIES TROPHY\nST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Petra Kvitova advanced to the second round of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy on Wednesday, and Caroline Garcia was eliminated. SENT: 82 words.\nGOLF:\nGLF--PHOENIX OPEN\nSCOTTSDALE, Arizona — Phil Mickelson and Jon Rahm will get the party started early Thursday in the Waste Management Phoenix Open. By John Nicholson. SENT: 752 words.\nOther Stories:\n— HKO--Kladno-Jagr. Jaromir Jagr signs contract with his Czech hometown club. SENT: 206 words.\nYOUR QUERIES: Questions and story requests are welcome. Contact your local AP bureau or the AP International Sports Desk in London by telephone at +44 207 427 4224 or email lonsports@ap.org." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "Global Forecast - Asia as of 13:30 GMT Tuesday, April 24, 2018\nMinimum and maximum temperatures in Celsius, precipitation in centimeters and weather conditions as recorded for the previous day (Apr 23 except Asia and Australia where data is for Apr 24) and forecast for the current and following day in each city as of 1330 GMT:\n_____\nCITY;MIN;MAX;COND;PRECIP;MIN;MAX;COND;MIN;MAX;COND\nAbidjan;26;32;pc;0.99;26;32;rn;26;32;rn\nAbu Dhabi;25;39;clr;0;25;33;clr;26;35;pc\nAleppo;15;28;clr;0;16;29;clr;17;29;pc\nAlgiers;16;23;pc;0;14;20;rn;13;16;rn\nAmsterdam;9;15;rn;0;8;14;rn;7;13;rn\nAnchorage;3;9;rn;1.6;3;9;pc;2;8;pc\nAshgabat;13;22;rn;2.46;15;23;clr;15;27;clr\nAstana;6;15;rn;4.09;1;10;pc;1;9;sn\nAsuncion;22;35;pc;0;22;34;clr;21;34;c\nAthens;14;27;pc;0;13;28;pc;13;27;pc\nAuckland;13;17;c;0;11;19;pc;14;19;pc\nBaghdad;15;29;clr;0;19;30;pc;19;32;c\nBahrain;25;29;clr;3;25;30;pc;26;32;pc\nBanda Aceh;24;33;rn;3.66;24;34;rn;23;29;rn\nBangalore;22;33;pc;0.99;22;35;clr;23;34;clr\nBangkok;28;36;clr;0;28;36;pc;28;36;rn\nBarcelona;15;23;clr;0;15;21;pc;14;21;rn\nBeijing;10;23;pc;0;11;25;clr;13;26;pc\nBelgrade;13;26;rn;0;14;28;rn;13;29;pc\nBerlin;11;16;c;4.88;7;17;rn;6;14;rn\nBogota;10;20;rn;2.29;10;19;c;10;17;c\nBrasilia;15;27;pc;11.68;14;25;pc;16;27;rn\nBratislava;12;24;pc;9.93;15;27;pc;8;17;rn\nBrisbane;17;26;rn;3.05;17;27;clr;17;29;clr\nBrussels;11;15;rn;1.75;6;14;rn;5;13;rn\nBucharest;13;29;pc;0;14;28;pc;14;30;pc\nBudapest;13;26;rn;6.45;15;27;pc;11;22;rn\nBuenos Aires;20;23;rn;0;20;25;rn;23;26;rn\nBujumbura;18;30;c;10.29;18;30;rn;18;29;rn\nBusan;10;17;rn;58.72;9;20;clr;12;20;c\nCairo;16;27;clr;0;18;26;pc;18;30;clr\nCape Town;11;20;pc;9.45;13;20;rn;12;18;rn\nCaracas;20;29;pc;2.31;19;29;pc;21;29;pc\nChennai;28;37;clr;0;28;37;clr;28;37;clr\nChicago;5;13;c;0.25;2;10;pc;6;16;pc\nColombo;26;33;pc;0.25;25;32;rn;25;32;rn\nCopenhagen;6;12;rn;6.76;6;12;rn;6;11;rn\nDakar;18;24;clr;0;19;24;clr;19;24;clr\nDallas;16;28;clr;0;11;22;rn;13;24;pc\nDar es Salaam;23;32;pc;0.99;23;31;pc;24;31;clr\nDenver;-1;6;c;3.23;4;18;clr;0;13;c\nDhahran;23;30;pc;5.03;23;31;pc;23;33;clr\nDhaka;26;33;rn;0;22;37;rn;25;35;rn\nDili;23;36;clr;0;23;33;pc;22;33;pc\nDubai;27;38;clr;0;28;34;clr;27;35;pc\nDublin;5;12;rn;1.22;5;12;rn;4;12;rn\nDushanbe;13;28;c;0;11;21;c;12;24;clr\nGibraltar;15;20;rn;4.39;15;20;rn;15;21;pc\nHanoi;24;29;rn;0;23;25;rn;23;27;rn\nHarare;10;26;clr;0;9;25;clr;10;25;clr\nHavana;21;30;pc;0.99;20;28;rn;21;28;rn\nHelsinki;3;10;rn;0;2;9;rn;1;11;rn\nHo Chi Minh City;27;35;pc;1.45;27;35;rn;27;34;pc\nHong Kong;21;27;rn;0;22;26;c;23;26;pc\nHonolulu;23;28;rn;0;23;27;rn;22;28;pc\nHyderabad;25;40;clr;0;25;38;pc;25;38;pc\nIslamabad;20;35;clr;0;21;36;clr;21;36;clr\nIstanbul;15;25;clr;0;15;26;pc;14;26;clr\nJakarta;24;31;pc;6.45;25;31;c;25;30;rn\nJeddah;25;34;clr;0;26;35;clr;23;32;clr\nJerusalem;14;24;clr;0;12;18;rn;13;18;c\nJohannesburg;11;26;clr;0;10;26;clr;11;25;clr\nKabul;11;27;pc;0;9;25;clr;10;26;clr\nKarachi;26;37;clr;0;26;35;clr;27;35;clr\nKathmandu;15;28;pc;0;15;28;pc;14;26;rn\nKhartoum;24;41;clr;0;24;42;clr;22;40;clr\nKiev;9;20;c;0;14;22;rn;11;22;pc\nKingston;25;31;pc;0.25;26;30;pc;25;31;pc\nKinshasa;22;32;rn;5.97;23;31;rn;22;31;rn\nKolkata;26;37;rn;0;26;37;rn;25;36;rn\nKuala Lumpur;24;31;c;21.82;24;33;c;24;33;rn\nKuwait;22;32;clr;1.98;22;32;pc;22;33;pc\nLa Paz;1;13;pc;0;1;13;rn;1;15;pc\nLagos;26;33;pc;0.99;26;32;rn;26;32;rn\nLima;19;23;pc;0;19;23;pc;19;23;pc\nLisbon;14;26;pc;3.81;13;22;pc;12;24;clr\nLondon;8;17;rn;0;6;14;rn;7;13;pc\nLos Angeles;12;24;pc;0;12;23;pc;12;22;pc\nLuanda;26;32;c;0.99;26;32;pc;26;31;rn\nMadrid;14;26;pc;1.17;14;27;pc;14;25;clr\nMale;28;31;pc;2.77;28;32;rn;27;32;rn\nManaus;22;29;pc;4.29;23;29;pc;24;30;rn\nManila;26;34;rn;0;26;35;rn;26;35;rn\nMecca;27;39;rn;1.98;27;40;rn;24;37;rn\nMelbourne;13;25;rn;0;12;20;pc;10;17;pc\nMexico City;13;25;pc;7.62;13;25;pc;13;26;pc\nMiami;21;30;pc;4.75;19;30;pc;20;29;clr\nMinsk;6;17;rn;0;7;13;rn;2;14;rn\nMogadishu;26;31;rn;5.23;26;31;rn;26;30;pc\nMontevideo;18;22;pc;0.25;18;24;rn;20;25;c\nMontreal;8;19;pc;0;8;12;rn;6;13;rn\nMoscow;6;13;pc;0;7;14;rn;6;14;rn\nMumbai;27;36;clr;0;26;35;pc;27;34;pc\nNairobi;16;22;rn;2.77;17;23;rn;16;24;c\nNew Delhi;24;40;clr;0;26;42;pc;27;42;pc\nNew York;11;17;pc;0;10;14;rn;9;18;pc\nNicosia;17;28;clr;0;19;30;c;19;30;pc\nNovosibirsk;8;13;c;6.5;5;15;rn;2;10;c\nOsaka-shi;15;20;rn;0.46;10;18;c;11;21;pc\nOslo;1;11;c;12.45;0;13;pc;2;13;pc\nOttawa;7;19;pc;0;5;12;rn;5;13;rn\nPago Pago;25;29;rn;1.85;25;29;pc;25;29;pc\nPanama City;25;32;pc;9.14;25;31;pc;25;31;pc\nParamaribo;23;29;rn;0;24;30;rn;23;30;rn\nParis;11;22;pc;0;7;17;pc;7;16;c\nPerth;13;23;clr;0.76;15;24;clr;16;26;pc\nPhnom Penh;27;36;rn;0.99;26;35;rn;26;34;rn\nPort Moresby;24;31;pc;0.99;25;32;rn;24;32;rn\nPort-au-prince;23;32;pc;0.99;23;33;pc;22;33;pc\nPrague;12;22;pc;12.19;11;23;pc;6;18;pc\nPyongyang;5;22;pc;11.51;5;21;clr;5;22;pc\nQuito;10;20;rn;8.71;11;19;rn;12;20;rn\nRabat;13;19;rn;2.03;14;20;rn;13;21;pc\nRecife;23;29;pc;7.52;24;27;rn;23;28;rn\nReykjavik;4;8;rn;0.51;3;7;c;1;6;rn\nRiga;7;14;c;3.25;5;14;pc;4;14;rn\nRio de Janeiro;22;28;clr;0;22;28;clr;22;29;clr\nRiyadh;21;32;pc;1.98;22;31;c;20;33;pc\nRome;12;25;pc;0;11;26;pc;13;26;pc\nSaint Petersburg;4;10;rn;0;4;10;rn;2;10;pc\nSan Francisco;10;18;pc;0;10;17;pc;11;16;pc\nSan Jose;19;28;pc;1.19;17;27;pc;18;29;pc\nSan Juan;23;28;pc;11.53;24;29;pc;24;29;pc\nSan Salvador;20;25;pc;0;20;25;pc;20;24;pc\nSana'a;12;23;pc;0.76;14;23;pc;13;23;pc\nSantiago;8;23;clr;0;8;26;clr;6;23;clr\nSanto Domingo;22;29;pc;1.42;22;29;pc;22;30;pc\nSao Paulo;12;27;pc;1.27;12;24;pc;9;25;clr\nSeattle;10;23;pc;0;11;23;clr;11;26;clr\nSeoul;6;19;pc;31.04;9;22;clr;9;22;pc\nShanghai;11;16;rn;11.4;13;20;pc;15;22;pc\nSingapore;28;33;c;7.01;27;34;rn;27;33;rn\nSofia;11;27;pc;0;11;26;rn;11;26;rn\nSt. John's;23;29;pc;1.12;23;29;pc;23;30;pc\nStockholm;6;13;rn;5.28;4;14;pc;5;11;rn\nSydney;16;24;clr;0;18;25;pc;17;25;pc\nTaipei City;19;23;rn;0;18;25;pc;20;28;clr\nTallinn;5;11;pc;0;3;8;rn;2;10;rn\nTashkent;13;30;rn;0;11;21;pc;11;24;clr\nTbilisi;8;21;clr;0;8;18;pc;11;23;clr\nTehran;13;21;clr;17.75;15;23;clr;16;25;pc\nTel Aviv;18;26;clr;0;16;21;rn;18;23;c\nTirana;11;25;clr;0;13;28;pc;13;29;clr\nTokyo;18;19;c;1.22;15;23;rn;16;24;c\nToronto;5;11;rn;0;4;9;rn;3;12;rn\nTripoli;17;27;pc;0;19;29;pc;20;31;clr\nTunis;18;30;clr;0;17;29;pc;16;26;pc\nUlan Bator;2;20;clr;0;0;18;clr;6;21;pc\nVancouver;10;20;pc;0;13;22;clr;13;24;clr\nVienna;11;24;pc;5.33;14;27;pc;7;18;rn\nVientiane;25;38;clr;0;25;35;pc;25;33;rn\nVilnius;7;15;c;5.08;4;11;rn;3;13;rn\nWarsaw;10;20;pc;1.02;9;23;rn;6;16;rn\nWellington;11;16;clr;0;13;18;pc;14;18;clr\nYangon;25;39;clr;0;26;38;clr;25;38;rn\nYerevan;6;19;clr;0;8;21;clr;10;23;clr\nLegend: clr...clear;pc...partly cloudy;c...cloudy;rn...rain;sn...snow\n_____\nCopyright 2018 AccuWeather\n_____\nKeywords: Forecast, Global, Asia" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "ENGLEWOOD, Colorado (AP) — Terrell Davis' first visit to Denver Broncos headquarters since being elected to the Hall of Fame brought back memories of his first training camp when he couldn't see much of a future in football and came close to quitting.\nThe Broncos were in Japan practicing for a preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers in the summer of 1995.\n\"Let's just say, if I spoke better Japanese I wouldn't be here,\" Davis said Wednesday. \"I'm telling you, I was this close to walking out of there because I looked at everything around me and I just had no shot of making the team. I was a sixth-round draft pick, I was seventh on the depth chart, I wasn't getting any reps in practice, I had my coach constantly on me and it just didn't feel like there was any way of me making the team.\"\nDavis didn't figure he had much of a present in football, much less a future.\n\"And yeah, I had a moment, I had a weak moment where I thought after practice I'm out of here. I'm not going to wait until we get back to Denver to get cut. I'm going to walk out of here,\" Davis said.\n\"Thank God I didn't. And then I made the big hit.\"\nIn the preseason game against the 49ers, Davis delivered a crushing hit on kick returner Tyrone Drakeford that got the attention of the coaching staff and prompted fellow future Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe to marvel, \"Who was that?\"\nThat was the man who would go down in league history as the only running back to own back-to-back Super Bowl titles, an MVP trophy, a Super Bowl MVP honor, a 2,000-yard season and seven consecutive playoff wins in which he topped 100 yards rushing.\nDavis, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer, said he uses that rags-to-riches anecdote all the time.\n\"Because it goes to show you that my thing is if you quit, the result is always failure,\" said Davis, now an analyst for the NFL Network. \"But if you don't quit, you never know what the outcome could be. So, quitting on yourself should never be an option, which I almost did.\n\"And for anybody that's out there struggling ... I try to tell them even if your situation seems dire, don't give up. Just keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting. You never know. The only thing you can control is the effort. You can't control the outcome or the results, but just keep going at it and you never know how that plays out.\"\nSticking it out landed Davis with football immortality.\n\"I think what's great about it is the story behind it, it's not (one of) a typical, first-round selection, big school, all-time leading rusher. I was totally sort of opposite of all those things and yet I was still able to make it to the Hall of Fame,\" Davis said. \"So, what does that tell a kid right now who is struggling and is not maybe first team or not at the school that he wants to be at, or whatever the situation may be?\"\n___\nFor more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL\n___\nFollow Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "Oh, the injustice of it all.\nWho among us hasn't felt abused as a consumer? We get billed for stuff we didn't receive, or that doesn't work, or that didn't live up to its hype. Companies charge us unexpected fees and insist the costs were revealed in the fine print. Health insurers take customer disservice to a whole new, awful level, inexplicably refusing to pay for services they promised to cover and deluging us with impossible-to-decrypt paperwork.\nIt's understandable if you feel that enough is enough. But taking a righteous stand against paying an unfair bill can boomerang on you — hard.\nHere are some situations where you might be tempted to refuse to pay, and what you might want to consider doing instead.\nBILLING DISPUTES\nSeveral years ago a friend refused to pay a bill for internet service that didn't work. The collection account that later appeared on his credit reports nearly cost him a job offer. (He paid off the collection and wound up taking a job with a different employer.)\nThe balance of power is tilted heavily in favor of companies and collection agencies that can report an unpaid bill to the credit bureaus. You can include a 100-word dispute in your credit files, but good luck getting anyone to read it. The credit scores most lenders and insurers use don't factor in those statements. Employers, who typically use credit reports rather than scores to evaluate applicants, may see your statement, but it may not affect hiring, firing or promotion decisions.\n—What to do instead: Settle disputes before a bill goes to collections. Consider asking a government regulator for help (search for \"Who regulates (company name)?\" to find the agency) or turning to a lawmaker whose staff can help with constituent disputes. As a last resort, consider paying the bill, then suing the company in small claims court.\nIf you used a credit card to pay the bill, you're in luck. Credit card users have a powerful, built-in weapon to deal with shoddy services or goods — the chargeback . A chargeback, which reverses a payment to a merchant, prevents damage to your credit report for nonpayment while a dispute is resolved.\nMEDICAL BILLS\nFor about 43 million people, or 1 out of 5 credit reports, there's overdue medical debt, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. For 15 million people, medical bills are the only overdue debt on their credit reports.\nClearly, many of us are having trouble paying our medical bills — or thinking they have been paid when they haven't, since many ricochet between health care providers and insurers, sometimes for months.\nThe latest versions of the FICO and VantageScore credit scoring models treat medical debt less harshly than other collections, but most lenders use older versions of the scores. The toll can be significant: A single collection account can drop a 680 FICO score by 40 points and a 780 score by 100 points. (The most widely used credit scoring formulas, such as the FICO 8, use a 300-to-850 range.)\n—What to do instead: If you have health insurance, follow up on every medical bill you receive to make sure it gets paid. If you don't have insurance or can't pay your bill, ask health care providers if they have charity programs or payment plans that could make the costs more manageable.\nFEDERAL STUDENT LOANS\nOnly half of recent graduates strongly agreed that college was worth the cost, a 2015 Gallup-Purdue Index poll found. That may explain why about 1 in 10 borrowers who were scheduled to start paying their federal student loans in 2013-14 have defaulted instead, according to the U.S. Department of Education.\nRefusing to pay your loans is shortsighted. The default hurts your credit scores, which will make other borrowing difficult and can increase the cost of items like car insurance and cell phone plans. But that's just the start. Government collectors can seize your tax refund, take a portion of your wages without going to court and literally pursue you to the grave. The U.S. Supreme Court decided a portion of Social Security benefits, which are typically off-limits to creditors, could be seized to repay delinquent federal student loans.\n—What to do instead: The education department offers several affordable repayment options , including an income-based plan that can reduce required payments to zero. Struggling borrowers can find plenty of information at the education department's Federal Student Aid site . For private student loans, consider calling the loan servicer directly to ask about options such as interest-only payments.\n_______\nThis column was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet .\nLiz Weston is a columnist at NerdWallet, a certified financial planner and author of \"Your Credit Score.\" Email: lweston@nerdwallet.com . Twitter: @lizweston.\nRELATED LINK:\nNerdWallet: How to choose a student loan repayment plan https://nerd.me/student-loan-repayment\nFederal Student Aid: Guide to repaying federal student loans https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans\nForbes: When you should and shouldn't dispute a credit card purchase https://www.forbes.com/sites/clairetsosie/2017/03/16/when-you-should-and-shouldnt-dispute-a-credit-card-purchase/#4674067d2e39" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli leaders angrily criticized pending legislation in Poland that would outlaw blaming Poles for the crimes of the Holocaust, with some accusing the Polish government of outright denial Saturday as the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day.\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the proposed law \"baseless\" and ordered his country's ambassador to Poland to meet with Polish leaders to express his strong opposition.\n\"One cannot change history, and the Holocaust cannot be denied,\" he said.\nThe lower house of the Polish parliament on Friday passed the bill, which prescribes prison time for using phrases such as \"Polish death camps\" to refer to the killing sites Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland during World War II.\nMany Poles fear such phrasing makes some people incorrectly conclude that Poles had a role in running the camps. But critics say the legislation could have a chilling effect on debating history, harming freedom of expression and opening a window to Holocaust denial.\nThe bill still needs approval from Poland's Senate and president. However, it marks a dramatic step by the country's current nationalist government to target anyone who tries to undermine its official stance that Poles only were heroes during the war, not Nazi collaborators who committed heinous crimes.\nNetanyahu's government generally has had good relations with Poland, which has been recently voting with Israel in international organizations.\nAt Auschwitz on Saturday evening, Israel's ambassador to Poland, Anna Azari, abandoned a prepared speech to criticize the bill, saying that \"everyone in Israel was revolted at this news.\"\nIn Israel, which was established three years after the Holocaust and is home to the world's largest community of survivors, the legislation provoked outrage.\nIsraeli President Reuven Rivlin, noting that exactly 73 years had passed since the Auschwitz death camp on Polish soil was liberated, cited the words of a former Polish president about how history could not be faked and the truth could not be hidden.\n\"The Jewish people, the State of Israel, and the entire world must ensure that the Holocaust is recognized for its horrors and atrocities,\" Rivlin said. \"Also among the Polish people, there were those who aided the Nazis in their crimes. Every crime, every offense, must be condemned. They must be examined and revealed.\"\nToday's Poles have been raised on stories of their people's wartime suffering and heroism. Many react viscerally when confronted with the growing body of scholarship about Polish involvement in the killing of Jews.\nIn a sign of the sensitivities on both sides, Yair Lapid, head of Israel's centrist Yesh Atid party and the son of a survivor, got into a heated Twitter spat Saturday with the Polish Embassy in Israel.\n\"I utterly condemn the new Polish law which tries to deny Polish complicity in the Holocaust. It was conceived in Germany but hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered without ever meeting a German soldier. There were Polish death camps and no law can ever change that,\" Lapid wrote.\nThat sparked the Embassy to respond: \"Your unsupportable claims show how badly Holocaust education is needed, even here in Israel.\"\n\"My grandmother was murdered in Poland by Germans and Poles,\" Lapid responded. \"I don't need Holocaust education from you. We live with the consequences every day in our collective memory. Your embassy should offer an immediate apology.\"\nTo which the embassy retorted: \"Shameless.\"\nIsrael's foreign ministry said the deputy Polish ambassador to Israel had been summoned for a clarification.\nFor decades, Polish society avoided discussing the killing of Jews by civilians or denied that anti-Semitism motivated the slayings, blaming all atrocities on the Germans.\nA turning point was the publication in 2000 of a book, \"Neighbors,\" by Polish-American sociologist Jan Tomasz Gross, which explored the murder of Jews by their Polish neighbors in the village of Jedwabne. The book resulted in widespread soul-searching and official state apologies.\nBut since the conservative and nationalistic Law and Justice party consolidated power in 2015, it has sought to stamp out discussions and research on the topic. It demonized Gross and investigated whether he had slandered Poland by asserting that Poles killed more Jews than they killed Germans during the war.\nHolocaust researchers have collected ample evidence of Polish villagers who murdered Jews fleeing the Nazis. According to one scholar at Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, of the 160,000-250,000 Jews who escaped and sought help from fellow Poles, about 10 percent to 20 percent survived. The rest were rejected, informed upon or killed by rural Poles, according to the Tel Aviv University scholar, Havi Dreifuss.\nAt Auschwitz, however, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki stressed the Poles who helped Jews risking their own lives, noting that some 7,000 had been recognized by Yad Vashem but suggesting that the Polish sacrifices have not been acknowledged adequately.\n\"Jews, Poles, and all victims should be guardians of the memory of all who were murdered by German Nazis. Auschwitz-Birkenau is not a Polish name, and Arbeit Macht Frei is not a Polish phrase,\" Morawiecki said later on Twitter.\nYad Vashem issued a statement Saturday night opposing the Polish legislation and trying to put into historical context the \"complex truth\" regarding the Polish population's attitude toward its Jews.\n\"There is no doubt that the term 'Polish death camps' is a historical misrepresentation,\" the Yad Vashem memorial said. \"However, restrictions on statements by scholars and others regarding the Polish people's direct or indirect complicity with the crimes committed on their land during the Holocaust are a serious distortion.\"\n___\nVanessa Gera contributed from Warsaw.\n____\nFollow Heller at www.twitter.com/aronhellerap" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "A boost in equipment sales propelled Caterpillar's first-quarter profit, as a strong global economy helped support construction and energy industry projects.\nThe maker of heavy equipment and machinery also greatly increased its outlook for the year, citing an upbeat global markets, better pricing and demand.\nProfit rose eightfold to $1.67 billion, or $2.74 per share, while revenue surged 31 percent to $12.86 billion. The results topped Wall Street expectations.\nConstruction equipment sales rose 38 percent during the quarter, while energy and transportation equipment sales rose 26 percent. North America remained the company's biggest market, with its Asia/Pacific region coming in as its next biggest.\nLooking ahead, the Deerfield, Illinois company boosted its full-year outlook by $2 to a range of $9.75 to $10.75 per share." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "PLANT CITY, Fla. (AP) — A Florida teen who doctors say is dying from a rare form of cancer has been granted one of his final wishes, to be married to his high school sweetheart.\nThe Tampa Bay Times reports 19-year-old Dustin Snyder and 21-year-old Sierra Siverio were wed Sunday in Plant City, near Tampa.\n\"After her being there with me through this cancer, always supporting me and loving me, that's when I knew she was the one,\" Snyder said. \"I wanted to give her something back before my time was up.\"\nDoctors say Snyder has weeks or maybe a month to live. Wasting no time, Snyder proposed to Siverio on Thursday. The newspaper reports the community quickly came together to make sure the wedding took place, donating everything from the rings to the wedding gown and the venue.\nThe two say they've been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from strangers.\nSnyder's sister, Brittany Hails, posted her brother's story on Facebook and started a GoFundMe page, which had raised nearly $13,000 by Friday. An update said they had met their goal and leftover donations would help the family with other expenses.\n\"I didn't think it would go this far, but God was on our side,\" Hails said. \"Dustin's really excited, and all we wanted is for him to be happy. And he's happy right now.\"\nThe teens met in middle school, but had lost touch before reuniting in high school. Snyder has battled synovial sarcoma much of that time.\nOn June 27, 2016, the day before his 18th birthday, Snyder went to the hospital with chest pains, which his mother thought were brought on by asthma. But doctors quickly diagnosed the teen with synovial sarcoma, which targets soft tissue and is more common among adolescents and young adults than other age groups who contract it.\n\"When I first found out I was devastated, but then he told me I needed to be strong for him,\" Siverio said. \"Ever since he said that I've been by his side.\"\n___\nInformation from: Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.), http://www.tampabay.com." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A United Nations mediator is visiting Athens amid redoubled efforts to end a quarter-century dispute between Greece and neighboring Macedonia over Macedonia's name.\nMatthew Nimetz will meet Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias Tuesday, and will later travel to Skopje for talks with Macedonian officials.\nThe dispute broke out after Macedonia, for decades a part of the former Yugoslavia, gained independence in 1991. Greece objects to its use of the name Macedonia, arguing that this implies territorial claims on its own adjoining province, also called Macedonia.\nOfficials in Skopje counter that their part of the world has been known as Macedonia for a long time.\nThe squabble has prevented Macedonia from joining NATO, to which Greece already belongs. The two countries' governments have pledged to seek a solution this year." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's top five economies are warning the United States that its massive tax overhaul could contravene some of its international obligations and risks \"having a major distortive impact on international trade.\"\nIn a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, the finance ministers of Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain wrote they had \"significant concerns\" about three tax initiatives in particular, including the so-called base erosion and anti-abuse tax Senate bill.\nIn a letter seen by The Associated Press, the five wrote that \"it is important that the U.S. government's rights over domestic tax policy be exercised in a way that adheres with international obligations to which it has signed-up.\"" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni security officials say local forces backed by the United Arab Emirates are expanding their reach in the country's south, where they have clashed with forces loyal to the internationally recognized president.\nThe UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Shiite rebels on behalf of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, but has been at odds with Hadi for months.\nThe security officials said Monday that hundreds of Security Belt forces — fighters trained and financed by the UAE, have deployed in the Dhale province. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.\nThe UAE and Hadi maintain separate security forces based in the southern city of Aden, which have clashed in recent months." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, former New York Yankees pitcher Al Leiter (LY'-tur) and E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt are among the 20 newest members of the New Jersey Hall of Fame.\nThe class of 2017 also includes singers Debbie Harry and Frankie Valli and \"Cake Boss\" reality TV star Buddy Valastro for the performing arts. Authors Harlan Coben and Anna Quindlen represent arts and letters.\nThe inductees for public service are astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly, late Republican Rep. Millicent Fenwick and Army nurse Clara Maass, who died as a result of volunteering for medical experiments to study yellow fever.\nOther class members are real estate developer Jon Hanson, magazine publisher Steve Forbes, politician Joe Buckelew and running champion Mary Decker.\nAll will be inducted during a ceremony in May." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "NEW YORK (AP) — A new bipartisan task force will tackle what its founders say is the erosion of governmental norms created by the election of President Donald Trump.\nDemocratic former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and Republican former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman announced the task force in an editorial published in USA Today , the pair said that since the election of President Donald Trump, they've seen a deep erosion of \"the norms and boundaries traditionally guiding American political behavior.\"\n\"A workable democracy can thrive only when there are basic rules, often unwritten, that curb abuse and guide policymakers,\" they said. \"It's time to turn soft norms into hard law.\"\nThe opinion piece cited Trump's refusal to divorce himself from his business interests and what Bharara and Whitman said were the Republican president's efforts to influence federal criminal investigations.\n\"All this shows just how easily a chief executive can ignore the unwritten rules that typically constrain presidents. We see similar erosion elsewhere in government, too. For example, a major tax bill, affecting the whole economy, enacted with no committee hearings,\" they wrote.\nThe pair said the task force will be based at the Brennan Center for Justice, a policy institute at New York University's School of Law.\nThey said it would review whether informal norms surrounding financial conflicts, political interference with law enforcement, the use of government data and science and the appointment of public officials should be codified into enforceable law.\nBharara is a frequent critic of Trump, who fired him last year as part of a purge of prosecutors appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Whitman was a former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator under Republican President George W. Bush and has criticized Trump's environmental policies." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "DETROIT (AP) — Alondra Alvarez lives about five minutes from her high school on Detroit's southwest side but she drives there instead of walking because her mother fears for her safety. Once the 18-year-old enters the building, her surroundings take on a more secure feel almost immediately as she passes through a bank of closely monitored metal detectors.\n\"My mom has never been comfortable with me walking to school. My mom is really scared of street thugs,\" said Alvarez, who attends Western International.\nAs schools around the U.S. look for ways to impose tougher security measures in the wake of last month's school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead, they don't have to look further than urban districts such as Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York that installed metal detectors and other security in the 1980s and 1990s to combat gang and drug violence.\nSecurity experts believe these measures have made urban districts less prone to mass shootings, which have mostly occurred in suburban and rural districts.\nOfficials in some suburban and rural school districts are now considering detectors as they rethink their security plans after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz allegedly brought in a duffel bag containing an assault rifle and opened fire. He's charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.\nThe massacre has galvanized thousands of students around the country who walked out of their classrooms for 17 minutes — one for each Parkland victim — on March 14 to protest gun violence.\n\"I think urban schools are eons ahead. They've been dealing with violence a lot longer than suburban schools,\" said Philip Smith, president of the National African American Gun Association.\nDuring the mid-1980s, Detroit was one of the first districts in the nation to put permanent, walk-through metal detectors in high schools and middle schools. New York schools also had them in some buildings.\nBy 1992, metal detectors had been installed in a few dozen Chicago high schools. And in 1993, under pressure to make schools safer, Los Angeles' district announced that it would randomly search students with metal detectors.\nSuch measures \"are designed to identify and hopefully deter anybody from bringing a weapon to school, but metal detectors alone portray an illusion of being safe,\" said Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the 50,000-student Detroit Public Schools Community District.\n\"Our schools need to be safer than they are,\" Vitti said. \"As a nation, we need to fully fund and make sure all districts can adequately staff school resource officers and also offer mental health and first-aid training to all educators.\"\nSecurity measures don't always keep guns off school grounds. A 17-year-old high school senior was killed and another student wounded March 7 in a Birmingham, Alabama, classroom shooting. Metal detectors at the school were not in use that day. A 17-year-old student has been charged with manslaughter.\nTwo students were shot and three people suffered other injuries in February when a gun in a backpack accidentally fired inside a Los Angeles Unified School District middle school. The district does random metal-detector wand searches daily in middle schools and high schools. A 12-year-old girl has been charged with being a minor in possession of a firearm and having a weapon on school grounds.\nIn response to the Parkland shooting, Florida's governor has said he wants to spend $500 million to increase law enforcement and mental health counselors at schools, to make buildings more secure with metal detectors and to create an anonymous tip line.\nA package of legislation passed by the New York state Senate includes provisions for metal detectors and improved security technology in schools. A parent in Knox County, Kentucky, has said his law office would donate $25,000 for metal detectors in schools there.\nAlvarez, the student at Detroit's Western International, said she and others who attend the school go through metal detectors every morning. Her elementary and middle schools also had metal detectors.\n\"I've always seen it as something that made me feel safe,\" she said, adding that all schools should have them and not just inner-city ones \"so students don't feel discriminated against.\"\nMetal detectors are seen as a symptom of a \"stigma that already exists,\" said Mark Fancher, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan's Racial Justice Project.\n\"There is a presumption that urban schools — particularly those with students of color — are violent places and security demands you have procedures in place that are intended to protect the safety of the students,\" Fancher said.\nBut metal detectors, property searches, security guards and police in schools create conditions similar to those found in prisons, he said.\n\"Students, themselves, internalize these things,\" Fancher said. \"If you create a school that looks like a prison, the people who go there will pretty much decide that's what is expected of them.\"\nMany urban districts have a greater awareness and sensitivity when it comes to students' needs, said Kenneth Trump, president of the Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services, a K-12 security consulting firm.\n\"I think in urban schools, the approach of most of the educators, administrators and security personnel is, 'We realize there are issues kids bring to school,'\" said Trump, who has been in the school safety field for more than 30 years. \"The people will tell you, 'We are not in denial ... we acknowledge our problems. We just don't have enough resources to deal with it.'\"\nSuburban and rural administrators, parents and students often view themselves as different from their big-city counterparts, and that may impact how they treat school security, he said.\n\"There's very often that divide of 'There's us and there's them. We're not the urban district. We are the alternative. We're the place people go to get away from the urban district,'\" he said.\n___\nAssociated Press writer Jesse Holland in Washington contributed to this report." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts governor's race candidate is shutting down a nonprofit organization that he founded that ended up on a list of U.S.-based hate groups.\nRepublican Scott Lively has described his Abiding Truth Ministries as pro-family, but his opposition to gay rights has landed him and his Springfield-based ministry on the Southern Poverty Law Center's list of designated hate groups.\nLively said Wednesday he still believes society should follow the Bible as the guide to sexual morality in public policy. But he says he hopes to enlist \"authentically conservative homosexuals\" and political liberals in his effort to shift his emphasis \"to a conservationist perspective in which the natural family is recognized as the essential eco-system of humanity.\"\nLively hopes to unseat Gov. Charlie Baker in the GOP primary.\nBaker calls Lively's views \"outrageous.\"" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "CLEVELAND (AP) — Los Angeles Dodgers Yasiel Puig has been suspended one game and fined by Major League Baseball for making an obscene gesture to Indians fans on Tuesday night.\nPuig flashed the middle finger on both hands at fans sitting behind home plate at Progressive Field after hitting a home run in the second inning. Baseball executive Joe Torre announced the one-game penalty and undisclosed fine.\nPuig is appealing the decision and will play Wednesday night. The mercurial player said he \"stooped\" to the level of fans who he said were heckling him in the on-deck circle. Puig said that the group of fans kept talking to him after the home run.\nThe suspension is the latest incident involving Puig, who has tried the Dodgers' patience with previous behavior.\nPuig got two hits in the Dodgers' 7-5 win over the Indians." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "Today in History\nToday is Thursday, May 31, the 151st day of 2018. There are 214 days left in the year.\nToday's Highlight in History:\nOn May 31, 1921, a race riot erupted in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as white mobs began looting and leveling the affluent black district of Greenwood over reports a black man had assaulted a white woman in an elevator; hundreds are believed to have died.\nOn this date:\nIn 1578, the Christian catacombs of ancient Rome were accidentally discovered by workers digging in a vineyard along the Via Salaria.\nIn 1669, English diarist Samuel Pepys (peeps) wrote the final entry of his journal, blaming his failing eyesight for his inability to continue.\nIn 1790, President George Washington signed into law the first U.S. copyright act.\nIn 1889, some 2,200 people in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, perished when the South Fork Dam collapsed, sending 20 million tons of water rushing through the town.\nIn 1916, during World War I, British and German fleets fought the naval Battle of Jutland off Denmark; there was no clear-cut victor, although the British suffered heavier losses.\nIn 1935, movie studio 20th Century Fox was created through a merger of the Fox Film Corp. and Twentieth Century Pictures.\nIn 1949, former State Department official and accused spy Alger Hiss went on trial in New York, charged with perjury (the jury deadlocked, but Hiss was convicted in a second trial).\nIn 1962, former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel a few minutes before midnight for his role in the Holocaust.\nIn 1977, the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline, three years in the making despite objections from environmentalists and Alaska Natives, was completed. (The first oil began flowing through the pipeline 20 days later.)\nIn 1985, 88 people were killed, more than 1,000 injured, when 41 tornadoes swept through parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and Ontario, Canada, during an 8-hour period.\nIn 1994, the United States announced it was no longer aiming long-range nuclear missiles at targets in the former Soviet Union.\nIn 2005, breaking a silence of 30 years, former FBI official W. Mark Felt stepped forward as \"Deep Throat,\" the secret Washington Post source during the Watergate scandal.\nTen years ago: Space shuttle Discovery and a crew of seven blasted into orbit, carrying a giant Japanese lab addition to the international space station.\nFive years ago: A tornado in the Oklahoma City metro area claimed eight lives, including those of storm chasers Tim Samaras, his son, Paul, and Carl Young; 13 people died in flash flooding. Four firefighters searching for people in a blazing Houston motel and restaurant were killed when part of the structure collapsed. Actress Jean Stapleton, who played Archie Bunker's far better half, the sweetly naive Edith, in TV's groundbreaking 1970s comedy \"All in the Family,\" died in New York at age 90.\nOne year ago: President Donald Trump welcomed Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (nuh-WEE'-ihn SOO'-an FOOK) to the White House for talks focusing on the American trade deficit. A suicide attacker struck the fortified heart of the Afghan capital Kabul with a massive truck bomb that killed more than 150 people. CBS announced that Scott Pelley was being removed as anchor of \"The CBS Evening News\" after six years.\nToday's Birthdays: Actor-director Clint Eastwood is 88. Singer Peter Yarrow is 80. Humanitarian Terry Waite is 79. Singer-musician Augie Meyers is 78. Actress Sharon Gless is 75. Football Hall of Famer Joe Namath is 75. Broadcast journalist/commentator Bernard Goldberg is 73. Actor Tom Berenger is 68. Actor Gregory Harrison is 68. Actor Kyle Secor is 61. Actress Roma Maffia (ma-FEE'-uh) is 60. Comedian Chris Elliott is 58. Actress Lea Thompson is 57. Singer Corey Hart is 56. Actor Hugh Dillon is 55. Rapper DMC is 54. Actress Brooke Shields is 53. Country musician Ed Adkins (The Derailers) is 51. TV host Phil Keoghan is 51. Jazz musician Christian McBride is 46. Actress Archie Panjabi is 46. Actress Merle Dandridge (TV: \"Greenleaf\") is 43. Actor Colin Farrell is 42. Rock musician Scott Klopfenstein (Reel Big Fish) is 41. Actor Eric Christian Olsen is 41. Rock musician Andy Hurley (Fall Out Boy) is 38. Country singer Casey James (TV: \"American Idol\") is 36. Actor Jonathan Tucker is 36. Rapper Waka Flocka Flame is 32. Actor Curtis Williams Jr. is 31. Pop singer Normani Hamilton (Fifth Harmony) is 22.\nThought for Today: \"The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.\" — Walt Whitman, American poet and essayist (born this date in 1819, died in 1892)." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "___\n2 big insurance breakups on Valentine's Day\nCigna says it is ending Anthem's proposed, $48-billion acquisition bid and seeking billions in damages from the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer. The announcement comes hours after another major insurer, Aetna Inc., said it was abandoning its planned, $34-billion purchase of Medicare Advantage provider Humana Inc.\n___\nYellen: Expect Fed to resume raising rates in coming months\nWASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen pointed Tuesday to a solid U.S. job market and economy and suggested that the Fed will resume raising interest rates in the next few months. But with many uncertainties surrounding President Donald Trump's proposals, Yellen said the Fed still wants to keep assessing the economy.\n___\nJumping bank stocks push US indexes higher; bond yields rise\nNEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes climbed further into record territory, led by a push higher for banks. Bond yields rose after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the central bank is still on track to raise interest rates gradually.\n___\nWith Trump's win in China, will Trump toilets get flushed?\nSHANGHAI (AP) — China is expected to give President Trump valuable rights to his brand for construction services this week. Chinese authorities denied him that benefit for a decade, but after Trump declared his candidacy his fortunes changed. Ethics lawyers say Trump's foreign trademarks are a conflict of interest that may violate the Constitution. Meanwhile, makers of Trump-brand luxury toilets in Shenzhen are contemplating a new legal adversary: the president of the United States.\n___\nJumping bank stocks push US indexes higher; bond yields rise\nNEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes climbed further into record territory, led by a push higher for banks. Bond yields rose after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the central bank is still on track to raise interest rates gradually.\n___\nLeaders of American Airlines pilots' union blast CEO\nDALLAS (AP) — Support from labor unions was critical when Doug Parker's US Airways forced a merger with American, but now the CEO of the world's biggest airline is under fire from unions unhappy about pay that lags rates at rival Delta. Leaders of the pilots' union say they have lost confidence in the ability of Parker and senior executives to lead the airline. Flight attendants picketed Tuesday at company headquarters and three big airports.\n___\nUS says canceled flights declining, fewer bags getting lost\nThe government says airlines are getting better at avoiding canceled flights, losing bags and bumping passengers. The Transportation Department also says 2016 was one of the best years for on-time arrivals.\n___\nBuffett's firm invests heavily in Apple, airline stocks\nOMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett's company nearly quadrupled its investment in Apple to over 57 million shares during the last three months of last year. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. filed a quarterly update on its U.S. stock portfolio with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.\n___\nJudge gives OK to deal for smaller set of cheating VWs\nSAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A judge in San Francisco granted initial approval to a deal worth at least $1.2 billion that aims to compensate owners of roughly 78,000 Volkswagens with 3-liter engines that were rigged to cheat on emissions tests. The company previously agreed to spend up to $10 billion buying back or repairing Volkswagens and Audis with 2-liter diesel engines. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer congratulated attorneys on both sides before granting preliminary approval to the smaller deal on Tuesday\n___\nMerck Alzheimer's drug fails in 1 study; another continues\nMerck & Co. says it will stop its study of an experimental Alzheimer's drug in people with mild or moderate symptoms because interim results showed \"virtually no chance\" of any benefit\n___\nPSA Group exploring takeover of GM's European unit Opel\nFRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — France's PSA Group, maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars, says it's exploring \"a potential acquisition\" of Opel, the money-losing European business of General Motors Co. PSA Group and GM are already involved in several joint projects in Europe.\n___\nThe Dow Jones industrial average rose 92.25 points, or 0.5 percent, to 20,504.41. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9.33 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,337.58 for its sixth straight day of gains. The Nasdaq composite rose 18.62, or 0.3 percent, to 5,782.57.\nBenchmark U.S. crude oil rose 27 cents to settle at $53.20 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 38 cents to $55.97 a gallon in London. Natural gas fell 4 cents to $2.91 per 1,000 cubic feet, heating oil rose a penny to $1.64 per gallon and wholesale gasoline was close to flat at $1.55 a gallon." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "SEATTLE (AP) — The Latest on courts blocking the president's efforts to keep transgender people from enlisting in the military (all times local):\n5:20 p.m.\nA third federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump's ban on transgender people joining the military.\nU.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman issued her ruling Monday in a case brought by several plaintiffs, including a soldier based in Washington state and two young men who hope to enlist.\nWashington Attorney General Bob Ferguson also intervened in the case to challenge Trump's policy.\nPechman found that the ban likely violates the plaintiffs' rights to due process and to equal protection under the law without advancing any government interest. She also said it would harm the state's efforts to protect its residents from discrimination.\nPechman blocked the government from imposing the ban pending further proceedings.\nJudges in Maryland and Washington, D.C., also have ruled against the ban. It had been due to take effect Jan. 1.\n___\n8:10 a.m.\nThe Pentagon official tells The Associated Press that transgender people can enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, despite President Donald Trump's opposition.\nThe new policy reflects growing legal pressure on the issue and the difficult hurdles the federal government would have to cross to enforce Trump's demand to ban transgender individuals from the military. Two federal courts already have ruled against the ban.\nPotential transgender recruits will have to overcome a lengthy and strict set of physical, medical and mental conditions that make it possible, though difficult, for them to join the armed services.\nMaj. David Eastburn says the enlistment of transgender recruits will start Jan. 1 and go on amid the legal battles. The Department of Defense also is studying the issue." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "AMERICAN LEAGUE Toronto 000 002 002—4 6 1 Boston 001 012 02x—6 11 1\nGaviglio, Oh (7), Tepera (8) and Maile; Rodriguez, Barnes (7), Johnson (9), Kimbrel (9) and C.Vazquez. W_Rodriguez 6-1. L_Gaviglio 2-1. Sv_Kimbrel (18). HRs_Toronto, Hernandez (8). Boston, Nunez (4), Martinez (18).\n___\nChicago 000 000 001—1 5 2 Cleveland 205 200 00x—9 13 0\nLopez, Volstad (3), Avilan (4), Rondon (5), Fry (6), N.Jones (7), Soria (8) and Narvaez; Kluber, Beliveau (7), Marshall (8), B.Taylor (9) and Gomes. W_Kluber 8-2. L_Lopez 1-4. HRs_Chicago, Sanchez (3). Cleveland, Ramirez (17), Encarnacion (13).\n___\nHouston 000 020 001—3 7 0 New York 100 022 00x—5 8 1\nKeuchel, McHugh (6) and Stassi; L.Severino, Robertson (8), Chapman (9) and Romine. W_L.Severino 8-1. L_Keuchel 3-7. Sv_Chapman (12). HRs_Houston, Stassi (5).\n___\nINTERLEAGUE Washington 001 000 100—2 7 0 Baltimore 000 000 000—0 4 0\nScherzer, Doolittle (9) and P.Severino; Hess, Castro (7), Hart (8), Wright Jr. (9) and Sisco. W_Scherzer 9-1. L_Hess 2-2. Sv_Doolittle (13). HRs_Washington, Harper (18).\n___\nNATIONAL LEAGUE St. Louis 000 000 200—2 8 1 Milwaukee 000 010 20x—3 10 1\nReyes, Gant (5), Lyons (7), Tuivailala (7) and Kelly; Guerra, Jeffress (7), Hader (8), Knebel (9) and Kratz, Pina. W_Jeffress 5-0. L_Tuivailala 1-1. Sv_Knebel (5). HRs_St. Louis, Bader (5). Milwaukee, Yelich (7).\n___\nCincinnati 000 402 001—7 12 0 Arizona 301 000 000—4 13 1\nRomano, W.Peralta (6), Hughes (7), Garrett (7), Iglesias (8) and Barnhart; Corbin, Salas (7), Chafin (8), McFarland (9) and Murphy. W_Romano 3-6. L_Corbin 5-2. Sv_Iglesias (9). HRs_Cincinnati, Schebler (6), Duvall (10). Arizona, Goldschmidt (7), Murphy (7).\n___\nChicago 100 000 000—1 9 1 Pittsburgh 110 000 00x—2 9 0\nHendricks, R.Rosario (6), Mazzoni (7), Wilson (7) and Contreras; Musgrove, Crick (8), F.Vazquez (9) and Cervelli. W_Musgrove 2-0. L_Hendricks 4-4. Sv_F.Vazquez (10). HRs_Pittsburgh, Harrison (2).\n___\nNew York 000 100 111—4 9 1 Atlanta 000 000 100—1 5 0\nVargas, T.Peterson (6), Familia (8), Gsellman (9) and Plawecki; Teheran, Carle (8), S.Freeman (8), Socolovich (9) and Suzuki. W_Vargas 2-3. L_Teheran 4-3. Sv_Gsellman (2). HRs_Atlanta, Camargo (4)." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says foreign businesses cannot be sued in U.S. courts by foreign victims of human rights abuses and extremist attacks.\nThe justices voted 5-4 on Tuesday in favor of Arab Bank, which is based in Jordan. The bank was sued by Israeli victims of attacks in the West Bank and Gaza who claim that it helped finance the attacks.\nThe victims had tried to use the 18th-century Alien Tort Statute to hold the bank accountable for its role.\nThe decision continues the court's paring back of a three-decade-old strategy by human rights lawyers to use civil suits to pursue individuals who may be responsible for torture and other atrocities, as well as companies with operations in countries with poor records in the area of human rights." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine army commander says government forces have foiled an attempt by a few dozen Muslim militants aligned with the Islamic State group to attack a small southern town in fighting that left four gunmen dead.\nArmy Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc says troops clashed with 30 to 40 militants Tuesday and drove them away from the small farming community of Mopac where they planned to launch an attack on the town hall of Datu Paglas town about a half kilometer (quarter mile) away.\nCabunoc said Wednesday the militants from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters led by Solaiman Tudon occupied several abandoned houses in Mopac, where he used to live, over the weekend but his family and other villagers asked the gunmen to leave.\nTroops later clashed with the militants." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — The Latest on the Alabama Senate race (all times local):\n9:45 a.m.\nAn official has quit the Republican National Committee over the GOP's support of Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who faces accusations of sexual assault and harassment.\nJoyce Simmons, the GOP national committeewoman from Nebraska, emailed the 168-member governing body Monday to inform them that she had tendered her resignation. She writes: \"I strongly disagree with the recent RNC financial support directed to the Alabama Republican Party for use in the Roy Moore race.\"\nSimmons adds that she wishes she could have continued her service \"to the national Republican Party that I used to know well.'\nThe RNC had pulled support from Moore after the allegations surfaced against him last month. But the organization re-entered the race once President Donald Trump endorsed Moore, citing the need for a Republican in the seat.\n___\n3:35 a.m.\nRepublican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones are making their final pushes ahead of Tuesday's special Senate election in Alabama.\nJones and Democrats are framing the election as a way for Alabama to reject its history of politicians with baggage that hampers the state.\nRepublicans say its about keeping a conservative hold on Alabama and not giving Democrats any opportunity to derail President Donald Trump's agenda before the 2018 midterms.\nIn truth, the matchup is a mix of Alabama's history and the partisan divides plaguing Washington.\nJones says it would be disastrous to elect Moore after the former judge was accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls. Moore denies the charges.\nMoore and other Republicans say Jones would be a puppet of liberal Democratic leaders out of step with Alabama." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani court has convicted two Chinese nationals for tampering with an ATM machine, sentencing each of them to a year in prison and a fine of around $400.\nAkbar Khan, a cybercrimes investigator, said Monday that Zhong Xiaming and Zhong Xianquan were arrested a year ago while attaching a skimming device to an ATM in Karachi. The devices are placed over ATM slots and scan the magnetic strips of cards when customers insert them. They are often used in conjunction with hidden cameras that can film PIN numbers.\nKhan says cybercrimes investigators have arrested another six Chinese nationals in recent months who are alleged to have used skimming devices. Similar incidents were reported in other Pakistani cities." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "BERLIN (AP) — German lawmakers are taking part in a special parliamentary session commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, those who helped the persecuted and others who resisted Adolf Hitler's tyranny.\nAfter lawmakers stood for a minute of silence, parliament speaker Wolfgang Schaeuble told them Wednesday that Hitler had easily turned \"racial ideology into public policy.\" He said the lesson is that there must be \"consistent opposition to any form of exclusion before it is too late.\"\nSchaeuble says \"it was all about us and the others, and the others did not belong, were not allowed to belong.\"\nInternational Holocaust Remembrance Day fell this year on Saturday, 73 years after the Soviet army liberated the Auschwitz death camp in occupied Poland." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian health authorities are urging Carnival visitors to stick to celebrations in the city of Rio de Janeiro and avoid sightseeing at waterfalls and forests where yellow fever has been detected.\nRio state Health Secretary Luiz Antonio Teixeira Junior said on Tuesday that there have been no recent cases of the disease in urban areas and that the risk of contagion in touristic parts of Rio is \"nearly zero.\"\nBrazil is vaccinating more than 20 million people against yellow fever to control a budding outbreak, and the secretary says Rio state alone has vaccinated more than 8 million.\nBrazil's Health Ministry says 130 cases have been confirmed across the country and 53 people have died in the current outbreak." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Nine environmental groups are suing the U.S. government to prevent a land trade that could lead to construction of a road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska.\nThe groups say a road through Izembek (EYE-zem-bek) National Wildlife Refuge on the Alaska Peninsula will harm internationally recognized habitat for migrating waterfowl.\nThe lawsuit says Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke lacks the authority to remove land from a refuge established by Congress. Zinke signed an agreement Jan. 22 to swap refuge land for private land.\nA trade could lead to construction of a road between the communities of King Cove and Cold Bay.\nKing Cove residents say land access to an all-weather airport at Cold Bay will save lives of people needing emergency medical care." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "SYDNEY (AP) — Paul Okon has quit as Central Coast Mariners coach with four regular season games remaining in Australia's A-League.\nOkon, an ex-Australia international who commenced his managerial career working with national youth squads, joined the Mariners last season and had been negotiating with the club to extend his contract beyond 2017-18.\nThe Mariners released a statement Tuesday saying Okon and the club accepted an immediate release after failing to agree on the strategic direction and plans for the team.\nThe Mariners' youth coach Wayne O'Sullivan has been appointed as a caretaker for the A-League team.\nAfter an 11-game winless streak, the Mariners are in ninth place and out of playoff contention, just three points ahead of last-place Wellington Phoenix.\nThe Mariners next match is at home against league-leading Sydney FC on Saturday at Gosford, north of Sydney." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "And there he was again — The man for whom dozens of obituaries had just been written and whose name had been added to journalists' memorial in Moscow only hours before.\nArkady Babchenkoreturned to the land of the living in the company of Ukraine’s secret service chief and prosecutor general.\nThe journalist was found by his wife outside the couple’s apartment, bleeding and apparently having been shot multiple times. Reporters had gathered on Wednesday to find out more about the \"murder\" investigation, with the official line being that he had died.\nIt was then that Vasyl Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, announced that the press would have the opportunity to speak to Babchenko themselves.\nThe 41-year-old entered the room, clad in a black sweater, to applause and gasps.\n\"I’m still alive,\" he said.\nProving a link\nBabchenko thanked Ukraine's security services for saving his life before apologizing to his wife for putting her through such an ordeal. His hosts explained that the stunt had been necessary to lull the individuals suspected of ordering and organizing a hit against the Kremlin critic into a false sense of security. The aim all along had been to collect further evidence linking the plot's alleged lynchpin with Russian secret services.\nThey presented grainy footage purporting to show the plot's organizer handing over thousands of dollars to the man tasked with shooting Babchenko. The intended shooter turned out to be working for Ukrainian security services. Minutes later yet more footage was shown – this time of a middle-aged man being arrested on a busy city street before being bundled away by plainclothes agents. This, they said, was the organizer of the plot to kill Babchenko. Not only Babchenko, but as many as 30 other Russian exiles in Ukraine.\nRead more: 'Killing' of Babchenko: A big show raises lots of questions\nBarely able to contain his satisfaction, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko read out a series of earlier comments from political opponents inside and outside the country – slamming Ukraine's inability to protect journalists like Arkady Babchenko. The critics, he said, had been proved wrong.\nPolitical killings to destabilize?\nPresident Petro Poroshenko hailed the news as a sign that Ukraine had \"passed the sovereignty test\" and called the day a \"birthday\" of sorts for the nation. But even beyond government circles there was much vocal approval online for the government's strategy and its willingness to take risks.\nRead more: Ukraine foreign minister urges tougher Russia action, World Cup boycott\nBut what about the cost to Ukraine's international credibility? The hours following Babchenko's \"killing” saw Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman slam Russia's \"totalitarian machine” and call for his \"killer” to be punished in a late night Facebook post. Could Groysman not have known what was going on? At about the same time Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin was at the UN in New York, where he spoke of his government's reasons for believing that Russia would not shy away from political killings to destabilize Ukraine. But, he stressed, the investigation had only just got underway. With hindsight it seems like a remarkably measured statement. An attempt to avoid saying anything more compromising? Perhaps we'll never know.\nElementary methods\nUkrainian MP Anton Gerashenko was adamant that the ends very definitely justified the means,\n\"Even Sherlock Holmes successfully faked his own death in order to get to the bottom of difficult and complex crimes. However painful that might have been for his family and Doctor Watson\" - a sentiment that was echoed by many in Kyiv's political classes.\nRead more: Ukraine: The forgotten victims of Donbass\nBut beyond Ukraine's borders the reaction has been much less forgiving. The head of Reporters without Borders, Christophe Deloire, called the day's developments \"pathetic and regrettable.” The the OSCE's Representative on Media Freedom, Harlem Desir, was on his way to Kyiv when news emerged that Babchenko was not after all dead. So far Ukraine's European allies have yet to respond, but they are unlikely to appreciate being dragged into a stunt that saw everyone from Germany's president to the British foreign secretary expressing their dismay and offering their condolences to Babchenko's family.\nThe onus is now firmly on Ukrainian investigators to prove that this abuse of public trust was really worthwhile. They'll need to show that Babchenko's disappearance allowed investigators to conclusively prove a connection between the purported organizer of this plot and Russia's secret services. The outside world is waiting." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — Injured Olympic halfpipe champion Iouri Podladtchikov tweeted a picture of himself in a hospital gown along with the message \"I am doing OK,\" after a scary wreck at the Winter X Games.\nThe snowboarder known as the I-Pod has a broken nose, but scans showed no signs of brain or neck trauma.\nIn one tweet, posted late Monday, he says: \"Thank you so much for all the messages. I am so sorry for the mess of yesterday. I am doing OK.\"\nHe made no mention of whether he'll be able to compete at the Olympics. The men's halfpipe contest starts Feb. 13, and most snowboarders are heading to South Korea this weekend.\nPodladtchikov's face slammed hard into the halfpipe Sunday night as he was landing a trick and he had to be taken off on a stretcher.\n___\nMore AP Olympics: https://wintergames.ap.org" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "PARIS (AP) — Paris' prosecutor's office says that three suspects in a thwarted attack last week in the southern French city of Montpellier have been handed preliminary terrorism charges.\nAuthorities gave on the suspects' first names. A teenage girl, Sara, and a man called Thomas were charged with terrorist association and possessing explosives Tuesday night. Another man, Malik, was also charged with justifying terrorism.\nLast week, anti-terrorism forces uncovered a makeshift laboratory for fabricating a bomb. France's top security official Friday said the raid thwarted an \"imminent attack.\"\nA police official said the teenage girl — among several arrested — had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group in a recent video.\nFrance is still under a state of emergency after several deadly attacks in 2015 and 2016." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "STOCKHOLM (AP) — Britain's Prince William has praised Sweden's embrace of the great outdoors, in particular the physical and mental benefits of outdoor exercise for children.\nSpeaking Wednesday at the end of a two-day visit to Sweden, William said that \"one lesson that we will take home with us, is that children are actively encouraged to spend time outdoors, whatever the weather.\"\nDuring the visit, William and the Duchess of Cambridge sought to meet Swedes from all walks of life. At a medical institute, they discussed with academics Sweden's approach to managing mental health challenges, a subject the royals have campaigned about.\nWilliam and Kate, both 35, will begin a two-day visit to Norway on Thursday." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has insisted that indigenous peoples must give prior consent for any economic activity on their ancestral lands — an indirect critique as the Donald Trump administration seeks to advance construction on a $3.8 billion oil pipeline over opposition from American Indians.\nFrancis met Wednesday with representatives of indigenous peoples attending a U.N. agricultural meeting in Rome. He said the key issue facing them is how to reconcile the right to development with protection of their cultures and territories.\nHe said \"the right to prior and informed consent\" should always prevail especially \"when planning economic activities which may interfere with indigenous cultures and their ancestral relationship to the Earth.\"\nThe Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes are suing to stop the Dakota Access project." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The maker of a video game that pits players worldwide in a fight for survival on virtual terrain is using U.S. courts to chasten cheaters from Ukraine to Minnesota.\nNorth Carolina-based Epic Games has gotten promises from men in Minnesota, Sweden and Russia to stop cheating and spoiling revenues from its popular \"Fortnite\" online multiplayer game. The company also closed its case against a Louisiana boy with a confidential settlement.\nOnly the Minnesotan faces a $5,000 penalty if he resumes cheating. Epic Games spokesman Nick Chester would not say Wednesday whether that's because the company can't enforce financial penalties against foreign copyright violators.\nThe company has sued three Americans and seven foreign hackers for undercutting the game played by 10 million people worldwide." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "Taipei, (Taiwan News)—The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said it will revoke the operating license of a bus company involved in one of the deadliest bus incidents in Taiwan that has claimed 33 lives and injured 11.\n“With investigators still figuring out the cause of the incident, the ministry will revoke Yeow Lih Transportation’s (友力通運) tour bus operating license for severely violating Article 77 of the Highway Act (公路法), \" said MOTC minister Hochen Tan (賀陳旦), Tuesday.\nRoad conditions were ruled out by the minister as the main cause of the fatal accident, and Hochen pointed out the driver and mechanical failure were the more likely cause.\nHochen admitted previous ministry assessments of tour bus safety and quality evaluation criteria had been inadequate in eliminating poor quality bus service companies from the market.\nThe ministry had been publicizing information the mandatory Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) compulsory biennial evaluation results, but it has not been enough to stem sub-standard bus services.\nThe ministry will soon carry out a new round of inspections on poorly performing bus service companies, namely companies that receive below \"C\" grade from the DGH evaluations.\nTour bus operators that receive a \"D\" grade from the DGH compulsory evaluations will be made public, and their operations will be examined by the ministry, said Hochen.\nThese firms will be given a two week period to improve, but if issues persist some of their operations will be suspended or their operating licenses will be revoked as stipulated in Article 47 of the Act.\nThe same sanction is applicable to operators that receive a grade of \"C\", but they are granted a two months to address their problems.\nThe minister urged tour bus companies to review records of bus drivers, and consider removing those with any behavioral issues to reassure public they are taking responsibility, said Hochen.\nThe ministry also suspended Taipei-based Iris Travel Service Co (蝶戀花旅行社) operations until it addresses the incident and related insurance compensation. Established in 1999, Iris Travel Service exclusively offers domestic tours with duration of one-day, two-days and more.\nThe travel agency, arranged the one-day tour to Wuling Farm (武陵農場) in Taichung City to view cherry blossoms, and rented the tour bus from Yeow Lih Transportation.\nLatest evidence from the bus tacometer showed it was 20 kilometers over the highway ramp’s speed limit of 40 kilometers per hour before the bus crashed off the ramp connecting Freeway No.5 and Freeway No. 3 in eastern Taipei, according to findings by the National Highway Police Bureau.\nPolice confirmed the deceased driver, Kang Yu-hsun, was not driving under the influence, but have cited exhaustion as a possible cause of the accident.\nKang, who received his tour bus permit in 2011, has unaddressed traffic violations, one for failure to fasten his seatbelt and one breach for tire tread regulations.\nDGH is evaluating whether to make seatbelts mandatory in tour buses following the incident, since only passengers in small vehicles are required to buckle up.\nRegulations for coaches in 2007 have made seatbelts for passengers mandatory only for those next to the driver, close to emergency exit doors or in the last row." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's Foreign Ministry says it will raise the case of a detained British-Iranian woman with the judiciary \"out of humanitarian concerns\" following a visit by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.\nMinistry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said Monday that the final decision on whether to release Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is serving a five-year sentence for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government, rests with the judiciary.\nJohnson raised the case during a two-day visit to Iran that concluded Sunday.\nZaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker, was detained in April 2016. Her family has denied the allegations against her.\nShe is among several dual nationals held in Iran, where the judiciary and security forces are dominated by anti-Western hard-liners. It's unclear whether Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, a relative moderate, can secure her release." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "BEIJING (AP) — Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, which operates Hainan Airlines and other businesses around the world, says its co-chairman has died while on a business trip in France.\nHNA Group said Wang Jian, a co-founder of the company, suffered \"severe injuries\" in a fall and died Tuesday at age 57. It gave no other details.\nLaunched in 1993 on the southern island of Hainan, HNA grew to become China's fourth-largest airline and expanded into finance, hotels, logistics and other businesses in a multibillion-dollar global acquisition spree.\nMore recently, HNA has been selling some assets as Chinese regulators tighten lending controls and press companies to rein in debt." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "Chinese conglomerate HNA group on Wednesday said that Wang Jian, the firm's chairman and co-founder, died during a business trip in the south of France.\nWang \"accidentally fell causing serious injury, and attempts to rescue him were ineffective,\" the firm said in a statement.\n\"Together, we mourn the loss of an exceptionally gifted leader and role model, whose vision and values will continue to be a beacon for all who had the good fortune to know him.\"\nRead more: How dangerous are China's shadow banks?\nThe firm did not provide details on how he died. However, broadcaster France Bleu reported on Tuesday that a man fitting Wang's description had fallen more than 10 meters (33 feet) to his death while attempting to take a photo from a wall.\nLocal police officer Hubert Meriaux also said that \"witness accounts point to a likely accident\" in the case: \"He stood on the edge of a sharp drop to get his family to take a picture of him and fell.\" However, Meriaux stressed that an autopsy was still pending.\nEvolution of a Chinese company\nWang co-founded the firm in 1993 as a small provincial airline serving the Chinese province of Hainan. Since then, it has transformed into a Fortune 500 company, operating China's four-largest airline and acquiring a 25-percent stake in Hilton Worldwide chain of hotels.\nLast year, Beijing set its sight on HNA during a crackdown on risky financing, which had long fueled expansion for Chinese companies. The company has since sold off parts of its vast empire in aviation, tourism and financial services to manage its debt.\nRead more: Will China's high debt levels spark a financial crisis?\nHNA Group controls an 8.8 percent stake in Deutsche Bank. The company was listed 170 on Fortune 500 Global list in 2017 with $53.3 billion (€62 billion) in revenue.\nls/msh (AP, AFP)\nEach evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark's prime minister says a letter from President Donald Trump accusing Danes of not spending enough on NATO has \"a unilateral focus on military spending as a percentage of the gross domestic product on defense.\"\nAhead of a July 11-12 NATO summit, Trump sent letters to several NATO allies demanding they boost their defense spending.\nIn an email Wednesday to The Associated Press, Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said he \"was not surprised by the letter\" where Trump wrote \"the United States is increasingly unwilling to ignore the European failure to meet shared security commitments.\"\nAfter Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, NATO allies agreed to stop cutting defense budgets and start moving toward a goal of devoting 2 percent of GDP to defense within a decade." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand's Pacific Challenge rugby test with Samoa on Friday will be important viewing for the British and Irish Lions eight days out from their series-opening test.\nWhile the Lions have seen individual All Blacks in action for Super Rugby teams so far on tour, Friday's match will give the tourists the first glimpse of a full All Blacks team and a better sense of the challenge awaiting them in the three-test series.\nAt the same time, the All Blacks have had a chance to assess the British and Irish squad in four tour matches to date and will gain more detailed knowledge of their opponents when the Lions field a near test-strength lineup against the New Zealand Maori on Saturday.\nNew Zealand has selected a strong lineup to face Samoa, and Lions coach Warren Gatland believes it provides insight into their selection thinking and the style they will adopt.\n\"It's close to their test team, I think,\" Gatland said. \"It looks like their strongest side.\n\"They're trying to get a game under their belts. I'm not sure they'll make many changes from that game against Samoa to the following weeks.\"\nThe All Blacks and Lions have something in common in the weekend matches as both will start under new captains. New Zealand captain Kieran Read will miss the Samoa match as he continues his recovery from a broken thumb and fullback Ben Smith will lead the team for the first time.\nThe Lions have named tour captain Sam Warburton on the bench for the match against the Maori, elevating Ireland flanker Peter O'Mahony to the captaincy. In doing so they have provided the strongest indication yet that Warburton, recovering from an ankle injury, may not be fit for the first test.\nThe All Blacks and Lions also have in common a strong sense of respect for their opponents this weekend. The Lions lost to the Maori when the teams last met in 2005. The All Blacks were lucky to beat Samoa 25-16 in their most-recent meeting in Samoa in 2015.\nHead coach Steve Hansen said the All Blacks were focusing closely on the Samoa match.\n\"Whilst we asked for this game to help us prepare for the Lions series, once it became a reality it then took on its own importance,\" he said. \"Samoa is about to kick off the qualifying stage of their Rugby World Cup campaign so this will make them even more dangerous.\"\nAll Blacks selectors will look closely at the form of scrumhalf Aaron Smith, under pressure from T.J. Perenara, and center Sonny Bill Williams, who could start against the Lions if Ryan Crotty is unfit. Hooker Codie Taylor is in line to start ahead of Dane Coles, who is concussed and will need to reassure the selectors that he is fit.\nSamoa will use the match as a springboard into midyear tests, which include World Cup qualifying games during the Pacific Nations Cup.\n\"The boys know they are playing the best team in the world and they know if they don't get it right it's going to be a long day,\" Samoa coach and former All Black Alama Ieremia said. \"We have to be smart.\"\nFriday's Pacific Challenge is a rarity which will see two test matches played at the same venue on the same day. Before the All Blacks play Samoa, Wales will play Tonga at Eden Park.\nWales will be without regular starters who are touring with the Lions and will use Friday's match to give a new generation of talent some test experience. Tonga welcomes a rare opportunity to play a top tier nation.\nVeteran center Jamie Roberts will lead Wales for the first time and said they will have to be at their physical best to hold out Tonga's challenge.\n\"When you play against the Pacific island teams, if you don't match these guys physically you're in for a long day,\" Roberts said. \"You have to take the game to them.\n\"They've got threats across the park and certainly they're pretty special athletes.\"" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has told the country's athletes to forget about doping scandals when they compete at the Pyeongchang Olympics.\nAs punishment for what it deemed a doping scheme during the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the International Olympic Committee has invited 169 Russians to compete under a neutral flag using the name \"Olympic Athletes from Russia.\"\nAt a meeting with athletes at his presidential residence outside Moscow, Putin says \"I wish you not to think about anything which has recently accompanied your preparation for these Olympics.\"\nHe adds that he hopes they \"focus on sporting competition, and that you know that following you, as usual, are hundreds of thousands, millions, of fans who love you and hope you win.\"" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "TOKYO (AP) — Japanese media say 11 people have died in a fire that engulfed a home for elderly welfare recipients in northern Japan.\nThe fire broke out before midnight Thursday in Sapporo, the main city on the island of Hokkaido. Media reports say that five residents were rescued.\nFootage on public broadcaster NHK showed flames and smoke pouring out of the three-story building as firefighters battled the blaze.\nThe cause of the fire is under investigation.\nKyodo News service says the building was a former inn that had been rented by the operator of the facility." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "CANTON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 23, 2018--US Acute Care Solutions (USACS) today announced Dr. Dominic J. Bagnoli will assume the position of Executive Chairman of the Board and the company named James Frary Chief Executive Officer.\nThis press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423005319/en/\nJames Frary, Chief Executive Officer of US Acute Care Solutions (Photo: Business Wire)\nIn his role as Executive Chairman, Dr. Bagnoli will, in partnership with Mr. Frary, focus on clinician advocacy, strategic planning, business development and hospital partner relationships.\nDr. Bagnoli said, “This new role affords me the opportunity to do what I love – advance the merits of the physician-owned practice model to physicians, prospective groups and system partners. I am very excited to turn over the CEO role to James at this point in our company’s history. James’ experience in partnering with clinicians and his passion for the USACS model makes him a perfect fit for our company.”\nMr. Frary said, “USACS has emerged as the destination for physicians seeking to preserve ownership in their practice and is the leader among acute care provider groups in quality and innovation. I am proud to join an organization built on such a noble foundation and we will remain true to our core principles as we continue to grow and serve more patients throughout their acute care episodes.”\nMr. Frary was most recently President of AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group, the U.S. market leader in solutions that enable providers to improve specialty care delivery to patients. In his role, Mr. Frary partnered with hospitals, oncologists, urologists and other specialists to increase access, affordability and outcomes of lifesaving specialty medications. Prior to AmerisourceBergen, Mr. Frary was a principal with global strategy firm Oliver Wyman. Mr. Frary is also the Chairman of the North Texas chapter of CEOs Against Cancer, an initiative of the American Cancer Society.\nMr. Frary holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.\nDr. Peter Hudson, founding Chairman of the Board and a director since 2015, will remain on the USACS Board as a director.\nDr. Hudson said, “Our Board of Directors, which is physician-led, has extraordinary confidence in the partnership between Dr. Bagnoli and Mr. Frary. We are certain USACS will only strengthen its position as an essential partner for independent physician groups and hospitals to provide patients the best possible care.”\nAbout USACS\nFounded by emergency medicine physician groups in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Ohio and Texas and capital partner Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, USACS is the national leader in physician-owned integrated acute care, including emergency medicine, hospitalist and observation services. USACS provides high quality emergency and hospitalist care to over 6 million patients annually at more than 200 locations in 22 states, and is aligned with leading hospital systems across the country. Visit www.usacs.com to learn more.\nView source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423005319/en/\nCONTACT: US Acute Care Solutions\nMarty Richmond, 330-493-4443 x1406\nCorporate Communications Director\nrichmondm@usacs.com\nKEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA OHIO\nINDUSTRY KEYWORD: PRACTICE MANAGEMENT HEALTH HOSPITALS ONCOLOGY OTHER HEALTH GENERAL HEALTH\nSOURCE: US Acute Care Solutions\nCopyright Business Wire 2018.\nPUB: 04/23/2018 09:00 AM/DISC: 04/23/2018 09:01 AM\nhttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423005319/en" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2018--Leyard and Planar, global leaders in visualization products, today introduced the Leyard ® DirectLight ® X LED Video Wall System, adding unrivaled video processing and management capabilities into the product.\nThis press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530005173/en/\nThe next-generation Leyard DirectLight X adds advanced video processing (Photo: Business Wire)\nThe award-winning Leyard ® DirectLight ® LED Video Wall System, introduced in late 2016, delivered unique value in the areas of front-mounting, thin profile, precise alignment, front service access, low power consumption, hot-swap off-board power and refined image performance. Leyard DirectLight X builds on this foundation adding the latest 4K video standards, signal extension, multi-source processing, system monitoring and modern web-based graphical control software. The result is a complete system that reduces dependence on external processing systems while making the video wall easier to operate and monitor.\n“It is exciting to deliver on the next chapter of the Leyard DirectLight vision,” said Steve Seminario, vice president of product marketing at Leyard and Planar. “With Leyard DirectLight X, we incorporate, in the box, the 4K standards compliance, video processing and modern UI that will allow our customers to realize more flexible and compelling video wall installations, more easily.”\nLeyard DirectLight X features a new, off-board video controller that offers unrivaled video processing capabilities built into the product. It includes new Leyard ® WallDirector ™ Software to further simplify video wall installation, monitoring and management while maintaining popular DirectLight features such as precision wall mounting, energy efficiency and fault tolerant operation.\nAdvanced Video Wall Processing\nLeyard DirectLight X comes with the Leyard ® Video Controller, making it the first LED video wall system on the market to integrate a remote power supply and advanced video processing directly into the product. Rack-mounted Leyard Video Controllers can scale to support nearly any size video wall, and allow for scaling, windowing and Picture-in-Picture to give customers flexibility as to how and where sources are displayed. The Leyard Video Controller includes Planar ® Big Picture Plus ™ video wall processing, which can scale sources across the entire video wall or across sections of the video wall. It also incorporates Leyard ® WallSync ™, providing precisely synchronized video playback and genlock across the video wall.\nThe Leyard Video Controller supports multiple 4K @ 60Hz inputs and the latest video standards including HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2 and HDCP 2.2. It provides a built-in video signal extension over CAT6 and optional fiber optic support for longer video runs and greater signal security.\nSimplified Operation and Management\nLeyard DirectLight X comes with Leyard WallDirector Software, a powerful, web-based user interface that simplifies video wall set-up, configuration, operation and monitoring. Leyard WallDirector offers the ability to drag-and-drop sources onto the video wall canvas and easily manipulate their size and position. It also includes presets that can recall video wall windowing layouts, making it quick to configure video wall content.\nWith Leyard WallDirector, customers can monitor the health status of video wall components from a central, local or remote location—proactively troubleshooting their video wall’s power supplies and video controllers. Leyard WallDirector is browser-based, cross-platform and can be operated on a tablet.\nEasy Installation and Maintenance\nLeyard DirectLight X is available in 0.7, 0.9, 1.2, 1.5, 1.8 and 2.5 millimeter pixel pitches. It features a 27-inch cabinet with a 16:9 aspect ratio, and comes with the Leyard ® Remote Power Supply, a redundant and hot swappable power supply that eliminates heat, weight and points of failure from the video wall.\nWith the Leyard ® EasyAlign ™ Mounting System, Leyard DirectLight X can be fully installed and serviced from the front—using six-axis alignment features to ensure the video wall is perfectly aligned and seamless. The video wall can be installed to occupy less than four inches of depth from the wall, making it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).\nLeyard DirectLight X is available through Leyard and Planar’s global worldwide network of authorized resellers. It will be showcased at Leyard and Planar’s booth at InfoComm 2018 (#C2520). For more information, please visit www.leyard.com/DirectLightX or www.planar.com/DirectLightX.\nAbout Leyard and Planar, A Leyard Company\nLeyard is a global leader in the design, production, distribution and service of digital displays, video walls and visualization products worldwide. The Leyard Group of companies and brands, which includes Planar Systems and eyevis, is comprised of displays, entertainment and lighting system solutions. Leyard is the number one market share leader in the LED display market and fine pitch LED and offers indoor, outdoor, fixed and creative displays ( Futuresource 2017). Used in applications such as broadcast, sports arenas, stadiums, advertisement networks, retail digital signage, control rooms, exhibitions, large scale events and digital cultural experiences, Leyard enjoys marquee installations globally and has over 300 patents in display technology. Founded in 1995, the group is headquartered in Beijing, China, and is traded on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (stock code: 300296). Forbes magazine (2013) named Leyard among “China’s Top 100 Most Potential Listed Companies.” For more information, visit www.leyard.com.\nView source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530005173/en/\nCONTACT: Blu Print Public Relations\n503-850-2454\nteam@bluprintpr.net\nor\nLeyard and Planar\nKim Brown\npr@leyardgroup.com\nKEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA OREGON\nINDUSTRY KEYWORD: TECHNOLOGY HARDWARE SOFTWARE AUDIO/VIDEO\nSOURCE: Leyard and Planar, A Leyard Company\nCopyright Business Wire 2018.\nPUB: 05/30/2018 12:00 PM/DISC: 05/30/2018 12:01 PM\nhttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530005173/en" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 23, 2018--Two of Mitsubishi Motors’ latest creations – the Eclipse Cross CUV and the GT-PHEV Concept – have received GOOD DESIGN™* awards from experts at The Chicago Athenaeum.\nThis press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423005470/en/\n2018 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (Photo: Business Wire)\nThe awards are an indication of the success of Mitsubishi Motors’ design renaissance, which include the face-lift for the Outlander, a string of acclaimed concept cars, and the all-new Eclipse Cross.\nThe GOOD DESIGN™ awards are the oldest and the most prestigious Global Awards Program for Design Excellence and Design Innovation. Organized by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, they are intended to create an awareness of contemporary design and to honor both products and industry leaders in design and manufacturing. GOOD DESIGN™ was founded in Chicago in 1950 by architecture and design legends Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Eero Saarinen, and Charles and Ray Eames.\n“It is an honor to have our hard work recognized by such a prestigious organization,” said Tsunehiro Kunimoto, CVP of the Design Division, MMC. “The Eclipse Cross is the first all-new car which features our Robust and Ingenious design philosophy. The GT-PHEV Concept hints at how this direction will shape the next generation of Mitsubishi SUVs.”\nThe Eclipse Cross is a fusion of sharp coupe looks and dynamic SUV mobility with signature Mitsubishi styling, technology and driving confidence. It features Mitsubishi's signature DYNAMIC SHIELD front design concept, with a protective shield shape visually formed by the black central area and chrome accents.\nThe rear design is distinguished by the almost cubist styling created around the high-mounted, stretched rear lamps and a horizontally divided rear window.\nThe MITSUBISHI GT-PHEV Concept, first seen at the Paris Motor Show in 2016, also features Mitsubishi’s latest design language together with MMC’s advanced and proprietary electric and all-wheel control technologies.\nIn its overall design, the MITSUBISHI GT-PHEV Concept projects the image of a “ground tourer,” expressing robust and ingenious qualities.\n“The GT-PHEV is not a production car. But it gives a clear indication of how Mitsubishi’s design language will evolve into cars you will be able to buy in the near future,” said Kunimoto. “I hope our work to bring Robust and Ingenious designs to fruition will continue to be recognized.”\n*… GOOD DESIGN™ is a Federally Registered and Protected Trademark of The Chicago Athenaeum.\nEclipse Cross: http://good-designawards.com/award-details.html?award=31770 GT-PHEV Concept: http://good-designawards.com/award-category.html?cat=30178&page=4\nAbout Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc., (MMNA) is responsible for all research and development, marketing, and sales for Mitsubishi Motors in the United States. MMNA sells sedans and crossovers/SUVs through a network of approximately 360 dealers. MMNA is leading the way in the development of highly efficient, affordably priced new gasoline-powered automobiles while using its industry-leading knowledge in battery electric vehicles to develop future EV and PHEV models. Mitsubishi has been producing cars for over 100 years. For more information, contact the Mitsubishi Motors News Bureau at (888) 560-6672 or visit media.mitsubishicars.com.\nAbout Mitsubishi Motors Corporation Mitsubishi Motors Corporation is a global automobile company based in Tokyo, Japan, which has a competitive edge in SUVs and pickup trucks, electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Since the Mitsubishi group produced its first car more than a century ago, we have demonstrated an ambitious and often disruptive approach, developing new vehicle genres and pioneering cutting-edge technologies. Deeply rooted in Mitsubishi Motors’ DNA, our brand strategy will appeal to ambitious drivers, willing to challenge conventional wisdom and ready to embrace change. Consistent with this mindset, Mitsubishi Motors introduced its new brand strategy in 2017, expressed in its “Drive your Ambition” tagline – a combination of personal drive and forward attitude, and a reflection of the constant dialogue between the brand and its customers. Today Mitsubishi Motors is committed to continuous investment in innovative new technologies, attractive design and product development, bringing exciting and authentic new vehicles to customers around the world.\nView source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423005470/en/\nCONTACT: For more information, please contact:\nMitsubishi Motors North America, Inc.\nJeff Holland\nDirector, Public Relations\nDesk: 714-372-6008\njeffrey.holland@na.mitsubishi-motors.com\nor\nErica Rasch\nSenior Specialist, Public Relations\nDesk: 714-372-6146\nerica.rasch@na.mitsubishi-motors.com\nKEYWORD: UNITED STATES ASIA PACIFIC NORTH AMERICA CALIFORNIA ILLINOIS JAPAN\nINDUSTRY KEYWORD: ENTERTAINMENT ARTS/MUSEUMS MANUFACTURING AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURING ALTERNATIVE VEHICLES/FUELS AUTOMOTIVE RECREATIONAL VEHICLES GENERAL AUTOMOTIVE\nSOURCE: Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc.\nCopyright Business Wire 2018.\nPUB: 04/23/2018 09:00 AM/DISC: 04/23/2018 09:01 AM\nhttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423005470/en" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "All Times EDT EASTERN CONFERENCE GP W L OT Pts GF GA Home Away Div Tampa Bay 72 49 19 4 102 260 202 26-8-2 23-11-2 15-7-2 Boston 71 45 17 9 99 239 184 25-7-5 20-10-4 15-5-2 Toronto 72 43 22 7 93 243 204 25-8-2 18-14-5 13-6-3 Washington 72 41 24 7 89 225 214 25-9-2 16-15-5 13-7-3 Pittsburgh 72 41 26 5 87 237 218 26-8-1 15-18-4 15-6-1 Columbus 73 40 28 5 85 205 203 24-11-2 16-17-3 13-10-3 Philadelphia 73 37 25 11 85 218 215 18-13-6 19-12-5 11-7-5 New Jersey 72 37 27 8 82 217 215 18-14-3 19-13-5 12-9-1 Florida 70 36 27 7 79 212 216 22-11-3 14-16-4 13-6-2 Carolina 72 31 30 11 73 194 225 16-14-6 15-16-5 9-10-5 N.Y. Rangers 72 32 32 8 72 208 231 20-13-4 12-19-4 9-8-3 N.Y. Islanders 72 30 32 10 70 231 262 16-14-4 14-18-6 10-12-2 Montreal 73 26 35 12 64 182 232 17-12-8 9-23-4 10-9-5 Ottawa 71 26 34 11 63 197 244 15-14-6 11-20-5 8-11-4 Detroit 72 26 35 11 63 184 224 13-14-8 13-21-3 6-13-4 Buffalo 72 23 37 12 58 172 236 11-21-5 12-16-7 10-8-3 WESTERN CONFERENCE GP W L OT Pts GF GA Home Away Div Nashville 72 48 14 10 106 236 178 25-7-4 23-7-6 17-4-2 Vegas 72 46 21 5 97 244 199 25-9-2 21-12-3 17-3-2 Winnipeg 72 43 19 10 96 240 189 26-7-2 17-12-8 13-8-2 Minnesota 72 41 24 7 89 224 206 24-6-6 17-18-1 11-11-0 San Jose 72 40 23 9 89 219 199 21-11-3 19-12-6 19-4-3 Colorado 72 39 25 8 86 231 209 25-9-2 14-16-6 10-10-3 Anaheim 73 37 24 12 86 206 197 22-10-5 15-14-7 11-6-7 Los Angeles 72 39 27 6 84 207 181 19-14-3 20-13-3 11-10-4 Dallas 73 38 27 8 84 209 197 24-10-3 14-17-5 11-13-0 St. Louis 72 39 28 5 83 201 193 21-15-0 18-13-5 10-10-3 Calgary 73 35 28 10 80 202 217 15-17-4 20-11-6 10-9-3 Chicago 73 30 34 9 69 208 223 17-15-4 13-19-5 7-10-3 Edmonton 72 31 36 5 67 201 231 16-17-3 15-19-2 13-9-1 Vancouver 72 25 38 9 59 186 236 12-18-6 13-20-3 6-16-1 Arizona 71 23 37 11 57 170 228 14-20-4 9-17-7 7-10-6\nNOTE: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per conference advance to playoffs.\nSunday's Games\nColorado 5, Detroit 1\nVegas 4, Calgary 0\nTampa Bay 3, Edmonton 1\nCarolina 4, N.Y. Islanders 3\nPhiladelphia 6, Washington 3\nWinnipeg 4, Dallas 2\nSt. Louis 5, Chicago 4, OT\nAnaheim 4, New Jersey 2\nMonday's Games\nColumbus 5, Boston 4, OT\nNashville 4, Buffalo 0\nFlorida 2, Montreal 0\nLos Angeles at Minnesota, 8 p.m.\nCalgary at Arizona, 10 p.m.\nTuesday's Games\nColumbus at N.Y. Rangers, 7 p.m.\nDallas at Washington, 7 p.m.\nPittsburgh at N.Y. Islanders, 7 p.m.\nEdmonton at Carolina, 7 p.m.\nFlorida at Ottawa, 7:30 p.m.\nPhiladelphia at Detroit, 7:30 p.m.\nToronto at Tampa Bay, 7:30 p.m.\nLos Angeles at Winnipeg, 8 p.m.\nColorado at Chicago, 8:30 p.m.\nVancouver at Vegas, 10 p.m.\nNew Jersey at San Jose, 10:30 p.m.\nWednesday's Games\nMontreal at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.\nArizona at Buffalo, 7 p.m.\nBoston at St. Louis, 8 p.m.\nAnaheim at Calgary, 9:30 p.m.\nThursday's Games\nN.Y. Rangers at Philadelphia, 7 p.m.\nArizona at Carolina, 7 p.m.\nFlorida at Columbus, 7 p.m.\nTampa Bay at N.Y. Islanders, 7 p.m.\nWashington at Detroit, 7:30 p.m.\nEdmonton at Ottawa, 7:30 p.m.\nToronto at Nashville, 8 p.m.\nVancouver at Chicago, 8:30 p.m.\nLos Angeles at Colorado, 9 p.m.\nVegas at San Jose, 10 p.m." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — There may be no more potent reminder of California's humongous snowfall than the plows still clearing roads that snake across the state's highest mountains as summer approaches.\nCrews have been digging, blowing and blasting for months — and the work is not finished, though an approaching heat wave could speed up the process.\n\"We're almost at the middle of June and we still have lots of passes that aren't open,\" said Florene Trainor, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation.\nFew roads traverse the Sierra Nevada, the rocky spine running 400 miles up the state that is home to Yosemite National Park. Mountain passes are typically open by Memorial Day.\nThe only road through Yosemite, Highway 120, remained closed this week as crews dig out from snows that topped 20 feet and drifted well over 50 feet.\nOn a recent day, the park's entrance station at 9,945-foot high Tioga Pass was buried in snow.\nBut the serenity of the Sierra Nevada, with birds chirping beneath snow-crested peaks that tower above 12,000 feet, was shaken by the roar and beep of plows, excavators and massive machines carving through 15-foot snowbanks and moving giant blocks of snow. Big snow blowers sent plumes arcing through the air and off the side of the road.\nAs the Caltrans crew dug the entrance out from the east, a crew from the park was working from the west to clear the road that winds its way to Yosemite Valley, the park's top destination.\nCaltrans had begun inching its way up the road more than two months ago when it seemed more like winter. It snowed on and off throughout the spring, with a late-season storm hitting last weekend.\nThe air is clean and views are stunning, but working here is not for the faint of heart as drivers maneuver large machines along narrow ribbons that feel suspended above an abyss. Helicopter footage shot this spring for Caltrans showed the small margin for error in places where the road clung to cliffs and then vanished under a white blanket where the path was obscured.\n\"It's spooky, it's nerve-wracking ... especially when you can't see the road. You're on a big sled,\" said Clint Weier, a maintenance superintendent with Caltrans. \"Some of our operators up here have had some wow factors.\"\nAvalanches stampede down granite walls, taking trees and rocks with them that choke roads. In one section, tree trunks and branches from a previous slide poked from sheer snowbanks littered with pine needles and other debris from a previous snow slide.\nRockslides pose a threat even after workers use charges and other methods to release snow slides to alleviate the danger. Slides and the crushing weight of the snowpack damaged guardrails in some places that serve as the lone barrier between the road and a precipitous drop that plunges hundreds of feet east of the park entrance.\nA Yosemite plow driver was killed by an avalanche in 1995 and now maintenance workers in the park complete avalanche safety courses to work on the road, park spokesman Scott Gediman said.\nThe park's official map notes that the eastern entrance atop the state's highest automobile pass is typically closed through May, but it usually opens later after a snowy winter, Gediman said Tuesday. There's no date yet to open the road through the park.\nJust to the north of the park, Sonora Pass opened Tuesday. Ebbetts Pass farther north remains closed, said Skip Allum, a Caltrans spokesman. To the south, crews plowed the road over Minaret Summit near Mammoth Mountain ski area.\nIn Lassen Volcanic National Park, much farther north, deep snow still buries the road that circles the southernmost peak in the Cascade Range. The road is expected to open in early July.\nThe snowpack presented an additional challenge this year because it was heavily saturated with water. The dense and frozen snow was harder to cut through, heavier to move and broke equipment, Paul Jensen, a Caltrans plow driver, said.\nJensen has been working overtime all spring to get the road into Yosemite open and hasn't minded working weekends. He considers it a labor of love.\n\"Twenty years and I'm still not tired of it,\" Jensen said. \"It's my favorite time of the year.\"\n___\nMelley reported from Los Angeles." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "BC-BBA--Top Ten\nBASEBALL'S TOP TEN By The Associated Press AMERICAN LEAGUE G AB R H Pct. Betts Bos 48 184 52 66 .359 Brantley Cle 43 178 28 61 .343 Simmons LAA 53 197 32 66 .335 Altuve Hou 56 229 33 76 .332 Segura Sea 51 218 37 72 .330 MMachado Bal 55 215 30 70 .326 JMartinez Bos 53 205 36 66 .322 Castellanos Det 51 204 28 65 .319 MDuffy TB 39 156 10 49 .314 Ramos TB 42 159 16 49 .308 Home Runs\nTrout, Los Angeles, 18; JMartinez, Boston, 18; Betts, Boston, 17; JoRamirez, Cleveland, 16; MMachado, Baltimore, 16; Gallo, Texas, 15; Judge, New York, 15; KDavis, Oakland, 13; 5 tied at 12.\nRuns Batted In\nJMartinez, Boston, 47; MMachado, Baltimore, 45; Judge, New York, 40; Lowrie, Oakland, 39; Haniger, Seattle, 39; JoRamirez, Cleveland, 39; KDavis, Oakland, 38; Benintendi, Boston, 38; Betts, Boston, 37; 2 tied at 36.\nPitching\nMorton, Houston, 7-0; Severino, New York, 7-1; Porcello, Boston, 7-2; Kluber, Cleveland, 7-2; Verlander, Houston, 7-2; Happ, Toronto, 7-3; Snell, Tampa Bay, 7-3; Rodriguez, Boston, 6-1; Tanaka, New York, 6-2; 2 tied at 6-3." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three-division world champion Vasyl Lomachenko has undergone surgery to fix a torn labrum in his right shoulder.\nThe two-time Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine hopes to return to the ring later this year, according to a statement Wednesday from his promoter.\nLomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) had arthroscopic surgery at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles by orthopedic surgeon Neal ElAttrache.\nLomachenko says he hurt his shoulder during the second round of his 10th-round stoppage victory over Jorge Linares in New York on May 12 to defend his WBA lightweight title.\nElAttrache says Lomachenko had an \"extensive\" tear in his labrum along with cartilage damage, but the surgeon believes Lomachenko will make a full recovery.\nLomachenko initially planned to fight again Aug. 25, but won't make that date while recovering." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates says its ambassador to Afghanistan has died of wounds sustained in a January bombing that also claimed the lives of five other Emirati nationals.\nThe official WAM news agency on Wednesday cited the Ministry of Presidential Affairs in announcing the death of Ambassador Juma Mohammed Abdullah al-Kaabi.\nThe ambassador was wounded in a bombing in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Jan. 10. Kandahar Gov. Homayun Azizia was among others wounded in the explosion.\nThe Taliban denied they were behind the blast, which the militant group blamed on an \"internal local rivalry.\"" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "SANAA, Yemen (AP) — The U.N. envoy to Yemen has expressed optimism after meeting with the top leader of the Houthi rebels in a bid to end the country's devastating civil war.\nIn a statement issued before his departure from the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, Martin Griffiths said the rebels expressed a \"strong desire for peace\" and discussed \"concrete ideas for achieving peace,\" without elaborating.\nHe said he may meet with President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in the southern city of Aden.\nA Saudi-led coalition allied with Hadi's internationally recognized government has been at war with the Houthis since 2015, and previous peace efforts have failed.\nThe U.N. hopes to prevent a full-scale coalition assault on the port city of Hodeida, a vital lifeline for a country already teetering on the brink of famine." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "LONDON (AP) — A senior BBC journalist who quit her post to protest the gender pay gap says management is hurting the corporation's credibility by failing to address the issue.\nCarrie Gracie, the broadcaster's former China editor, says BBC managers have treated women who speak out about pay \"as some sort of enemy.\"\nTensions over pay flared last summer when the BBC released a list of top earners that showed many high-profile women earned far less than their male counterparts.\nShe told a committee of lawmakers on Wednesday that management's failure to address the problem was \"damaging the credibility of the BBC in a completely unacceptable way.\"\nGracie resigned from her post in early January, after learning that male colleagues in similar jobs had much higher salaries." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "There has never been a women's luge athlete who has won more World Cup medals than Natalie Geisenberger. Same goes for world championship medals, same goes for Olympic medals.\nHer resume is beyond compare.\nSo she's the best ever to slide, right?\n\"No,\" she says, adamantly. \"I'm not the best.\"\nShe may not think so, but plenty of people in the luge world think otherwise. There may no other athlete at the Pyeongchang Olympics — not Lindsey Vonn, not Mikaela Shiffrin, not Nathan Chen — more expected to win than Geisenberger, the star attraction of a juggernaut German luge program that has been miles ahead of the rest of the world for generations.\n\"I'm not one who looks to the number of races or being on the podium,\" Geisenberger said .\nMaybe she should. Here's a baffling comparison: The United States, in its entire World Cup luge history, has 45 gold medals. Geisenberger has 43 golds in singles races alone, 64 when adding her appearances in relay events and 117 total medals just from World Cup events.\nShe has 12 world championship medals and three Olympic medals, both tying for the best ever. In Germany, she is considered an absolute sporting superstar — whether she wants the spotlight or not.\n\"The motivation is that I like what I do, I love what I do,\" Geisenberger said. \"I like the sport. I love to race against other people, to fight against myself and I like to be successful. I know the feeling to stand on the podium, on the top. I know the feeling when the national anthem is playing. I'm addicted to that feeling.\"\nGermans don't win every race. It just seems that way. Geisenberger is the defending Olympic champion who won 13 medals in 13 races in World Cup singles competition this season. Two-time defending men's Olympic champion Felix Loch led all men with eight singles medals. The doubles team of Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken medaled in 12 of 13 events, winning gold in 10 of them.\nAdd up all the World Cup races from this winter, and the rest of the world won 17. Germany won 28.\n\"I don't know what the magic ingredient is,\" said U.S. women's luge veteran Erin Hamlin, a two-time world champion and the 2014 Olympic women's bronze medalist. \"They're competitors. They come out on race day and you can pretty much bet they're going to go faster than they did all week in training. Happens all the time. They're breaking track records almost every week.\"\nLoch is trying to be only the second man to win three consecutive Olympic luge gold medals. The other, of course, was a German — Georg Hackl did it in 1992, 1994 and 1998. Geisenberger could be the first woman to win three Olympic luge golds, after winning in singles and as part of the team relay at Sochi in 2014.\n\"I like the sport very much and that's the important thing,\" said Loch, who's only 28 and plans on going through at least one more Olympic cycle. \"I like sliding, the feeling, the speed. That's what's so cool about the sport.\"\nThey make it seem so simple.\nIt is anything but. Luge is highly technical, with the quality of equipment every bit as important as the slider's technique. The Germans have four tracks, which is more than any other nation, so they have the best home-ice advantage in the sport. And they're an extremely well-funded program, which never hurts.\nThat, along with the widespread belief that they have some secrets to get the most out of their sleds, frustrates other sliders in countless ways.\nTake Loch's final run on the Americans' home track in Lake Placid, New York, earlier this season: He bounced off walls, was late into some curves, didn't exit some others on the fastest possible line, and all that often means a slider loses time. But Loch somehow crossed the line with one of the fastest times in the heat, which baffled some of his competitors.\n\"It's tough to understand how that happens,\" U.S. men's veteran Chris Mazdzer said.\nGeisenberger turns 30 on Monday, and could easily keep going through the 2022 Olympics if so inclined. If she knows what her future is, she's not telling — though it is expected that she'll be back next season since the world championships are in Germany.\nFor now, all she's thinking about is Pyeongchang. And if anyone other than Geisenberger wins gold, it'll be an upset.\n\"I have not said that I will stop after the Olympics, and I have not said I will continue for sure,\" Geisenberger said. \"If my body is still OK and if I'm still hungry for success, I will continue. If not, I will stop.\"\n___\nMore AP Olympics: https://wintergames.ap.org" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "BC-BBA--Top Ten\nBASEBALL'S TOP TEN By The Associated Press AMERICAN LEAGUE G AB R H Pct. MMachado Bal 23 89 13 32 .360 Lowrie Oak 23 98 13 35 .357 Altuve Hou 24 94 13 33 .351 Betts Bos 20 75 23 26 .347 Gregorius NYY 22 75 19 26 .347 Correa Hou 23 81 17 28 .346 MSmith TB 19 61 9 21 .344 Judge NYY 22 82 22 28 .341 HRamirez Bos 19 75 16 25 .333 Cano Sea 22 78 16 25 .321 Haniger Sea 22 78 12 25 .321 Home Runs\nTrout, Los Angeles, 9; Haniger, Seattle, 8; Gregorius, New York, 8; MMachado, Baltimore, 8; Gallo, Texas, 7; JoRamirez, Cleveland, 7; Judge, New York, 7; 6 tied at 6.\nRuns Batted In\nGregorius, New York, 27; Haniger, Seattle, 24; Lowrie, Oakland, 23; KDavis, Oakland, 21; Correa, Houston, 19; GSanchez, New York, 18; 6 tied at 17.\nPitching\nPorcello, Boston, 4-0; Carrasco, Cleveland, 4-0; Severino, New York, 4-1; Clippard, Toronto, 3-0; Velazquez, Boston, 3-0; Richards, Los Angeles, 3-0; Morton, Houston, 3-0; Verlander, Houston, 3-0; 6 tied at 3-1." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican authorities say a measuring device containing radioactive material has been stolen in north-central Mexico.\nThe Interior Department says the gauge — apparently of a type commonly used in road construction — was taken on Monay from a roadside in the state of Queretaro.\nThe department said Tuesday that the equipment poses a low level of risk, but urged the public to report it if they find it.\nThere have been a half dozen thefts of radioactive material in Mexico in the last two years. The hazardous materials have been recovered in the previous cases." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's president said Monday there was no institutionalized participation by Poland or its people in the Holocaust but acknowledged that individual Poles took \"wicked\" actions against Jewish neighbors.\nPresident Andrzej Duda said he would never allow Poland and Poles in general to be \"vilified\" though \"false accusations.\"\nDuda seemed to be reacting to anger in Israel over a Polish bill that would outlaw public statements assigning to \"the Polish nation\" responsibility for crimes committed by Nazi Germany during its World War II occupation of Poland.\nViolations of the proposed law would be punishable by fines or prison terms of up to three years. A section of the bill exempts prohibited statements made \"within artistic or scientific activity.\"\nSome 6 million Polish citizens, half of them Jews, died under the Nazi occupation of Poland. In Israel, the legislation has been interpreted as an attempt to undermine scholarly research and deny facts about the Holocaust.\nDuda's top aide, Krzysztof Szczerski, met Monday with Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari to discuss the bill's wording, which critics say is unclear.\nSzczerski characterized the talk as \"difficult and frank\" and said he was critical of the reaction in Israel to the legislation approved by the lower house of Poland's parliament Friday.\nSpeaking during a visit to the southern town of Zory on Monday, Duda said that referring to the camps built and operated by the Germans in occupied Poland as \"Polish death camps\" is an example of the kind of statements the law is meant to address.\nThe president said he condemned anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred.\nThe prime ministers of Poland and Israel agreed after speaking by phone Sunday night to try to resolve differences over the legislation by convening a group of history experts." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "NEW DELHI (AP) — India's government has asked WhatsApp to take immediate action to prevent the social media site from being misused to spread rumors and irresponsible statements like those blamed for recent deadly mob attacks.\nAt least 20 people have been killed in mostly rural villages in many Indian states by attacking mobs that were inflamed by social media. Victims were innocent people accused in the viral messages of belonging to gangs trying to abduct children.\nIndia's ministry of electronics and information technology said in a statement late Tuesday the lynchings were tied to \"irresponsible and explosive messages\" circulated on WhatsApp. It wasn't specific on preventative measures it expected.\nThe social messaging platform owned by Facebook said in a blog it would institute awards for research on \"spread of misinformation\" on its platform." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2018--AmericanTours International (ATI) was honored by the U.S. Travel Association (USTA) and Brand USA as one of America’s highest-volume tour operators at the Chairman’s Circle Honors Awards ceremony during the association’s 50th annual IPW in Denver, Colorado. This elite awards event —co-hosted by Brand USA— honored international travel buyers for outstanding efforts to bring the world to America.\nThis press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530006439/en/\nL-R Chris Thompson CEO of Brand USA, Nick Hentschel COO of ATI, Noel Irwin Hentschel CEO of ATI and Roger Dow President USTA (Photo: Business Wire)\n“IPW’s goal is to bring the world to America, and this year’s Chairman’s Circle honorees do all that they can to make that vision a reality,” said USTA President and CEO Roger Dow. “The honorees do tremendous work to ensure that travelers all around the world know that the U.S. is a great place to visit and they have my deepest gratitude for their contributions to the U.S. travel industry.”\nPresented with the award by Roger Dow, ATI Chair/CEO Noel Irwin Hentschel stated, “It is an honor to be recognized by USTA and Brand USA for ATI’s passionate work in showcasing America to the world. ATI appreciates our partnerships with all the international tour operators, hotel companies and great destinations like Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Parks. We roll out the red carpet welcoming travelers to visit all 50 states with ATI-every visitor to the USA is a VIP.”\nHentschel was recently appointed to the board of directors of Brand USA by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. Brand USA is the destination marketing organization for the United States and a public-private partnership created by the Travel Promotion Act to increase incremental international visitation to fuel the nation’s economy and enhance the image of the USA worldwide.\nATI revolutionizes the inbound travel industry setting standards for quality of service, product innovation, and technological expertise. ATI creates and operates unique motorcoach tours, creative incentives, customized special interest group experiences and DriveAmerica fly-drive itineraries in multiple languages. ATI packages wholesale hotel and attraction inventory from 30,000 suppliers across all 50 states in over 70 international markets.\nATI is America's largest privately held, American-owned, full-service Visit USA destination management and marketing organization. Headquartered in California and Florida with offices in New York and Hawaii, ATI serves nearly one million visitors generating an estimated $3 billion into the U.S. economy annually.\nView source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530006439/en/\nCONTACT: AmericanTours International\nRebecca Rueseler\n310-590-4118\nRebecca_rueseler@americantours.com\nKEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA CALIFORNIA\nINDUSTRY KEYWORD: TRAVEL DESTINATIONS VACATION COMMUNICATIONS ADVERTISING MARKETING\nSOURCE: AmericanTours International\nCopyright Business Wire 2018.\nPUB: 05/30/2018 04:27 PM/DISC: 05/30/2018 04:27 PM\nhttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530006439/en" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- American travel salesman Mark Rolison captured this photo in 2015 of Fuxing North Road and the Wenhu Line from the Nanjing Fuxing MRT station on the border of Taipei's Songshan and Zhongshan districts.\nThe photo was taken at 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 5, 2015 at the corner of Fuxing North Road and Nanjing East Road with the elevated Wenhu Line rolling, seemingly endlessly toward Yangmingshan in the distance.\nRolison, 32, who is based in New Orleans, Louisiana, was vising a friend in Taiwan at the time he took the photo. As for Rolison's impression of the city, \"I found Taipei to be very clean and organized compared to other Asian cities I have visited. This photo is a great representation of that.\"\n(Photo by Mark Rolison)" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Paleontologists from Bulgaria and Macedonia are excavating the fossilized remains of a prehistoric elephant believed to pre-date the mammoth, after its bones were discovered accidentally by a man working in a field.\nScientists at the Natural Science Museum of Macedonia and the Natural History Museum of Sofia said Tuesday they began excavating the skeleton in Dolni Disan in central Macedonia last Friday. They estimated the animal would have weighed about 10 tons and have been about 50 years old at the time of its death, roughly 8 million years ago during the Miocene epoch.\nBiljana Garevska of the Natural Science Museum in Skopje said the fossil was of one of the elephant's ancestors which roamed the region at a time when it was covered by African-like savannah." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "NEW YORK (AP) — Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 22 points and Michael Beasley added 17 as the New York Knicks defeated the Chicago Bulls 110-92 on Monday night.\nEnes Kanter had 10 points and 13 rebounds, while Troy Williams added 11 for the Knicks.\nCristiano Felicio scored a career-high 17 points for the Bulls, who were missing their top three scorers and went 3-for-30 from 3-point range. Bobby Portis and Antonio Blakeney scored 16 points apiece.\nThe Knicks used an 11-0 run to end the second quarter and take a 47-37 halftime lead.\nFelicio scored Chicago's first 11 points of the second half and the Bulls pulled within four, 56-52, on Denzel Valentine's layup with 7:45 left.\nThat was close as they would get, as the Knicks followed with a 21-5 stretch and opened up a 77-57 lead on the second of Hardaway's consecutive 3-pointers with 2:35 left in the quarter.\nNew York led 83-67 at the end of the third, and the Bulls got within 10 points midway through the fourth. The Knicks responded with an 11-2 run that put the game away.\nTIP-INS\nBulls: Coach Fred Hoiberg said Kris Dunn was being put in a walking boot after he suffered a right toe sprain against Memphis on Thursday. Dunn also missed Chicago's game against Cleveland on Saturday. ... The Bulls had beaten the Knicks in the teams' previous three meetings this season.\nKnicks: Courtney Lee returned after missing Saturday's game for personal reasons. Lance Thomas missed his second straight game for personal reasons. ... The Knicks ended their five-game homestand at 2-3.\nMISSING THE POINT\nChicago's Zach LaVine (16.7 points per game), Lauri Markkanen (14.9) and Dunn (13.4) were out with injuries. Nikola Mirotic, who had been leading the Bulls in scoring (16.8), was traded to New Orleans on February 1.\nHONORING A HERO\nDuring a timeout, the Knicks honored former Army Staff Sgt. Alfredo De Los Santos and presented him with a $10,000 scholarship for his daughter, Josely. De Los Santos lost his right leg when he was wounded in Afghanistan in 2008. He is now a professional hand cyclist who had a 4th-place finish at the 2016 Paralympics.\nALTERNATE UNIVERSE\nThe Bulls lost to the Cavaliers on Saturday and dropped consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 26-27. The Knicks, who beat the Hornets on Saturday, won consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 26-30.\nLONELY VALENTINE\nDenzel Valentine is the only player on either team who has played in every game this season. He has started 34 of the Bulls' 70 games.\nUP NEXT\nBulls: Host Denver on Wednesday.\nKnicks: Visit Miami on Wednesday.\n___\nMore NBA basketball: https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 24, 2018--PureTech Health plc (LSE: PRTC) (“PureTech Health” or the “Company”), an advanced, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, is pleased to announce today the appointment of Joep Muijrers, as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer after 11 successful years as a Partner and Portfolio Manager at LSP (Life Sciences Partners), a trans-Atlantic investor group with exclusive focus on life sciences, where he helped several companies become leaders in the biopharma industry and generated tremendous value for his firm’s stakeholders. In his new role at PureTech Health, Dr. Muijrers will be responsible for all aspects of the Company’s finances, including capital markets strategy and execution, driving monetization events for growth stage affiliates, strategic and financial planning, and financial reporting.\nThis press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423006532/en/\nDr. Joep Muijrers joins PureTech Health as Chief Financial Officer (Photo: Business Wire)\n“We are delighted to have Joep join PureTech Health and bring his diverse experience in life sciences and impressive track record of significant value creation to our team as we enter this next important phase of our growth,” said Daphne Zohar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PureTech Health.\n“I have had the privilege of leading investments in a number of successful biotech companies, including those that were involved in some of the largest strategic transactions since the beginning of last year (Kite Pharma, Ablynx, CoLucid, Forward Pharma, NeuroDerm, and Juno Therapeutics). After a highly rewarding experience as an investor and investment banker, I am excited to be transitioning into an operating role,” Dr. Muijrers commented. “I am thrilled to join PureTech Health, one of the most exciting and unique biopharma companies I have come across in my career. I look forward to working with the seasoned team at the Company to help unlock the enormous value in the compelling internally-funded pipeline, as well as the exciting pipeline of affiliates.”\nDr. Muijrers joins PureTech Health with two decades of experience in corporate and capital finance, specifically focused on public market investment, M&A, portfolio management, strategic asset allocation, financial and regulatory reporting, and fundraising. In his previous role at LSP, Dr. Muijrers was responsible for investing in publicly-traded life sciences companies, a strategy that generated a total return in excess of 900% during the past decade, more than twice the return of the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index during the same period. Prior to joining LSP, Dr. Muijrers served as Director Corporate Finance and Capital Markets at Fortis Bank, currently part of ABN AMRO. Dr. Muijrers holds a Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and a Master’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands.\nAbout PureTech Health PureTech Health (PRTC.L) is an advanced, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel medicines targeting serious diseases that result from dysfunctions in the nervous, immune, and gastrointestinal systems (brain-immune-gut or the “BIG” axis), which together represent the adaptive human systems. PureTech Health is at the forefront of understanding and addressing the biological processes and crosstalk associated with the BIG axis. By harnessing this emerging field of human biology, PureTech Health is pioneering new categories of medicine with the potential to have great impact on people with serious diseases. PureTech Health is advancing a rich pipeline of innovative therapies that includes two pivotal stage programs, multiple human proof-of-concept studies and a number of early clinical and pre-clinical programs. PureTech’s research and development pipeline has been advanced in collaboration with some of the world’s leading scientific experts, who along with PureTech's team of biopharma pioneers, entrepreneurs and seasoned Board, identify, invent, and clinically de-risk new medicines. With this experienced team pursuing cutting edge science, PureTech Health is building the biopharma company of the future focused on improving and extending the lives of people with serious disease. For more information, visit www.puretechhealth.com or connect with us on Twitter @puretechh.\nForward Looking Statement This press release contains statements that are or may be forward-looking statements, including statements that relate to PureTech’s future prospects, developments and strategies. The forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance and achievements to differ materially from current expectations, including, but not limited to, those risks and uncertainties described in the risk factors included in the regulatory filings for PureTech Health. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions regarding the present and future business strategies of the company and the environment in which it will operate in the future. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as at the date of this press release. Except as required by law and regulatory requirements, neither PureTech Health nor any other party intends to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.\nView source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423006532/en/\nCONTACT: PureTech Health\nAllison Mead Talbot, +1 617-651-3156\namt@puretechhealth.com\nor\nTen Bridge Communications\nTom Donovan, +1 857 559 3397\ntom@tenbridgecommunications.com\nKEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA MASSACHUSETTS\nINDUSTRY KEYWORD: HEALTH BIOTECHNOLOGY PHARMACEUTICAL GENERAL HEALTH\nSOURCE: PureTech Health\nCopyright Business Wire 2018.\nPUB: 04/24/2018 02:00 AM/DISC: 04/24/2018 02:01 AM\nhttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423006532/en" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "All Times EST EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division GP W L OT Pts GF GA Tampa Bay 50 34 13 3 71 176 128 Boston 48 29 11 8 66 157 119 Toronto 51 28 18 5 61 162 146 Florida 48 20 22 6 46 136 159 Detroit 48 19 21 8 46 126 146 Montreal 50 20 24 6 46 130 159 Ottawa 48 15 24 9 39 125 168 Buffalo 50 14 27 9 37 115 166 Metropolitan Division GP W L OT Pts GF GA Washington 49 29 15 5 63 150 138 Pittsburgh 52 28 21 3 59 156 155 New Jersey 49 25 16 8 58 147 147 Columbus 50 27 19 4 58 133 140 Philadelphia 49 24 17 8 56 141 141 N.Y. Rangers 50 25 20 5 55 153 151 N.Y. Islanders 51 25 21 5 55 173 184 Carolina 50 23 19 8 54 139 155 WESTERN CONFERENCE Central Division GP W L OT Pts GF GA Winnipeg 51 30 13 8 68 167 137 Nashville 48 29 12 7 65 146 125 St. Louis 52 31 18 3 65 151 131 Dallas 50 28 18 4 60 155 134 Minnesota 50 27 18 5 59 147 142 Colorado 48 27 18 3 57 157 139 Chicago 50 24 19 7 55 148 137 Pacific Division GP W L OT Pts GF GA Vegas 48 32 12 4 68 164 128 San Jose 49 26 16 7 59 145 138 Anaheim 51 25 17 9 59 144 142 Calgary 49 25 16 8 58 137 135 Los Angeles 49 26 18 5 57 139 121 Edmonton 49 22 24 3 47 135 157 Vancouver 49 19 24 6 44 127 159 Arizona 50 12 29 9 33 118 172\nNOTE: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per conference advance to playoffs.\nMonday's Games No games scheduled\nTuesday's Games\nMinnesota 3, Columbus 2, SO\nPittsburgh 5, San Jose 2\nFlorida 4, N.Y. Islanders 1\nAnaheim 3, Boston 1\nCarolina 2, Ottawa 1\nNew Jersey 3, Buffalo 1\nWinnipeg 3, Tampa Bay 1\nSt. Louis 3, Montreal 1\nChicago 2, Nashville 1\nLos Angeles at Dallas, 8:30 p.m.\nVegas at Calgary, 9 p.m.\nColorado at Vancouver, 10 p.m.\nWednesday's Games\nN.Y. Islanders at Toronto, 7:30 p.m.\nSan Jose at Detroit, 8 p.m.\nPhiladelphia at Washington, 8 p.m.\nThursday's Games\nToronto at N.Y. Rangers, 7 p.m.\nMontreal at Carolina, 7 p.m.\nSt. Louis at Boston, 7 p.m.\nFlorida at Buffalo, 7 p.m.\nAnaheim at Ottawa, 7 p.m.\nPhiladelphia at New Jersey, 7 p.m.\nVegas at Winnipeg, 8 p.m.\nLos Angeles at Nashville, 8:30 p.m.\nTampa Bay at Calgary, 9 p.m.\nDallas at Arizona, 9 p.m.\nColorado at Edmonton, 9 p.m.\nChicago at Vancouver, 10 p.m.\nFriday's Games\nWashington at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.\nDetroit at Carolina, 7 p.m.\nSan Jose at Columbus, 7 p.m.\nVegas at Minnesota, 8 p.m." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A federal judge overseeing the restructuring of Puerto Rico's debt has created a mediation team to help resolve the U.S. territory's bankruptcy cases.\nLaura Taylor Swain said in a ruling Wednesday that five federal judges have been appointed to the team. All settlement negotiations will be confidential.\nThe team will be led by Chief Judge Barbara Houser of the U.S. bankruptcy court for Texas' northern district. Houser is expected to provide details of the mediation process at a June 28 hearing in Puerto Rico.\nSwain said the mediation process will remain separate from any bankruptcy cases and will be seen concurrently with those.\nPuerto Rico is mired in a 10-year economic recession and seeking to restructure a portion of its $73 billion public debt." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "LOS ANGELES (AP) — The estate of Michael Jackson is suing Disney, saying an ABC television special on the singer's last days infringed on its intellectual property.\nThe Associated Press obtained the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. court in Los Angeles against the network and parent company Disney.\nIt alleges that last week's special, \"The Last Days of Michael Jackson,\" illegally uses significant excerpts of his most valuable songs, including \"Billie Jean\" and \"Bad,\" and music videos, including \"Thriller\" and \"Black or White.\" It says the special also used clips from a documentary and feature film belonging to the estate.\nABC representatives didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But when the Jackson camp raised objections last week, the network defended it as a news show that didn't violate the estate's rights." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "PARIS (AP) — American artist Jeff Koons met with the French culture minister Tuesday amid a debate over a monumental sculpture he plans to offer Paris as a memorial to victims of the 2015 terror attacks.\nTwo dozen people from the worlds of French art and entertainment signed an open letter this month urging the city to refuse Koons' \"Bouquet of Tulips,\" calling the project \"shocking\" and its creator too commercially driven.\nKoons donated the design in 2016, but not the cost to produce or install the sculpture. It is expected to weigh 36 metric tons (39.6-tons) and stand nearly 12-meters (39.3-feet) high.\nThe project's direct and associated costs reportedly run to several million euros, some of which private sponsors are expected to pay.\nThe sculpture is intended for a museum hill with a view of the Eiffel tower." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time in nearly 30 years, the Senate has confirmed a judicial nominee without a seal of approval from a home state senator.\nThe 56-42 vote Tuesday to confirm David Stras of Minnesota demonstrates anew Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's resolve in getting President Donald Trump's judicial nominees confirmed.\nThe Republican-led Senate went ahead with a committee hearing and a vote for Stras despite one of his home state senators, former Democratic Sen. Al Franken, declining to return what is referred to as a \"blue slip.\"\nOver the years, senators could derail a vote by not returning their blue slip. The last time a judge was confirmed without two blue slips was 1989.\nStras will join the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's media regulator has imposed a fine of nearly 1.5 million zlotys ($420,000) on a private news channel for what it alleges was unfair reporting during a political crisis last year.\nThe broadcaster, TVN24, said it will appeal what it called an \"unfounded\" penalty.\nThe move comes amid reports that Poland's ruling Law and Justice party is seeking a state takeover of TVN24, which is owned by an American company, Scripps Networks Interactive, and whose reporting is sometimes critical of the government.\nThe National Broadcasting Council said in a statement Monday that TVN24 coverage of street protests in December 2016 violated the law by \"propagating illegal activities and promoting behavior that threatens security.\"\nScripps Networks Interactive, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, is being bought out by Discovery Communications." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "NEW YORK (AP) — Quite a rally for Rumor — a commanding comeback for German shepherds, too.\nRumor was crowned America's top dog Tuesday night when, a year after a near miss on the very same green carpet, she came out of retirement to win best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club.\nCheered loudly all around the ring by a packed crowd at Madison Square Garden, she's just the second German shepherd champion at the event that began in 1877.\n\"Unbelievable,\" handler and co-owner Kent Boyles said.\nIn a year that's seen lots of late, startling twists in sports — think Patriots, Cubs and Cavaliers — Rumor pulled something of a shocker. She'd been at home in Wisconsin for months, a house pet headed toward having puppies, when she suddenly jumped back into the show ring in January.\nBoyles is a fan of the Packers and star quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Seeing a pet go from the couch to this top prize, heck, that's a dog world Hail Mary.\nThe 5-year-old Rumor beat out a Norwegian elkhound, a Pekingese, a miniature poodle, an Irish setter, a boxer and a Norwich terrier in the final ring. The Irish setter called Adrian finished second.\n\"The German shepherd standard talks about quality and nobility,\" judge Thomas Bradley III said. \"When you recognize it, it hits you at home, and that's what it really is. She is just magnificent.\"\nRumor is named for the hit song \"Rumor Has It\" by Adele, a champion herself after sweeping the major categories at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.\nThis was the 104th career win for Rumor, and earlier in the day, Boyles said that this would definitely, for real, be her last major show.\n\"She's going to be relaxing for a while,\" Boyles said after the win, but ultimately, there are \"puppies in her future.\"\nClearly the crowd favorite, Rumor came out flying into the best-of-seven final ring to fans whistling and calling her name.\nRumor raised up for a well-deserved treat right after the win. Moments later, as Boyles did post-show interviews, Rumor spotted him and ran toward the man who guided her to victory.\nRumor joined the fittingly named Manhattan in 1987 as the only German shepherds to go best in show at the Garden.\nThere were nearly 2,800 dogs entered in the 141st Westminster canine competition, spread across the 202 eligible breeds and varieties.\nThe moment any German shepherd steps into the ring at the Garden, the crowd goes crazy.\nNew Yorkers just love 'em.\nSome say it's because rooting for a German shepherd is the same as putting on an NYPD or FDNY hat, standing up for a dog that stood tall at a time of the city's greatest need.\n\"My sentiments, exactly,\" Boyles said.\nWhile German shepherds hadn't won a lot here, many of them were on the green carpet of the center ring in 2002 when Westminster honored search and rescue dogs for their tireless work at the World Trade Center and Pentagon following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The solemn tribute is considered by many the most cherished memory ever at Westminster.\n\"They're loyal, dependable dogs that you can count on,\" Boyles said.\nRumor nearly won Westminster last year. She came to town as the nation's No. 1 show dog with more than 100 overall ribbons but was beaten in a surprise by a German shorthaired pointer named CJ.\nIn fact, when the judge began to announce his champion pick with \"German sh...,\" Boyles took a step forward, anticipating the prize.\n\"I was thinking,\" Boyles said.\nThat was supposed to be Rumor's last show, and she was set to head home with Boyles to Edgerton, Wisconsin, to be a house pet and have puppies. She didn't conceive and late in the year, Boyles thought twice about Rumor's retirement.\n\"She liked to show and was in good shape, so we thought, why not?\" he said.\nRumor went back on the circuit in January for 10 shows. She won the herding group Monday night at the Garden, beating top show favorite Preston the puli.\nShe topped that with the ultimate win at America's most prestigious dog show, rewarding the faith German shepherd fans always show in them.\n\"It's a recognizable dog, people have liked them for a long, long time,\" WKC President Sean McCarthy said earlier. \"I think it goes back to Rin Tin Tin.\"\n___\nAP freelance writer Ginger Tidwell contributed to this report." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan State's rowing team has met with members of the school's board of trustees about concerns involving Larry Nassar .\nThe team posted a message Monday on Twitter saying, \"We feel we have begun a dialogue for a change, but much work remains.\"\nNassar, a former Michigan State doctor, was sentenced last week to up to 175 years in prison for molesting young women and girls. He was the rowing team's doctor from 1998 to 2016.\nCongress passed legislation Monday requiring governing bodies for amateur athletics to report abuse claims to law enforcement.\nState Attorney General Bill Schuette has asked the school for emails and text messages relating to Nassar from 20 current and former school officials.\nThe school has been criticized for its handling of the crisis on campus." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — India won the toss and chose to bowl first against Bangladesh in the Champions Trophy semifinal match at Edgbaston on Thursday.\nBoth teams selected unchanged teams.\nThe winner will play Pakistan in the final at The Oval on Sunday.\nIndia is the defending champion, while Bangladesh is playing in its first semifinal at an ICC competition.\n___\nLineups:\nIndia: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah.\nBangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Mahmudullah, Mosaddek Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza (captain), Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Nicaraguan authorities have released some student protesters arrested during anti-government demonstrations over the past week as President Daniel Ortega seeks to lower tensions.\nWith freshly shaved heads and some bearing bruises they said were inflicted by police during their captivity, students were dropped along a highway on the outskirts of the capital.\nThe police said in a statement Tuesday that students were handed over to their families and religious committees.\nOrtega on Sunday repealed a social security overhaul that would have increased contributions and reduced pensions. The changes triggered protests that soon spread beyond the social security system. Right groups say at least 30 people died.\nPablo Cuevas of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights accused police of violating students' due process and being guilty of beatings and theft." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Guns drawn, Iranian intelligence agents rushed into the apartment of a Washington Post reporter and his journalist wife in Tehran.\nThreatening to kill Jason Rezaian in front of his wife, Yeganeh, the 20 agents in the July 2014 raid tore through their belongings and rifled through drawers, clothes and valuables for an hour.\nBut perhaps their most eagerly sought target wasn't exactly inside the house: They forced the couple to hand over the passwords to their email and social media profiles.\nThat raid demonstrated how much of a threat Iran's theocratic government sees in the internet. It has long sought to strictly control cyberspace and social media — and, thereby, the flow of information to the public.\nBut the Islamic Republic's relationship with the world wide web is far more complicated than simple repression. Over the past four years, authorities have encouraged wider use of the internet among Iranians, hoping to generate the benefits of a more modern economy. As a result, nearly half the population has in its pockets a tool that the state is struggling to constrain: smartphones, with cameras and internet links that let anyone broadcast to the world.\nThose smartphones helped spread the startling burst of protests across Iran that opened 2018. The government succeeded in suffocating the flare-up in part by shutting off key social media and messaging apps, but the lesson was clear: The same oxygen that can resuscitate commerce can also give breath to potential revolt.\nAuthorities' solution has been to create a so-called \"halal net,\" Iran's own locally controlled version of the internet aimed at restricting what the public can see.\nAs Iran approaches the 40th anniversary of the revolution that brought its cleric-led rule to power, how it handles the power of cyberspace will be crucial to its future, determining whether it moves to greater openness or seals itself off from the world.\n\"The Islamic Republic is not black and white. It shows a myriad of contradictions and its internet policy ... is one of the great examples of those contradictions,\" said Sanam Vakil, an associate fellow at Chatham House who studies Iran. \"The government has taken the internet and effectively used it for its own purposes and also has realized the dangers of it as well.\"\n___\nSince the 1979 Islamic Revolution, how information spreads across mass media has been tightly controlled.\nAll television and radio broadcasts within Iran are from state-run stations. Satellite dishes remain ostensibly illegal, though they are plentiful, drawing occasional attacks from bat-wielding government enforcers. Journalists face restrictions in what they can cover and where they can travel across a country of 80 million people that's nearly two-and-a-half times the size of Texas.\nThe internet helped collapse that distance. During Iran's 2009 protests surrounding the disputed re-election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, still nascent social media spread word of the events among Iranians and brought videos of the shooting death of 26-year-old Neda Agha Soltan to the world.\nIran's government, overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, violently suppressed the demonstrations. The crackdown killed dozens and saw thousands imprisoned, with some tortured by their jailers.\nEven before the 2009 protests, Iran blocked access to YouTube. Twitter and Facebook followed amid the unrest, as did many other sites later. Some in Iran began using virtual private networks, or VPNs, which allow users to bypass government censorship.\nThe chief difference between then and the protests that rocked the country coming into 2018 was the massive proliferation of smartphones. As recently as 2014, only an estimated 2 million Iranians possessed one. Today, estimates suggest Iranians own 48 million.\nThat explosive growth was spurred by the administration of President Hasan Rouhani, a cleric who is a relative moderate within Iran's system. His officials allowed more mobile phone service providers to offer 3G and 4G internet, suddenly making sharing photos and images possible. Home internet connections became faster. The encrypted messaging platform Telegram spread like wildfire. Over 40 million Iranians are estimated to use it, for everything from benign conversations to commerce and political campaigning.\nIn the recent unrest, protesters used Telegram's mass-messaging channels to share information and videos across 75 cities and towns where demonstrations erupted. Some showed people openly in the streets shouting, \"Death to Khamenei!\" It shocked many, especially as such cries could bring a death sentence.\nWhen the government temporarily blocked Telegram as well as Instagram, it helped smother the protests within days. Notably, however, Telegram's silencing quickly brought complaints from businesspeople who use its channels to promote and sell their goods.\nEven after the unrest, Rouhani argued it was futile trying to shut off an indispensable tool of modern life.\n\"If you want cyberspace to be useful to the community, come forward with a solution using it to promote the culture instead of blocking it,\" he said, noting that past Iranian government tried to stop people from listening to the radio \"but this prevention was useless.\"\n___\nThe danger — and potential — of the internet as a weapon came into focus for Iran when it faced the world's first cyberweapon almost a decade ago.\nAt the height of tensions between Tehran and the West over its nuclear program, thousands of centrifuges enriching uranium at Iran's underground Natanz facility suddenly began spinning themselves to death. They had been hit by the Stuxnet computer virus, widely believed to be an American and Israeli creation.\nMaterial leaked by Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who exposed U.S. government surveillance programs in 2013, suggested Iran at the time was the country where American spies collected the most electronic data.\nBeginning in 2011, Iran worked to strike back.\nAmong the most spectacular cyberattacks attributed to Iran is Shamoon, a virus that hit the state-run giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and Qatari natural gas producer RasGas, deleting hard drives and displaying a picture of a burning American flag on computer screens. Saudi Aramco ultimately shut down its network and destroyed over 30,000 computers. A later iteration of Shamoon in late 2016 caused even more damage.\nThe U.S. blames Iranian hackers for a denial-of-service attack that overwhelmed six major American banks in 2012. U.S. prosecutors in 2016 accused hackers believed to be backed by Iran of attacking dozens of banks and a small dam near New York City. They also have been suspected of targeting the email and social media accounts of Obama administration officials.\nAnalysts and security experts believe many of these hackers likely receive backing from Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a powerful paramilitary and economic force in the country answerable only to Khamenei himself.\nThe Guard employs more direct means as well, like its wresting away of the passwords of Rezaian and his wife, recounted in a lawsuit he filed against the Guard and Iran in U.S. federal court.\nSimilarly, it seized control of the Facebook and email accounts of Iranian-American dual national Siamak Namazi, who remains detained in Iran along with his octogenarian father Baquer. The Guard then pretended to be Namazi in correspondence with U.S. government officials and others, like New Yorker journalist Robin Wright, tricking them into opening a file that gave the hackers access to their computers.\nCyberespionage is even used in Iran's internal rivalries, with attacks on members of the government, particularly officials in Rouhani's Foreign Ministry, including Zarif, according to a recent report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.\n\"The targeting of members of government — individuals that have already been vetted by the regime — reflects the importance of cybersurveillance as a tool of the hard-line security establishment to monitor potential rivals for power,\" the report said.\nThen Iran moved to target the internet itself.\n___\nThe idea of Iran setting up its own \"halal,\" or \"permissible,\" internet first came in 2011 in the wake of the 2009 protests. It's evolved into what's known as the National Information Network.\nIt is essentially a net neutrality supporter's nightmare: The network has some 500 government-approved national websites that stream content far faster than those based abroad, which are intentionally slowed, according to a recent report by the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Service providers offer cheaper packages to customers accessing only the NIN websites. Search results also are gamed within the network, allowing the government to censor what users find.\nOne of the principal designers of the network is the Iran Telecommunications Co., owned by proxies of the Guard.\nIt resembles in a way China's \"Great Firewall,\" which blocks access to thousands of websites, from Facebook to Twitter to some news outlets. Chinese internet users also find access to websites outside of the country slower.\n\"Iran's National Information Network may lack the name cachet of the 'Great Firewall,' but its performance in strangling access to opposition content during the most recent protests proved that Iran is hard on China's heels in terms of controlling the flow of information,\" the private U.S. intelligence firm Stratfor wrote in a Jan. 17 analysis.\nFiruzeh Mahmoudi, the executive director of the San Francisco-based group United for Iran, said authorities have had success in getting businesses to operate on the NIN. The more they do so, she warned, \"the easier it will be for them to shut down or throttle the real internet when they want to.\"\nHard-liners have suggested removing Iran entirely from the internet and creating its own at home.\n\"Cyberspace was the kindling in the fire of the battle,\" hard-line cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami recently told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran. \"When cyberspace was closed down, the sedition was stopped. The nation does not support a social network that has its key in the hands of the United States.\"\nAmid the protests, the Trump administration said it wanted to help Iranians access the internet. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned the Guard, Iran's Supreme Council of Cyberspace and other officials for \"engaging in censorship.\"\nTop Trump administration officials have met with Google, Facebook, Twitter and other leading tech companies to ask what more they can do to help people in Iran and other authoritarian-run countries communicate freely, according to U.S. officials briefed on the meetings.\nBut fear of crossing U.S. sanctions has made companies skittish. Some firms don't allow their services to be used in Iran. That prevents Iranians from accessing many encrypted communication apps or VPNs.\nEven when the Trump administration has floated the possibility of easing some sanctions or offering carve-outs, some tech companies have been reluctant to offer more services in Iran, said the officials, who weren't authorized to discuss the conversations and demanded anonymity.\nSo it remains in question whether Iranians will have access to an open internet if anger over the economy boils over into protests again, as many predict it will.\n\"We believe that the U.S. government could do more to enable the free flow of information in Iran and establish a thriving entrepreneurial civil society independent of the regime,\" said Morad Ghorban of the Washington-based Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans. \"This movement has continued despite persecution by hard-line elements.\"\n___\nAssociated Press writers Josh Lederman in Washington and Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed to this report.\n___\nFollow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellap . His work can be found at http://apne.ws/2galNpz ." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "After dozens of coaching changes in the last 25 years, Saudi Arabia has a proven winner in charge for this year's World Cup.\nJuan Antonio Pizzi led Chile to the 2016 Copa America title, but it won't likely be easy for the Argentine to get his new team to play the same kind of high-octane, pressing style he used in South America.\nMost of the squad heading to Russia doesn't have any significant experience playing club football outside their homeland. The team is currently the lowest ranked of the 32 participants at No. 70.\nSaudi sports authorities tried to change that by sending nine players, including four internationals, on a half-season loan to Spanish clubs in January. Although wingers Fahad Al Muwallad and Salam Al Dawsari, and midfielder Yahya Al Sherhi are being exposed to different training methods, they have not played a competitive game.\nThe Saudis made their World Cup debut in 1994, reaching the round of 16. Since then, the team has gone through more than 30 coaching changes while qualifying for the 1998, 2002 and 2006 tournaments and going out in the group stage.\nBert van Marwijk, who coached the Netherlands to the 2010 World Cup final, led Saudi Arabia through the most recent qualification campaign but failed to agree on a new contract to lead the team in Russia.\nEdgardo Bauza replaced the Dutchman, but he lasted only two months. The Argentine was fired in November after underwhelming performances in five friendlies and was replaced by Pizzi.\nHere's a closer look at the Saudi Arabia team:\nCOACH\nPizzi took over after failing to qualify for the World Cup with Chile.\nThe 49-year-old coach's target is making the round of 16. There have been signs so far of an attempt to introduce more of a passing style instead of the direct strategy used in the two years under Van Marwijk.\nGOALKEEPERS\nFour goalkeepers were called up for the recent warm-up games and Pizzi isn't fixed on a starter.\nWalled Abdullah and Yasser Al Mosailem appear to be vying for the role. Abdullah is more experienced and is likely to be better able to handle physical challenges, although Mosailem performed well in a 1-1 draw with Ukraine in March.\nDEFENDERS\nThe back four is an experienced unit but with three likely starters over 30 they are susceptible to pace from opponents.\nThe 34-year-old Omasa Hawsawi and 32-year-old Omar Hawsawi are set to partner in the center.\nMIDFIELDERS\nMuch depends on Abdullah Otayf, a holding midfielder who has drawn comparisons with Luka Modric of Real Madrid.\nIf Saudi Arabia can start to play out from the back, the 25-year-old Otayf can make the team tick.\nTaisir Al-Jassim, who has made more than 130 international appearances, adds to the solidity in the center while Al-Shehri provides creativity going forward.\nFORWARDS\nThe team lacks a proven scorer at the top level with Mohammad Al-Sahlawi and Nasser Al-Shamrani both over 30 and not convincing against strong defenses.\nThe wide players are vital. Salem Al Dawsari and Fahad Al Muwallad, the most talented player available, provide much of the threat, although both have been sitting on the sidelines in Spain.\nGROUP GAMES\nThe Saudis will be based in St. Petersburg but will play their opening match against host Russia in Moscow on June 14. That will be followed by a trip to Rostov-on-Don to play Uruguay on June 20 and to Volgograd to take on Egypt on June 25.\n___\nMore AP World Cup coverage: www.apnews.com/tag/WorldCup" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer who has suggested that FBI officials were part of a \"brazen plot\" to exonerate Hillary Clinton and frame Donald Trump has been added to the president's legal team.\nJoseph diGenova, a former United States attorney in the District of Columbia and a frequent television commentator, will join the team at a sensitive moment as Trump's lawyers weigh whether to make the president available for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller and under what terms.\nHe will work alongside attorneys John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, who said in a statement Monday that he was confident that diGenova will \"be a great asset in our representation of the president.\" Mueller is investigating potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign and possible obstruction of justice by the president.\nDiGenova, who will start later this week, declined to comment to The Associated Press on Monday.\nThough the White House and Trump legal team has spoken publicly of its cooperative relationship with Mueller's office, that rapport appeared frayed over the weekend when Dowd said that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — who appointed Mueller and oversees his team of prosecutors — should \"bring an end\" to the investigation.\nDowd said he was speaking for just himself, but his emailed statement appeared to reflect the frustration of the president, who lashed out at the investigation in a series of weekend tweets, including one in which he mentioned Mueller by name.\nAs Mueller seeks an interview with the president, the addition of diGenova could signal a more combative stance, if past comments are any indication.\nIn a January interview on Fox News, for instance, he said that anti-Trump text messages exchanged between two FBI officials who were once on Mueller's team reflect a \"brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton, and if she didn't win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime.\n\"Everything that we have seen from these texts, and from all of the facts developing, shows that the FBI and senior (Justice Department) officials conspired to violate the law and to deny Donald Trump his civil rights,\" he added.\nThe addition of diGenova was first reported by The New York Times.\n___\nAssociated Press writer Chad Day contributed to this report." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has downplayed media reports that the U.S. might have reconsidered its choice to be ambassador to Seoul because the prominent Washington-based scholar didn't endorse the idea of military action against North Korea.\nSouth Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kyu-duk said Thursday that Washington asked for Seoul's understanding over the withdrawal of Victor Cha for the ambassadorship. Noh didn't say how Washington explained the withdrawal.\nHe tried to downplay recent media reports as \"mainly speculation.\" A Washington Post report Tuesday said Cha had privately expressed disagreement in late December with the Trump administration's policy on North Korea and on a U.S.-South Korea trade pact that Trump has threatened to scrap.\nThe high-profile diplomatic post in Seoul has been vacant since Trump took office a year ago." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar has informed the mixed martial arts promotion that he is retired from competition.\nThe UFC confirmed the 39-year-old Lesnar's decision Wednesday.\nLesnar returned from a 4½-year MMA absence last July to beat Mark Hunt at UFC 200, but the result was overturned after Lesnar failed two doping tests. He was subsequently suspended from competition for a year by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which administers the UFC's doping policy.\nLesnar's decision to retire means he has been removed from USADA's drug-testing pool, which monitors the fighters year-round.\nIf he decides to return to competition, he would have to serve the remaining five months of his suspension.\nThe decision doesn't affect Lesnar's professional wrestling career, where the multitalented athlete has spent most of the past five years. He is scheduled to perform for the WWE at WrestleMania in Orlando on April 2.\nLesnar fought for the UFC just eight times, but he became one of the biggest pay-per-view stars in the sport's history during his brief run. The former NCAA wrestling champion and WWE star drew millions of new fans to the young sport with his hulking presence and violent skills.\nHe made a guaranteed $2.5 million purse for his victory over Hunt last year, along with likely millions in undisclosed bonuses. But Lesnar failed a drug test taken before his fight and another on fight night. He tested positive for clomiphene, a banned substance under USADA rules.\nLesnar won the UFC heavyweight title in just his third fight for the promotion, beating Randy Couture in November 2008. He defended the belt twice before losing it to Cain Velasquez in October 2010, and he lost to Alistair Overeem in December 2011 in his final fight before his 2016 comeback.\nHe also endured serious health problems that curtailed his MMA fighting prime, including a bout of diverticulitis." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "ROME (AP) — Already in serious crisis following the Azzurri's failure to qualify for the World Cup, the Italian football federation is facing emergency measures after four failed votes to elect a new president.\nThe election assembly fell apart on Monday when amateur leagues president Cosimo Sibilia ordered his supporters to leave their ballots empty in the final round.\n\"After having sought to reach an agreement in every manner possible, we can't proceed further,\" Sibilia told the nearly 300-person assembly near the end of the 10-hour election.\nIn the third round, Sibilia led with 39 percent of the votes, slightly ahead of Serie C president Gabriele Gravina with 38 percent. Players' Association president Damiano Tommasi, a reform candidate and former Roma player, was eliminated with 21 percent.\nA majority was needed to win.\nWhile there was no hope for a winner, a fourth vote was held that resulted in Gravina leading with 39 percent and Sibilia with 2 percent.\nThe Italian Olympic Committee, which oversees all sports in Italy, will likely impose an emergency leader for the federation.\n\"This is a loss for our system. ... But it's fair that someone from outside gives us a hand,\" Tommasi said. \"Maybe it's not a coincidence that we didn't qualify for the World Cup.\"\nAfter Tommasi was eliminated, the Players' Association's refusal to throw its weight behind Sibilia or Gravina ended any hope of a successful election.\n\"We needed change and we believed that neither of the two candidates seriously represented reform,\" Tommasi said. \"One of the reasons we didn't qualify for the World Cup is due to our administrative struggles.\"\nThe federation was previously put under emergency leadership in 2006, when ex-senator Guido Rossi took charge following the \"Calciopoli\" refereeing scandal.\n\"An emergency administration would be a loss for everyone,\" Torino president Urbano Cairo said. \"It means refusing to find a solution for re-launching the sport. Having someone from outside take charge is something negative and I don't like it.\"\nSibilia, a supporter of previous president Carlo Tavecchio, also led the first two rounds of voting, when 75 percent and 66 percent of the votes were needed to win, respectively.\n\"It's not something to laugh at,\" former FIGC president Giancarlo Abete said of the failed votes. \"It's something to cry over.\"\nThe election was called after Tavecchio resigned in November after Italy's playoff loss to Sweden meant the four-time champion missed out on the sport's showcase event for the first time in six decades.\n\"The fans needed someone to blame but we've done a lot of positive things in the FIGC and that should not be forgotten,\" Tavecchio said in his outgoing address, which was met by a standing ovation.\nIn the meantime, Italy's national team remains without a coach.\nGian Piero Ventura, the previous coach, was fired two days after the playoff loss.\nCarlo Ancelotti, Antonio Conte, and Roberto Mancini are among the leading candidates to replace Ventura.\nItaly's next match is on March 27, a friendly against England in London.\n___\nMore AP Serie A coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/SerieA\n___\nAndrew Dampf on Twitter: www.twitter.com/asdampf" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "PARIS (AP) — The Louvre Museum is putting 31 paintings on permanent display in an effort to find the rightful owners of those and other works of art looted by Nazis during World War II.\nThe Paris museum opened two showrooms last month to display the paintings, which are among thousands of works of art looted by German forces in France between 1940 and 1945.\nMore than 45,000 objects have been handed back to their rightful owners since the war, but more than 2,000 remain unclaimed, including 296 paintings stored at the Louvre.\n\"These paintings don't belong to us. Museums often looked like predators in the past, but our goal is to return them,\" Sebastien Allard, the head of the paintings department at the Louvre, told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday.\n\"The large majority of the retrieved artworks have been plundered from Jewish families during World War II. Heirs can see these artworks, declare that these artworks belong to them, and officially ask for their return.\"\nThe paintings in the new showrooms are from various artists of different eras and horizons, including a remarkable landscape from Theodore Rousseau, \"La Source du Lizon.\"\nOther more famous looted works had already been on display in the museum, but visitors did not necessarily know they had been stolen by the Nazis. In museums, pieces of art retrieved by the French authorities are identified with the label \"MNR,\" French initials for National Museums Recovery.\n\"We needed to draw attention further to the matter and raise public awareness,\" said Allard. \"We thought it was important to highlight the specific case of these works, which are not listed on our inventories.\"\nThe Louvre initiative is the latest effort by French authorities to find heirs of families who lost their artwork. A working group set up by the Culture Ministry is in charge of tracing back the origins of the art and identifying owners. But it's a long and laborious task: only some 50 pieces have been returned since 1951.\n\"People who come forward need, for instance, to establish the proof that the artwork belonged to their grandfather,\" Allard said. \"They need to find old family pictures and payment slips, or gather testimonies. It can take years.\"\nIn addition to the display of art in several museums across the country, French authorities have also designed an MNR catalog, which is available online and can help owners identify their items without traveling to the Louvre. The complete list is known under the name of Rose Valland, a French curator who risked her life keeping notes on all the art the Nazis stole during the war." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "LAS VEGAS (AP) — The union representing thousands of Las Vegas casino workers says two companies would lose more than $10 million a day combined if housekeepers, cooks and others go on strike.\nThe Culinary Union detailed Wednesday how it thinks a one-month strike would affect MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment, which operate more than half the properties that would be affected.\nThe contracts of 50,000 workers employed at 34 casino-hotels expire at midnight Thursday. They could walk off the job any time starting Friday after voting last week to authorize a strike.\nMGM says it met with union negotiators this week and has more talks scheduled. The company says it remains confident that it can \"resolve the outstanding contract issues.\"\nCaesars did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "NEW YORK (AP) — Enes Kanter thought it might be the nice new uniforms. Kristaps Porzingis thought it might have been Kanter's ugly lip.\nIn reality, it didn't matter what the Knicks looked like when they played Brooklyn this season.\nPorzingis scored 28 points, Kanter had 20 points, 20 rebounds and five assists, and the Knicks completed a New York City sweep of the Nets with a 111-95 victory Tuesday night.\nThe Knicks returned home from their longest road trip of the season in new uniforms but their same old dominance of the Nets, with their fourth victory in four tries this season. They dominated the interior again and swept the series for the first time since 2010-11 — before the rivals shared the same city.\nKanter said he knew he and Porzingis had a chance to overwhelm the Nets' smaller front line again.\n\"Especially KP, because we know they cannot guard KP 1-on-1 ... so we know that they were going to send double-teams at me and KP, so we just made extra passes and won the game,\" Kanter said.\nKanter was 8 of 10 from the field, a day after needing stitches when he was cut by teammate Doug McDermott in practice.\n\"Enes was a monster today, just bulldozer,\" Porzingis said. \"He did what he does and just great game for him, 20-20. Maybe he was mad from yesterday that he got hit in the mouth.\"\nTim Hardaway Jr. added 15 points for the Knicks, who went 3-4 on their trip, which started with a victory in Brooklyn on Jan. 15. Michael Beasley finished with 12 points and 13 rebounds.\nThey kept up their strong offensive play since then after averaging 111.3 points on the trip, fourth-best in the NBA during that span.\nDeMarre Carroll scored 13 points for the Nets, who lost their fourth straight game. They played their second in a row without starting forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (strained right groin) and reserve guard Caris LeVert (sore left groin).\n\"They're better than us right now,\" Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. \"It's great motivation for us. When we look at the scores for the season, they're just better than us right now. We got a lot of catching up to do.\"\nBrooklyn fell behind by 18 in the second quarter but cut it to 10 midway through the period before the Knicks opened it up again, building a 61-41 advantage at halftime.\nThe Knicks opened a 25-point lead that Nets trimmed it to 10 again, but Porzingis nailed a 3-pointer with 7 ½ minutes remaining to halt their push.\nTIP-INS\nNets: Atkinson said the Nets would determine Wednesday whether guard D'Angelo Russell, recently back from knee surgery, is able to play on the second night of a back-to-back. If not, and if LeVert remains out, he said Nik Stauskas and Isaiah Whitehead could be ballhandling options.\nKnicks: The Knicks debuted their City Edition uniforms, which pay homage to New York's firefighters and were designed in part by the Uniformed Firefighters Association. They're a darker blue than the Knicks' usual uniforms, a nod to the firefighters' dress uniforms. ... Guard Ron Baker left in the first quarter with a right shoulder injury. He appeared to be kicked by Carroll as the Nets forward jumped to take a shot. X-rays were negative but Baker won't travel to Boston on Wednesday.\nNO NOAH\nJoakim Noah remained out and won't play Wednesday in Boston, coach Jeff Hornacek said. The backup center left the team near the end of the trip after getting frustrated with Hornacek.\nMORE OKAFOR?\nThough he had just five points with his 13 rebounds Tuesday, Jahlil Okafor may have earned himself a larger rotation role with his season-high 21 points in a season-best 24 minutes Saturday in a loss at Minnesota. He plays Wednesday for the first time against Philadelphia, the team that took him with the No. 3 pick in 2015 but banished him to the bench before trading him to Brooklyn in December. \"We told him when he came here you've got to earn it. There's nothing given and that was a good showing in Minnesota,\" Atkinson said. \"I thought he's getting in better shape, he's understanding better what we're trying to do. So yeah, he's starting to earn more minutes.\"\nUP NEXT\nNets: Host Philadelphia on Wednesday.\nKnicks: Visit Boston on Wednesday.\n___\nMore AP NBA: https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "WASHINGTON (AP) — A jump in traffic fatalities last year pushed deaths on U.S. roads to their highest level in nearly a decade, erasing improvements made during the Great Recession and economic recovery, a leading safety organization said Wednesday.\nFatalities rose 6 percent in 2016, reaching an estimated 40,200 deaths compared to 37,757 deaths the previous year, according the National Safety Council. The group gets its data from states. The last time there were more than 40,000 fatalities in a single year was in 2007, just before the economy tanked. There were 41,000 deaths that year.\nThe increase came as Americans drove more last year — a 3 percent increase in total miles. The council cited continued lower gasoline prices and an improving economy as key factors.\nFollowing an increase in fatalities in 2015, the United States has had the sharpest two-year increase in traffic deaths in 53 years, the council said.\nAmericans have come to accept large numbers of traffic deaths as inevitable instead of than taking actions that would prevent them, said Deborah Hersman, the council's president.\n\"Motor vehicle fatality numbers have been ringing the alarm for two years,\" she said. \"Unfortunately, we have been tone-deaf to the data and the carnage on our roadways. If we fail to take action, the death toll will continue to rise.\"\nJonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety offices, said state officials continue to point to three predominant factors in traffic deaths — \"belts, booze and speed.\"\n\"Additionally, driver distraction and our society's addiction to electronic devices is likely playing a role in the increase in deaths,\" he said.\nThe estimated annual mileage death rate last year was 1.25 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles, an increase of 3 percent from the 2015 rate.\nTraffic deaths began dropping in 2008 and reached their lowest point in six decades in 2011 at 32,000 deaths. They fluctuated slightly over the next two years, but started climbing in the last quarter of 2014.\nThe surge comes as cars and trucks have more safety features than ever. Nearly all new cars and light trucks now have electronic stability control and rearview cameras, for example. Automakers are also beginning to equip more cars with sophisticated safety technology like adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency-braking and blind-spot monitoring that are designed to prevent crashes rather than merely make them survivable.\nOther important safety advances are also on the horizon, including vehicle-to-vehicle communications that allow cars to wirelessly warn each other of their movements in time to avoid collisions and self-driving cars that hold the potential to eliminate human error, a factor in more than 90 percent of crashes.\nThe council's fatality estimates differ slightly from those of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The government counts only deaths that occur on public roads, while the council includes fatalities that occur in parking lots, driveways and private roads.\nLast month, NHTSA reported that traffic deaths surged about 8 percent in the first nine months of 2016.\n___\nFollow Joan Lowy at http://twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/joan-lowy" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Zach Parise and Chris Stewart scored in the shootout, and the Minnesota Wild beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 on Tuesday night.\nDevan Dubnyk had 28 saves for Minnesota (27-18-5), which earned its 10th road win of the season. Jason Zucker scored his 20th goal, and Charlie Coyle added his fifth in the third period.\nColumbus (27-19-4) lost for the fourth time in six games. Sergei Bobrovsky made 41 stops, Artemi Panarin had a goal and an assist and David Savard scored his third of the season." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "NEW YORK (AP) — If you've made changes to how you use social media since Facebook's Cambridge Analytica privacy debacle, you're not alone.\nA new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 7 out of 10 of online adults who've heard of the scandal — revelations that a data mining firm may have accessed the private information of some 87 million Facebook users to influence elections — have unfollowed accounts, deleted their profiles or made other changes in how they use social media.\nAnd since 9 in 10 Americans have heard at least a little bit about Cambridge Analytica, this means the scandal has led to widespread changes in the use of social media among Americans. What's less clear is whether these changes are permanent, and whether they will affect business at Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies.\nFacebook has said that it hasn't noticed a meaningful decline in usage since the scandal broke and it doesn't seem to have experienced much of an advertiser exodus, either. But that doesn't mean the social media giant is in the clear. Some high-profile tech luminaries such as Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak have disavowed Facebook, and a \"DeleteFacebook\" online campaign — even if it didn't lead to mass defections — has bruised the company's already-battered image.\nCole Bearden, 26, a musician and liquor store employee in Nashville, said he soured on Facebook a while ago, after his parents friended him and turned his app into \"a perpetual recipe video-sharing machine.\" That, along with his concerns about surveillance and advertisements, convinced him to drop the app from his phone a year ago. He said in an interview last month that he checks his profile only occasionally.\nStill, Bearden says deleting his profile won't mean a lot unless many other Facebook users do the same. And even that, he says, may come too late.\n\"The real damage has been done. Our concept of open democracy has been undermined, subverted and potentially irreparably damaged,\" he said.\nSome people, though, were cautious long before Cambridge Analytica. Jessica Garcia, who lives in Homewood, Illinois, said she was already \"pretty strict\" with all her settings and she uses social media (Facebook, mostly) only minimally. She doesn't post much and stays out of politics.\nAsked who bears the responsibility to protect people's online privacy, the poll found that vast majorities of Americans think both social media companies (84 percent) and individual users (72 percent) have a large share. Just short of half — 46 percent — see that as a large responsibility of the federal government.\nGarcia agrees with the majority and said it's a combination of individual and company responsibility.\n\"I don't feel like the government needs to step in and start controlling that,\" she said. \"If we can't make good decisions and people and they don't make good decisions as companies, it'll fall apart on its own.\"\nAmericans who have taken some action after hearing about Facebook's recent privacy crisis include 29 percent who have deleted certain social media accounts — the most drastic step. A larger number, 38 percent, uninstalled apps on their phone, while 42 percent said they used certain platforms less often. Nearly half, 47 percent, unfollowed or unfriended certain people, and 41 percent unfollowed groups or organizations.\nForty-five percent reviewed or changed their privacy settings — something Facebook encouraged recently by sending a notice to users through their Facebook pages. First, it notified the 87 million people whose information may have been leaked to Cambridge Analytica. This week, it began sending all 2.2 billion Facebook users a more generic notice to review their settings that show what apps have access to their data.\nAccording to the poll, women were more likely than men to have made at least one change, and younger people were more likely to say they have reviewed their privacy settings or uninstalled apps from their phones. Older Americans were more likely to say they have followed news of the scandal.\nThe Cambridge Analytica fiasco was not Facebook's first privacy scandal, though it may have been its worst. The poll also found that Americans have broader concerns about how their data is used by companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google. Sixty percent said they were very or extremely concerned that such companies may not keep their personal information secure, and more than half said they were concerned that the companies might track their data even after they have tried to delete it.\nAfrican Americans were more likely to express concern about privacy than whites. For example, 72 percent of blacks and 57 percent of whites are worried about companies securing their personal information, while 62 percent of blacks and 44 percent of whites are concerned about companies tracking their location.\n___\nThe AP-NORC poll of 1,140 adults was conducted April 11-16 using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4 percentage points\n___\nAP Polling Editor Emily Swanson in Washington and AP Business Writer Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit contributed to this story.\n___\nOnline:\nAP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "WOLVEGA, Netherlands (AP) — No! Absolutely no way! No one should be counting on a repeat performance. Not even the most optimistic Dutchman does.\nYes, count on the Dutch to dominate the oval at the Pyeongchang Olympics, but don't expect them to suffocate opposition like they did in Sochi four years ago, when they turned the Olympic hall into a swelling sea of their national color, orange, courtesy of a massive haul of 23 of 36 medals, including eight out of 12 golds.\nIt was dominance rarely seen in top class international sports. Think the USA ruling Olympic basketball, Jamaica the recent track sprints and China table tennis.\n\"There is only one goal and that is doing the best you can. The more, the better,\" Dutch skating technical director Arie Koops said in an interview in Friesland, the pond- and canal-ridden flatlands in the northern Netherlands which have produced countless champions.\nYet even he knows that the endless nights in Sochi's Holland Heineken House celebrating the likes of Sven Kramer and Ireen Wust cannot be repeated every four years.\n\"It is really more realistic to talk about 15, or even less,\" he said.\nHistory bears him out. The only other time the Netherlands broke into double digits over the past two decades was at the 1998 Nagano Games with 11.\nOK, he said. \"If it is less than 12, we underperform. We can say that.\"\nIn one sense though, it has become easier to haul in medals since the mass start event has been added to the program, bumping the total from 36 to 42.\nAnd in an unexpected boon for the Dutch, the IOC's punishment for Russia's doping program has a direct and fundamental impact on the men's competition.\nLook at the World Cup standings this year, and right on top sits Denis Yuskov with five gold medals already in the 1,000 and 1,500 meters. He has been ruled out of the Pyeongchang Games. Same goes for Pavel Kulizhnikov, who already won a World Cup 1,000 and is also a fearsome 500 sprinter.\nThen again, some things are going against the Dutch this year.\nThey had four clean sweeps in Sochi in 10 possible events, including the women's 1,500 where the top four were Dutch. It almost turned into an embarrassment.\nFour entries per event were whittled to three in some races this year and for the men's 10,000 and women's 5,000 only two per nation are allowed this time around. Gone is any mathematical chance for a sweep in the longest races on the track.\n\"It will directly influence our chances for the medals,\" said Koops.\nAnd this time around, it looks like the opposition is in better shape, too. In the women's races going into the Olympics, the Japanese are definitely the No. 1 team, with Miho Takagi and Nao Kodaira topping the provisional World Cup standings and with the relay team adding one world record after another.\nCanada and Norway also look in better shape.\nAnd the United States especially will want to bounce back from a humiliating no-medal showing in Sochi. Heather Bergsma has already won a World Cup gold in the 1,000 this season and Brittany Bowe is starting to hit her stride. And count on Joey Mantia as a medal contender among the men.\nWhile the Americans immediately settled into a rut in Sochi, U.S. coach Matt Kooreman saw how the Dutch rode a great early start when they swept the opening men's 5,000 meters.\n\"They got the momentum going there and you could see that confidence build throughout their team which turned them into the dominant force,\" Kooreman said.\nThen again, he added, it is only natural. No country comes close to unleashing national passion for speedskating like the Dutch do.\nWhile a Florida resident like Bowe needs to fly halfway across the continent to get to a big oval, an Amsterdammer can get to 16 of them, all lying within a few hours by train or car.\nThe Dutch have some 60 pro skaters and a half-dozen commercial teams. More importantly, said Koops, \"when the temperature is below zero everybody is skating on canals and lakes.\" And that counts for far more than a million in the nation of 17 million.\nSometimes Kooreman thinks it is quite an achievement to just get close to the Dutch in the medal tables, let alone beat them.\n\"We are always all a little bit shocked with how well we actually do,\" said Kooreman.\nAnother thing also pleads in Dutch favor. The famed oompah band Kleintje Pils will also be on the sidelines of the oval to bring that special Dutch atmosphere to South Korea." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "The PGA Tour began the second half of the season at the Texas Open, with Andrew Landry becoming the seventh first-time winner.\nNever mind that it feels as though the season is just getting started.\nStill to come are three majors and The Players Championship. Not to be overlooked are the FedEx Cup playoffs. Quibble about points and prestige, but they deliver four tournaments over five weeks of the top available players.\nMost sports prefer to become more relevant the closer they get to the finish line, so that's one benefit of the PGA Tour's wraparound season.\nThe opening 22 weeks featured one major and three World Golf Championships, one of them in Shanghai last October, the other two in March separated by two weeks. Justin Thomas, Bubba Watson and Patton Kizzire are multiple winners. Dustin Johnson should be. Jordan Spieth would settle for one victory at this point.\nThe first half did a good job setting the table for what should be a compelling five months.\nBATTLE FOR NO. 1\nNot long after Dustin Johnson closed with a 67 at the RBC Heritage, he left for the Bahamas as part of a three-week break. His tie for 16th at Hilton Head was important. It assured Johnson of staying at No. 1 for a few more weeks, but maybe not by the time he returns at TPC.\nHe will be No. 1 for at least 62 weeks, significant in that only three other players have stayed atop the world ranking longer since it began in 1986 — Nick Faldo (81 weeks), Greg Norman (96 weeks) and Tiger Woods (264 weeks and 281 weeks).\nIt might not last much longer. Thomas, who could have replaced Johnson by winning his semifinal match in the Dell Technologies Match Play, gets another chance next week at the Wells Fargo Championship. That's at Quail Hollow, where Thomas won the PGA Championship last summer.\nJon Rahm also had a chance to get to No. 1 in January until a 75-77 weekend at Torrey Pines.\nWith so many big tournaments coming up, a half-dozen players are in the mix for No. 1 by the end of the season.\nBEST SEASON\nPatrick Reed can easily claim this because of that green jacket he loves to (and should) show off. Winning the Masters makes it a great year no matter what else happens, and Reed will have a hard time topping this one even if he wins all five Ryder Cup matches in France.\nThree others are worthy of consideration.\nThomas faced a most difficult encore after he won five times last season, including his first major, the PGA Championship, and the FedEx Cup. He has backed it up so far with two victories. One of them was the Honda Classic, where he made two birdies on the par-5 18th — with a wedge to force a playoff, and with a 5-wood to set up the win.\nWatson won against two strong fields at Riviera and Match Play. Kizzire won't get as much recognition from winning at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in the fall and the Sony Open in January. But he went head-to-head in beating Rickie Fowler in Mexico and won a six-hole playoff on Oahu. In a rarity, he won twice in a season while ranked outside the top 100 in the world.\nTIGER ANNIVERSARY\nOne year ago, the Texas Open was the same week Woods had his fourth back surgery, and all sorts of speculation followed. Would he ever play again? Did he even want to play again? And if he did, how much would fusion surgery limit him?\nThe answers: Yes, yes and not much.\nHe recorded a swing speed of 129 mph. He was runner-up by one shot at the Valspar Championship. A year ago, no one would have been surprised if he missed the Masters. Instead, the surprise was that he didn't break par until Sunday and tied for 32nd.\nInteresting about Woods at this point in the season is that he played three of his six tournaments on courses where he has never won.\nTHE REVIVALS\nEven as the PGA Tour gets younger, five players in their 40s managed to win.\nPhil Mickelson tops the list. Ian Poulter isn't too far behind.\nHis victory drought approaching five years, Mickelson was on the verge of falling out of the top 50 in the world for the first time in 25 years when he ran off four consecutive top 10s, the last one a playoff victory in the Mexico Championship.\nPoulter had gone more than six years without a win, would have lost his full PGA Tour card last year except for a clerical error and then was told at the Dell Match Play that he was in the Masters, when in fact he needed to win one more match (which he lost badly). Poulter opened with a 73 the following week in Houston, answered with rounds of 64-65, made a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th to force a playoff and won on the first extra hole to get into the Masters.\nThose victories will go a long way in getting Mickelson and Poulter to France in the fall as captain's picks if they don't qualify for their Ryder Cup teams.\nBut it's early.\nEven though one half of the season is gone, the bigger half is coming up." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "SILVERSTONE, England (AP) — Struggling Formula One outfit McLaren has accepted Eric Boullier's resignation as racing director and announced a restructure of its leadership.\nBoullier, who joined the British team in 2014, had overseen its worst run across its 52-year history. McLaren has not won a race since 2012 and hasn't landed a podium position in more than four years.\nMcLaren says in a statement that former IndyCar champion Gil de Ferran has been appointed to the new role of sporting director. Simon Roberts will oversee production, engineering and logistics, and Andrea Stella has been promoted to performance director, responsible for trackside operations. Stella had joined McLaren with Fernando Alonso from Ferrari.\nMcLaren chief executive Zak Brown says the team's performance this year \"has not met the expectations of anyone at McLaren\" and that \"the causes are systemic and structural, which require major change from within. With today's announcement, we start to address those issues head on and take the first step on our road to recovery.\"\nMcLaren is sixth in the constructors' championship, 203 points behind leader Ferrari. McLaren driver Fernando Alonso is eighth in the drivers' standings with 36 points.\nThe British Grand Prix takes place on Sunday." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Most people know that Zhuzihu (竹子湖) ) is home to Yangmingshan's calla lilies, but few have any idea that the valley tucked between Taipei’s Mt. Tatun and Mt. Qixing was the earliest breeding base of Ponlai Rice (Japonica rice) when Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule (1895 to 1945). A couple of trails in Zhuzihu have been renovated and connected by Taipei’s Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) to serve as a reminder of the local rice culture in the old days.\nDuring the Japanese colonial period, a Japanese engineer found that the Zhuzihu area was very suitable for planting short-grained Japanese rice cultivars because the area was situated on high terrain, the temperatures were low and the water quality was good. Therefore, cultivation of rice began in the area as early as in the 1920s.\nThe GEO said that using the Waterwheel Liao (水車寮) at Dinghu (頂湖) as the center, the office had connected the Waterwheel Liao trail, which was used for hauling rice in the old days, with the newly renovated irrigation ditch trail (水圳步徑) to form a circular trail network. For a connection with the historic rice culture of this area, start a walking tour from the Zhuzihu Ponlai Rice Foundation Seed Field Story House (竹子湖蓬萊米故事館), stroll the trails between the farm fields and hydrangea gardens, and end the tour at the original site of the Ponlai cultivation (蓬來米原種田), the GEO recommended.\nMembers of the public are recommended to take Bus S8 and S9 and get off at Zhuzihu (Hutian Elementary School). Walk for five minutes along the Waterwheel Liao trail to reach the irrigation ditch trail; the whole trip takes about 20 minutes.\n(photo courtesy of GEO)\n(photo courtesy of GEO)\n(photo courtesy of GEO)\n(photo courtesy of GEO)\n(photo courtesy of GEO)\n(photo courtesy of GEO)\n(photo courtesy of GEO)\n(photo courtesy of GEO)\n(photo courtesy of GEO)\n(photo courtesy of GEO)\n(photo courtesy of GEO)" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "NAIROBI,Kenya (AP) — A Kenyan court has released seven doctors who are officials in the medics' union and who were jailed earlier this week for not calling off a strike by doctors working in public institutions.\nThe decision to free the seven was made Wednesday by three judges of the appellate court.\nAbout 1,000 doctors outside the court celebrated the officials' release and held a peaceful march to Parliament and Nairobi's Freedom Park. More than 5,000 doctors from public hospitals are on strike over pay and to protest Kenya's dilapidated health care system.\nHealth minister Dr. Cleopa Mailu told the Senate committee for health that he had agreed to the release of the officials. The union had said that no negotiations would be held until the seven were freed." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "SOUTH ELGIN, Ill. (AP) — The Latest on a police standoff in suburban Chicago (all times local):\n11:30 a.m.\nPolice say a 52-year-old suburban Chicago man who was fatally shot after a four-hour standoff immediately opened fire on officers as they arrived at his home.\nSouth Elgin Police Sgt. Mike Doty says three officers were \"struck by gunfire.\" He says their injuries are not life threatening.\nPolice say Frank Dripps fired at officers with a shotgun Tuesday night after they were called to his home in South Elgin, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of Chicago. He then barricaded himself inside a stairwell of the condominium building where he lived.\nDoty says Dripps yelled vulgarities at officers and stated \"he would shoot officers if they came at him.\" Doty also says Dripps raised his shotgun and a rifle with a scope to his shoulder \"off and on\" before police shot and killed him early Wednesday morning.\n___\n9:15 am\nA suburban Chicago police officer fatally shot a man who fired at officers, wounding three, during an overnight standoff.\nThe officers' injuries were not life threatening.\nThe Chicago Tribune reports the standoff began late Tuesday when police were called to a home in South Elgin, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of Chicago, for a report of shots fired.\nPolice Sgt. Mike Doty says at least two shotgun blasts were fired at officers as they approached. Police surrounded the building and evacuated neighboring homes.\nOfficers began negotiating with the man, who barricaded himself in a stairwell. Police believed he was armed with a scoped rifle as well as the shotgun.\nPolice say an officer shot and killed the unidentified man after he fired at police again around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday." ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }

{ "text": [ "AMSTERDAM (AP) — The Netherlands' spy service broke into the computers used by a powerful Russian hacking group and may be sitting on evidence relating to the breach of the U.S. Democratic National Committee, a Dutch newspaper and television show jointly reported Friday.\nReports carried in the respected daily Volkskrant and by the current affairs show Nieuwsuur said hackers working for the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service penetrated the computers used by the group, often nicknamed Cozy Bear, in mid-2014 and watched them for at least a year, even managing to catch the hackers on camera.\nDutch Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongren, interviewed by reporters in The Hague before the government's weekly Cabinet meeting, declined to address the report, saying only that she was \"very happy that we have good security services in the Netherlands that do their work well.\"\nPresident Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said he had yet to see any official comment from the Dutch intelligence services on the matter.\n\"If the Dutch media want to fuel anti-Russian hysteria in the U.S., it's an activity that can't be called honorable,\" he added.\nVolkskrant and Nieuwsuur said that the Dutch spies used their access to help oust Cozy Bear from U.S. State Department computers in late 2014. Volkskrant said American spies were so grateful they sent the Dutch cake and flowers.\nKo Colijn, a researcher at Clingendael, the Netherlands Institute of International Relations, said the report may indicate a leveling trend in which small but tech-savvy countries like the Netherlands \"can compensate their military inferiority with cyber quality surpluses.\"\nThe news drew particular attention in Washington, where Cozy Bear has been identified as one of two Russian government-linked hacking groups that broke in to the DNC ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The other group is usually called Fancy Bear.\nUnmasking the Cozy Bear hackers would provide key evidence for investigators trying to unravel the DNC breach, but it may not dispel the mystery surrounding the leaks that followed.\nA recent AP investigation found that all but one of the two dozen or so officials whose emails were published in the run-up to the 2016 election were targeted by Fancy Bear, which cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said operated independently from Cozy Bear.\nThe Kremlin has denied meddling in the U.S. presidential vote.\n___\nSatter reported from London. Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.\n___\nOnline:\nVolkskrant report (in English): https://www.volkskrant.nl/media/dutch-agencies-provide-crucial-intel-about-russia-s-interference-in-us-elections~a4561913/\nNiewsuur report (in Dutch): https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2213762-hackteam-aivd-gaf-fbi-cruciale-info-over-russische-inmenging-verkiezingen.html" ], "answer_start": [ 0 ] }