The bodies of 70 people killed by Greece‘s deadliest wildfire in decades have been identified, authorities said Tuesday, as forensic experts continue work to identify more remains recovered from the area.
Separately, the coast guard said Tuesday it had recovered the body of a woman from the sea in the Saronic Gulf south of Athens, many miles away from the site of the blaze. The body had not been identified and it was unclear whether it was related to the July 23 blaze that devastated the seaside resort of Mati northeast of Athens.
On Monday, coast guard special operations divers recovered another body from the waters off the coast of the fire area, believed to be of someone who drowned in their effort to escape. Identification was also pending.
During the blaze, hundreds of people fled to beaches, and many were forced to swim out to sea to escape the flames and choking smoke. A massive search operation involving vessels and divers continues in the waters near the fire zone.
At least 91 people are believed to have died in the blaze, but confusion surrounds the exact death toll.
On Sunday, the fire department said 59 bodies had been identified, while the identification procedure was pending for another 28. A further four people died of their injuries in hospitals.
However, the department explained on Tuesday that coroners found some bodies were so badly burned that some body bags contained the remains of more than one person. The intensity of the heat during the fire was such that it even melted metal, turning the hub caps of cars into molten rivulets.
That has led the fire department to stop issuing information about the number of bodies believed to have been recovered, changing instead to relating the number of identified victims.
A list of people officially registered as unaccounted for stood at 14.
Fanned by gale-force winds, the blaze raced through seaside resorts that are a mixture of permanent residences and holiday homes for Athenians. The high death toll has prompted criticism of the government over the absence of access roads, warning systems and other civil protection measures in residential areas surrounded by forest and at high risk of wildfires.
Becca Kufrin reunited with her scorned suitors on Monday night’s “Bachelorette: Men Tell All” episode.
At the top of the show the men immediately started jumping at each other’s throats. Many of the suitors called out Jean Blanc for the infamous moment this season when he told Becca he loved her and then instantly took it back. When the guys started yelling at him on stage, Jean Blanc mocked Colton’s virginity.
Colton responded, “You’re going to be disrespectful on top of disingenuous.”
More drama ensued when the conversation turned to male model Jordan, who’s been criticized for being a “clown” and not taking the journey seriously. When he took the hot seat next to host Chris Harrison, he said he doesn’t understand why the men hated him so much; he was just being his confident self.
As for the famous golden undies that enraged the bachelors throughout the season, Jordan revealed he was wearing them on the reunion show, and even gave the audience a little peek.
Next to take center stage was someone who spent very little time on the show but still made quite the impact: Grocery Store Joe. He was sent home the first night but social media blew up with praise of the relatively quiet man. Even so, he confessed he was embarrassed to be among the very first cut.
“It was pretty bad. I went home right away. It really went, like, horrible,” Joe said.
Wills was the next bachelor to talk about his emotional journey with Becca. Through tears, he explained that he really loved her and was surprised when she sent him home just a few weeks ago. In the end, however, he said he can completely “understand and respect” Becca’s decision.
Colton jumped into the spotlight next to talk about his tumultuous journey. He explained that he was blindsided by the Tia revelation but has been mostly dealing with the backlash from speaking about how he’s a virgin at age 26 — including some people questioning his masculinity.
“That hurts because when I hear that I believe it,” he said, his voice cracking. “I feel like people think I am less of a man because of that and that’s the hardest thing for me to hear.”
Finally, Becca, came on stage and confronted all the men she sent home just a few months ago. She started by giving some closure to both Colton and Jason, explaining that they are both great men and everything they did was perfect — but she had to follow her heart.
Next, Jean Blanc came down from his seat to formally apologize to Becca for their last conversation together.
“I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t want to save face. It was just a moment where I wanted to do everything to get what we had back,” he explained. “I just wanted to say sorry, Becca.”
Jean Blanc wasn’t the only one apologizing. Chris, who went on a downward spiral mid-season, also apologized to Becca for his chaotic behavior.
“I also feel like I disrespected you and you didn’t deserve that. I just want to say sorry from the bottom of my heart for that,” Chris said just as he brought out the same choir he had with him on the first impression night. This time, though, they sang different lyrics: “Chris was a jerk. Chris was a jerk. Chris just wants to say sorry, sorry.”
Not in attendance were Becca’s final two suitors: Garrett and Blake. To see whom she chooses, tune in to “The Bachelorette” next Monday at 8 p.m. on ABC.
The owner of a Florida auto repair shop where federal authorities captured a runaway immigrant girl is receiving death threats from people who mistakenly believe he or his employees alerted police.
The Miami Herald says their reporter witnessed 10 such calls within five minutes Monday at the Gonzalez Auto Center in Homestead. Other threats are being made on Facebook. The FBI is investigating and owner Francisco Gonzalez said he is now carrying a gun.
Federal authorities say the Honduran 15-year-old had been taken into custody at the Mexican border three weeks ago when she tried to enter the United States alone. She was taken to the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children, where about 1,200 children are being held.
She ran away Friday morning as shelter workers were taking her to a doctor’s appointment, and ran into Gonzalez’s nearby shop, where police later found her hiding behind a large tool box.
Gonzalez said neither he nor his workers called police. He said officers searching the area came into his shop and spotted her. Homestead police confirmed that account, saying someone near the shop had told officers she might be inside.
“We gave this girl water, offered her food; I treated her as my own daughter,” Gonzalez told the newspaper. “I explained to her that the police want to ‘make America great again’ by uniting her with her family, but for that to happen, she needs to cooperate.”
He added: “We live in a country with laws, laws I had to follow, even if it breaks my heart.”
Homestead police Detective Fernando Morales said that if anyone who knew the girl’s whereabouts had lied to officers, they would have committed a crime.
“If your child ran away and was hiding at her friend’s house, and that friend’s parents knew police was looking for her, and stayed quiet, or lied about the runaway’s whereabouts, there’s ground for the arrest of those parents for obstructing. This is the same situation,” he told the Herald.
Alex Trebek can see life without “Jeopardy.”
Speaking Monday on Fox News’ ” OBJECTified ,” the 78-year-old said the odds are 50/50, “and a little less,” he won’t return to the game show he’s hosted since 1984 when his contract expires in 2020.
He noted he’ll be 80 and will have hosted the show for 36 years. Trebek says he’ll continue if he’s still enjoying it and “not making too many mistakes.” But he also wants to make an “intelligent decision” when it’s time to hang it up.
Trebek says he suggested to the producer to consider Alex Faust, who does play-by-play for the Los Angeles Kings hockey team, as a replacement. He also suggested attorney and commentator Laura Coates.
“Jeopardy” went on hiatus after Trebek underwent brain surgery late last year.
Home work, tests, and lectures …These are not the reason the kids get excited about going back to school. It’s the new school supplies, new threads, and, of course, a new backpack.
today, we’re gonna check out the must-haves and trends, for your back-to-school checklist. Now, no matter what age, kids seem to gravitate towards distressed jeans. Why wouldn’t they? They add a little bit of edginess to any outfit.
however, the school dress code may not agree. In order to stick with school rules, and keep your kiddo happy, opt for a pair of jeans with a bold print, pop of color, or fun embellishments, like these jeans from the buckle. I love the pearl lining on the pockets of this pair for girls. For the guys, switch out those normal khakis, with these jogger style pants. If your kid wants to be super cool, check out buckle’s exclusive dibs line, with solar changing shirts, hats, and more from youtube star, tanner braungardt.
everyone’s favorite back-to-school item, the backpack. The key is to pick out something that fits your kids’ personality and needs. Eddie Bauer has durable backpacks, that will hold up all year, in a variety of colors, with lots of pockets for organizing. For the little fashionista? This adorable unicorn backpack and lunch box, from justice will make sure she shines.
Finally, everyone needs a good pair of sneakers for back-to-school. Allsports has a variety of styles, with Nike’s for all ages, for boys and girls, that will make sure your student has no problem picking out a pair, to rock on their first day back-to-school.
The Latest on developments in Afghanistan (all times local):
3:55 p.m.
Afghan officials say casualty reports so far indicate four people were killed and eight were wounded in the militant attack underway in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
Gen. Ghulam Sanayee Stanikzai, the provincial police chief in Nangarhar, says the fighting between militants and Afghan security forces also left two policemen wounded.
Stanikzai says the militants on Tuesday targeted the government building of the refugee and repatriation department in Jalalabad, the provincial capital. Stanikzai and Gov. Hayatullah Hayat say Afghan forces killed two militants during the battle.
Attahullah Khogyani, Hayat’s spokesman, says Afghan forces reacted quickly when the attack started and rescued all participants of a meeting of non-governmental organizations that was taking place in the building as well as the head of the refugee department.
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12:10 p.m.
An Afghan provincial official says a coordinated militant attack is underway in the city of Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province.
Zabihullah Zemarai, a member of the provincial council, says there was first a car bombing — likely an explosion set off by a suicide car bomber — near the city’s provincial hospital and health department on Tuesday, followed by gunfire.
He says a refugee and repatriation department is also located in the same area of the city so the immediate target wasn’t clear.
Zemarai couldn’t confirm any casualties but says a heavy gunbattle is taking place between Afghan security forces and the attackers.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but both the Taliban and the Islamic State group are active in Nangarhar.
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10:50 a.m.
An Afghan official says a roadside bombing has killed at least 11 people on a bus, including women and children, in the country’s western Farah province.
Abdul Jabar Shahiq, chief of the province’s health department, says the bombing on Tuesday morning in the Bala Buluk district also wounded 31 people, all civilians.
Shahiq says the bus was on its way from Herat province toward the capital, Kabul, when it struck the roadside bomb.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but the Taliban have a strong presence in the province, especially in Bala Buluk where they often plant roadside bombs to target government officials or Afghan security forces.
Such attacks often end up inflicting significant casualties among civilians.
The heatwave gripping large stretches of Europe has already been blamed for deadly forest fires and crop failures and now freshwater fish could be its next victims.
On Tuesday, Germany was forecast to experience the highest temperatures of the year so far, with the mercury expected to rise as high as 39 C (102 F) in some regions.
Rivers like the Rhine and the Elbe have soaked up so much heat that fish are beginning to suffocate.
“I’m expecting a tragedy as soon as next week,” Philipp Sicher from the Swiss Fishery Association told German news agency dpa.
In Hamburg, the authorities collected almost five metric tons (11,000 pounds) of dead fish from ponds over the weekend, dpa reported. Firefighters have started pumping fresh water into some ponds and lakes in a bid to raise oxygen levels.
Several of Germany’s nuclear power stations are reducing energy output because rivers used to cool the power plants are too warm.
The low water levels have also made shipping more difficult, with a complete ban imposed on boats on the Oder river in eastern Germany.
Meanwhile, the country’s Farmer’s Association is asking the government for 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) in financial aid to help cover losses from this year’s poor harvest.
Association president Joachim Rukwied said German farmers expect the grain harvest to be 20 percent smaller than last year, with rapeseed crops down 30 percent, as it has barely rained during the past 12 weeks, dpa reported.
A group representing potato farmers said they’re expecting harvests to be 25 percent smaller than last year and warned that the losses may lead not only to more expensive but also shorter French fries — because the spuds are so small this year.
The oceans, too, have been affected. Authorities in Poland last week banned swimming at over 50 beaches along its Baltic coast, after hot weather led to the growth of toxic bacteria in the unusually warm sea. Water temperatures in the Baltic Sea exceeded 23 C (73.4 F) in some places. Emergency water rescuers told vacationers on hot, sandy beaches — from Swinoujscie in the west to Gdynia in the east — not to enter the sea, where thick, green-brown cyanobacteria colonies have grown and pose a health threat.
Near Wildeshausen, in northern Germany, medics had to attend to a group of about 20 children and teens Monday night after the air conditioning in the bus they were traveling in broke down.
Police dogs in the Swiss city of Zurich have been getting special shoes to prevent them from burning their paws on the scorching streets. Swiss authorities have also cancelled traditional fireworks displays in some areas during Wednesday’s national holiday celebrations, citing the high risk of forest fires.
Across Europe, forest fires have already caused major damage. Earlier this month, 92 people died in Greece — the deadliest wildfire in recent history.
Temperatures of up to 45 C (113 F) are forecast on the Iberian peninsula from Wednesday and authorities are making preparations for emergencies during the heatwave expected to continue through Sunday.
In Spain, 27 of the country’s 50 provinces are at “extreme risk” from heat beginning Thursday, the national weather agency said. In neighboring Portugal, the General Directorate for Health warned about dust blowing in from North Africa and authorities said almost 11,000 firefighters and 56 aircraft are on standby to tackle forest fires.
The simmering heat, however, has some winners, too.
Beer brewers in Germany have seen sales rise by 0.6 percent, or 300,000 hectoliters (7.92 million gallons), in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period last year.
“Especially the alcohol-free types are currently very much sought after,” said Marc-Oliver Huhnholz, from the German Brewer-Association.
In Denmark, where the Meteorological Institute reported that the month of July has been the sunniest since they started recording data in 1920, sales of alcoholic beverages dropped in favor of non-alcoholic beers, sodas and white wine, the country’s TV2 reported.
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Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal contributed reporting.
Despite enthusiastic discourse around diversity in film, a report from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative released Tuesday says when it comes to the numbers, little has changed. The most popular movies are still largely the domain of white, straight, able-bodied men, both in front of the camera and behind.
The percentage of female characters with speaking parts in the top 100 films has remained largely unchanged at or around 30 percent over the past decade, according to the report released Tuesday. And in survey of the top 100 films of 2017, a year in which the top three were the female-led “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” ”Beauty and the Beast” and “Wonder Woman,” only 33 featured women in a lead or co-lead. Four of those were from an underrepresented group, and five were over the age of 45.
Women of color are still among the most marginalized, which the report calls an epidemic of invisibility. In 2017, 64 of the top 100 films did not include a single Latina character, 65 were missing Asian females, and 43 were devoid of any black female characters. 78 films were without a female character with a disability and 94 absent of an LGBT female. The report calls it an epidemic of invisibility.
“It was an unprecedented year where you had the top spots at the domestic box office driven by female leads, and yet we find ourselves in another year where almost nothing has changed.” said Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Founding Director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. “In the aggregate, Hollywood isn’t embracing any solution. It’s business as usual or embracing the status quo as usual.”
The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has been tracking and examining the top 100 films every year since 2007 leading to a database of 1,100 films and 48,757 characters.
And while the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements have affected every level of the entertainment industry over the past nine months, any statistically significant impact will likely not be seen on screen for another year or more.
“As Time’s Up focuses on safety, equity and dignity, we need to be looking to 2019 and 2020 for the major changes where Time’s Up exerts its influence and we see a shift in hiring practices for the first time,” Smith said. “Until hiring changes, these numbers will not move.”
The report suggests solutions like the “just add five” concept, which advocates for adding five speaking roles for women in every script to achieve gender equity by 2020, or the inclusion rider, which is a contract addendum requiring studios to hire a diverse crew and cast for a project. Frances McDormand popularized the term by mentioning it in her Oscars acceptance speech.
Although many in the industry have embraced the concept of inclusion riders, like Michael B. Jordan, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Paul Feig and others who run production companies, some have criticized the idea saying it is potentially illegal. Smith says that the critics misunderstand the concept and should speak to employment attorneys to understand how to execute it.
“The spirit of the inclusion rider was to get people to realize that the world we see on screen is imbalanced and there are ways to address this,” Smith said. “The solution is to hire differently. An inclusion rider isn’t needed to do that.”
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr
Europe’s economic upswing slowed further in the second quarter amid concerns over global trade disputes that have seen the world’s major powers impose new tariffs on each other.
Official figures on Tuesday showed growth in the 19 countries that use the euro currency eased to a quarterly rate of 0.3 percent, weaker than markets had expected and down from 0.4 percent in the first quarter. Fear that new tariffs will slow global commerce has been weighing on the outlook in the Europe, which is heavily dependent on trade.
Surveys of business confidence have recently indicated that business leaders are concerned about the impact of new import taxes imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on global steel and aluminum imports and on a range of Chinese goods. The Chinese retaliated against U.S. products including autos and soybeans. So far, the trade disputes seem to be affecting business confidence but that has not yet fed through to strongly dampen actual economic activity.
Despite the recent slowdown, the economy is coming off a good year, and output was up a robust 2.1 percent from the second quarter a year earlier.
The easing in growth has not been sharp enough to keep the European Central Bank from moving ahead with plans to slowly withdraw its monetary stimulus, which it has been providing in the form of bond purchases and record low interest rates. The bank says it will stop the bond purchases, which help make credit cheap, by the end of the year and could start raising interest rates after the summer of 2019.
ECB President Mario Draghi has described the slowdown in the first six months of the year as a pullback from extraordinarily high rates of growth last year, and not as a sign of looming recession. Growth went as high as 0.7 percent quarter on quarter in both the third and fourth quarters of last year.
Separate figures from the European Union’s statistics agency showed that the unemployment rate was steady in June at 8.3 percent and annual inflation rose in July to 2.1 percent from 2.0 percent the previous month.
Excluding volatile items like oil and food, prices rose more than expected to 1.1 percent, from 0.9 percent in June. That is good news for the ECB, which is trying to push inflation to just below 2 percent on a sustainable basis so that it stays there after the stimulus ends. Since the headline figure can fluctuate, the core figure is a better indicator of the underlying trend in inflation.
The Latest on Zimbabwe’s election (all times local):
12 p.m.
A Zimbabwean pastor who was prosecuted for leading large anti-government protests when Robert Mugabe was leader has conceded defeat in his bid to be elected as a ward councilor in the capital, Harare.
Evan Mawarire, who had launched the #ThisFlag protest campaign on social media, congratulated Jacob Mafume, a candidate from an opposition coalition led by the Movement for Democratic Change party. Mawarire ran as an independent.
The pastor was acquitted of subversion soon after the resignation of Mugabe following a military takeover in November. The judge who threw out the case against him was Priscilla Chigumba, who is overseeing Zimbabwe’s election as head of the electoral commission.
The first election results are expected Tuesday afternoon. President Emmerson Mnangagwa and top opposition leader Nelson Chamisa both have expressed optimism about the results.
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11:15 a.m.
Zimbabwe’s electoral commission says it expects to start announcing election results from 3 p.m. (1300GMT) on Tuesday.
Commission chief Priscilla Chigumba says most of the nearly 11,000 polling stations have completed vote-counting and that a verification process is underway. She says “the atmosphere has remained peaceful” across the country and that she has not received any major complaints about how Monday’s election was conducted.
Chigumba says the electoral commission has five days to release the final tally and expects to do so within that time period.
She says she is confident there was no “cheating” and says the electoral commission will respect the will of Zimbabweans.
“We will not steal their choice of leaders, we will not subvert their will,” Chigumba says.
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8:30 a.m.
Zimbabweans are awaiting the first results from an election that they hope will lift the country out of economic and political stagnation after decades of rule by former leader Robert Mugabe.
Officials on Tuesday counted votes a day after millions of Zimbabweans peacefully cast their votes in a process closely watched by international monitors, who have yet to announce whether the election was free and fair.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission says it will release the final tally within five days.
The two main contenders are President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former deputy president, and Nelson Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who leads a coalition of opposition groups.
More than 5.5 million people were registered to vote and turnout was about 70 percent.
A U.K. parliamentary committee says international aid organizations have failed to stop workers from sexually exploiting women and girls they are supposed to help because their approach has been “complacency verging on complicity.”
Stephen Twigg, chairman of the House of Commons’ International Development Committee, says abuse remains “endemic” in the sector because aid groups have too often sought to protect the organization’s reputation rather than attack the problem in a transparent manner.
The panel is calling for improved screening of aid workers and an international register to prevent known predators from moving from one organization to another.
The report follows revelations earlier this year that seven Oxfam workers were fired or resigned after a whistleblower accused staff members of misconduct while working in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
North Korea is continuing to build intercontinental missiles despite President Donald Trump‘s summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, according to U.S. intelligence evidence cited by The Washington Post.
The newspaper cites officials familiar with the intelligence, who say North Korea is working on “one and possibly two liquid-fueled ICBMs at a large research facility in Sanumdong,” the same facility where the communist country previously built intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Jeffery Lewis, the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, who was also quoted by the Post, told ABC News, “[The Washington Post] is reporting on a leak that North Korea is constructing one or two ICBMs at Sanumdong. We were asked to provide an independent opinion. We had previously identified the facility in question and were able to corroborate that the site continues to be active. Similarly, we independently found the enrichment plant at Kangson.”
Senior North Korean officials have discussed a strategy of deceiving the Trump administration on the number of nukes and ICBMs it has, according to the Post report.
The CIA declined to comment to ABC News on Monday night.
The country first tested an ICBM on July 4, 2017, which flew about 577 miles into the Sea of Japan. The country tested a second ICBM on July 28, 2017 and a third on Nov. 28, 2017.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked whether North Korea was continuing to make submarine-launched ballistic missiles during a contentious hearing on Capitol Hill last week. He declined to answer that, but he did say that North Korea continues to produce fissile material, the fuel for nuclear bombs, and that there are no U.S. or international inspectors on the ground to see what North Korea is doing at its facilities.
The James Martin Center reported on July 19 it had found evidence of the Kangson facility, which was being used to enrich uranium.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., asked Pompeo at that hearing about whether North Korea was still producing material for nuclear weapons.
“Senator, I’m trying to make sure I stay on the correct — yes, that’s correct,” Pompeo responded. “Just trying to make sure I don’t cross into classified information, I’m not trying to hesitate. Yes, they continue to produce fissile material.”
Trump, who met with Kim in Singapore on June 12, declared North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat to America the next day.
Trump and Kim signed an agreement which included North Korea committing “to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
“We have the framework for getting ready to denuclearize,” Trump told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos following the summit. “He’s de-nuking the whole place. I think he’s going to start now.”
North Korea has not conducted any nuclear tests since Sept. 3, 2017. The country invited foreign journalists to view its demolition of the Punggye-ri nuclear site, where all of its testing was done, in late May.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a weekend attack on Western tourists in Tajikistan that left four people killed.
A car rammed into a group of cyclists south of the Tajik capital Dushanbe on Sunday. The driver then joined the passengers in attacking the tourists with knives, leaving four dead and three injured.
Authorities in the ex-Soviet Central Asian nation had said terrorism was a possible motive.
In a statement late Monday the Islamic State said that a group of its soldiers attacked the “citizens of the Crusader coalition.”
The Islamic State group usually refers to the U.S.-led coalition that is fighting it in Syria and Iraq as crusaders.
The statement did not say how many militants took part in the attack.
Sony Corp. profits nearly tripled in the latest quarter, boosted by a jump in PlayStation 4 software sales, the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant said Tuesday.
The company reported profits of 226.4 billion yen ($2.0 billion) for the April to June quarter, up from 80.9 billion yen in the same period last year and 21.2 billion yen in 2016.
Sales rose 5 percent to 1.95 trillion yen. Gaming sales, which account for about a quarter of Sony‘s revenue, rose 36 percent to 472 billion yen.
Sony raised its sales forecast 3.6 percent for the fiscal year ending March 31 to 8.6 trillion yen, largely on an upward revision to PlayStation 4 software and hardware sales.
The company’s mobile business fell on slumping smartphone sales in Europe and Japan, while its life insurance business grew about 11 percent.
Japanese game maker Nintendo Co. also reported strong profit growth Tuesday thanks to increased sales of games for its Nintendo Switch machine.
Iranian officials reacted skeptically on Tuesday to President Donald Trump‘s comments that he’s willing to negotiate with his Iranian counterpart, saying instead that if Trump wants talks, he needs to rejoin the international nuclear deal he unilaterally pulled out of earlier this year.
Trump on Monday said he’d meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani “anytime” if the Iranian leader were willing.
The Iranian leadership has previously ruled out one-on-one talks with Trump, following his decision to pull the United States out of the deal under which Iran was given relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency quoted political adviser Hamid Aboutalebi as saying that for talks to happen, the U.S. needs to rejoin the deal.
“Those who believe in dialogue as a method of resolving disputes in civilized societies should be committed to the means,” he said.
Trump withdrew from the landmark nuclear accord in May, saying it was too generous to Iran. He has vowed to ramp up sanctions until Iran radically changes its regional policies, including its support for regional militant groups, something the country’s leaders have long refused to do.
Even though Trump on Monday said if Rouhani were to meet with him there would be “no preconditions,” he also did not walk back from any of those earlier demands.
With the first U.S. sanctions due to come into effect next Monday, the economy in Iran has already been hit, giving rise to growing fears of prolonged economic suffering.
The Iranian currency has been in freefall, hitting a new low Monday, at 122,000 rial to the dollar on the thriving black market. It recovered slightly to 115,000 to the dollar on Tuesday, and concerns are growing as Iranians have seen their savings dwindle and purchasing power drop.
Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, the head of influential parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, suggested a U.S. return to the nuclear deal, which would bring an end to the economic uncertainty, would be needed before Tehran could think of negotiating.
“There can be no negotiations with the Americans raising the issue of talks from the position of power,” he was quoted as saying on the website of the Iranian parliament, calling Trump’s decision to pull out of the nuclear deal the “biggest blow to diplomacy.”
Reformist lawmaker Mostafa Kavakebian questioned negotiating with Trump, calling him “untrustworthy,” and also said now was not the time for talks.
“If this negotiation (is) carried out in any form, then it will be considered as surrender and the Iranian nation will not surrender,” he said.
A German court has acquitted a man accused in an 18-year-old bombing that injured 10 recent immigrants from eastern Europe, including six Jews.
The 52-year-old man, whose name wasn’t released in accordance with privacy laws, had been considered a suspect in the July 2000 bombing in a Duesseldorf subway station, but at the time authorities couldn’t find enough evidence in the case.
That changed after he allegedly confessed to a fellow prisoner four years ago while incarcerated for another crime, but on Tuesday a Duesseldorf regional court said there was insufficient evidence to convict him.
The bomb detonated remotely near the group of immigrants, on their way home from German language lessons. A woman’s unborn baby was killed when hit by a piece of metal.
Japan’s nuclear policy-setting panel on Tuesday approved revised guidelines on plutonium use, putting a cap on its stockpile and pledging to eventually reduce it to address international concerns, but without giving a specific timeline or targets.
The Japan Atomic Energy Commission’s guidelines call for some government oversight to carefully regulate operation of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant in northern Japan when it starts up in three years so the amount of extracted plutonium doesn’t spike.
Despite security concerns raised by Washington and others, the stockpile isn’t decreasing due to difficulties in achieving a full nuclear fuel recycling program and slow restarts of reactors amid setbacks from the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
The guidelines, updated for the first time in 15 years, also urge Japanese utility operators to steadily consume plutonium reprocessed overseas, but does not elaborate on how that works out with additional plutonium from Rokkasho.
The guidelines say Japan’s stockpile should not exceed “the current level.”
Japan now has about 47 tons of separated plutonium — 11 tons at home, and 36 tons in Britain and France, where spent fuel from Japanese nuclear plants has been reprocessed and stored because Japan is not able to reprocess it into MOX fuel at home. The amount is enough to make about 6,000 atomic bombs.
Japan reprocesses spent fuel, instead of disposing it as waste, to extract plutonium and uranium to make MOX fuel for reuse, while the U.S. discontinued the costly program. Allowed under international safeguard rules, Japan is the only non-nuclear weapons state that separates plutonium for peaceful uses, though the same technology can make atomic bombs.
The stockpile largely comes from overly optimistic projections that had relied on the Monju plutonium reactor, and its failure has forced Japan to resort to conventional light water reactors as the only realistic option to burn it.
Seven years after the Fukushima meltdown, five of the 38 workable reactors have restarted, but only three of them are approved as MOX compatible and together they consume just over 1 ton of plutonium annually.
Japan has long denied any possible misuse of the material and reprocessing technology, and has pledged to not possess plutonium that does not have a planned use. But its failure to reduce the stockpile of separated plutonium doesn’t look good, especially as the U.S. wants North Korea to get rid of its nuclear weapons and abandon reprocessing capabilities.
China has announced plans to build a similar reprocessing plant with France, while South Korea has expressed interest in reprocessing, raising a concern over future plutonium concentration in the region, experts say.
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Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi
Find her work at https://www.apnews.com/search/mari%20yamaguchi
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — Police are still searching for a suspect they say robbed the Ramada Inn on North Broadway early Tuesday morning, after searching with dogs overnight.
Police say a man walked into the Ramada Inn just before 1 o’clock Tuesday morning, armed with a shotgun.
They say he demanded cash from the clerk and made off with an unknown amount of money.
Police were able to locate a white pickup truck in the adjacent Dollar General parking lot, with a shotgun inside.
That truck came back stolen and police believe that is the vehicle the suspect was driving.
Police saw a man they say matches the suspect description run into a wooded area near North Broadway and I-75.
Police brought out search dogs to the scene but could not locate anyone after several hours.
Police say they will use video surveillance from the hotel to continue their search.
Malaysia’s civil aviation chief said Tuesday he has resigned to take responsibility after an independent investigative report highlighted shortcomings in the air traffic control center during Flight 370’s disappearance four years ago.
The report released Monday raised the possibility that the jet may have been hijacked even though there was no conclusive evidence of why the plane went off course and flew for over seven hours after severing communications.
Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the report didn’t blame the civil aviation department for the plane’s loss but found that the Kuala Lumpur air traffic control center failed to comply with operating procedures.
“Therefore, it is with regret and after much thought and contemplation that I have decided to resign as Chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia,” he said in his statement, adding he has served his resignation and will step down in two weeks.
The jet carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing vanished March 8, 2014, and is presumed to have crashed in the far southern Indian Ocean. The investigative report, prepared by a 19-member international team, said the cause of the disappearance cannot be determined until the wreckage and the plane’s black boxes are found.
However, the report said the investigation showed lapses by air traffic control, including a failure to swiftly initiate an emergency response and monitor radar continuously, relying too much on information from Malaysia Airlines and not getting in touch with the military for help.
New Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Tuesday the government has formed a committee to investigate and take action against any misconduct based on the report findings.
The report said there was insufficient information to determine if the aircraft broke up in the air or during impact with the ocean.
Scattered pieces of debris that washed ashore on African beaches and Indian Ocean islands indicated a distant remote stretch of the ocean where the plane likely crashed. But a government search by Australia, Malaysia and China failed to pinpoint a location. And a second, private search by U.S. company Ocean Infinity that finished at the end of May also found no sign of a possible crash site.
Malaysia’s government has said it will resume search if credible evidence on the plane’s location emerges.
Zimbabweans on Tuesday awaited the first results from an election that they hope will lift the country out of economic and political stagnation after decades of rule by former leader Robert Mugabe.
Officials counted votes a day after millions of Zimbabweans peacefully cast their votes in a process closely watched by international monitors, who have yet to announce whether the election was free and fair.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission says it will release the final tally within five days.
The two main contenders are 75-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former deputy president who has reinvented himself as a candidate for change; and 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who became head of the main opposition party a few months ago, after the death of its leader.
Both candidates issued upbeat assessments of how they did, though said they were waiting for the electoral commission to make the final announcement as required by law.
“I am delighted by the high turnout and citizen engagement so far,” Mnangagwa tweeted.
Chamisa said he had his own results from most of the nearly 11,000 polling stations, though said he would wait for the official tally.
More than 5.5 million people were registered to vote in an election featuring a record number of more than 20 presidential candidates and nearly 130 political parties vying for parliamentary seats. If no presidential candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held Sept. 8.
Western election observers were in Zimbabwe, reflecting a freer political environment since the November resignation of Mugabe, who had ruled since independence from white minority rule in 1980.
Still, there were concerns about bias in state media coverage of the election, a lack of transparency in ballot printing and reports of intimidation by pro-government local leaders who are supposed to stay neutral.