US advises against travel to China; virus declared emergency

BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. advised against all travel to China on Friday after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of a new virus that has spread to more than a dozen countries a global emergency. The number of cases spiked more than tenfold in a week, including the highest death toll in a 24-hour period reported Friday.

The State Department’s travel advisory told Americans currently in China to consider departing using commercial means, and requested that all non-essential U.S. government personnel defer travel “in light of the novel coronavirus.”

“Travellers should be prepared for travel restrictions to be put into effect with little or no advance notice. Commercial carriers have reduced or suspended routes to and from China,” it said.

China counted 9,692 confirmed cases with a death toll of 213, including 43 new fatalities. The vast majority of the cases have been in Hubei province and its provincial capital, Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. No deaths have been reported outside China.

In the seven days ending at midnight Thursday, the National Health Commission reported 596 cases have been “cured and discharged from hospital.”

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Key Republicans could tip Trump trial vote toward witnesses

WASHINGTON (AP) — Key Republican senators who could tip President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial toward summoning more witnesses played an over-sized role in the final hours of debate Thursday night with pointed questions ahead of crucial votes.

A vote on witnesses, expected Friday, could lead to an abrupt end of the trial with the expected acquittal. Or it could bring days, if not weeks more argument as Democrats press to hear testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton and others.

Any four Republicans could join with Democrats to demand taking more time for testimony.

Sen. Lisa Murkowksi of Alaska drew a reaction when she asked simply: “Why should this body not call Ambassador Bolton?”

GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee captured attention just before the dinner break when he questioned partisanship in the proceedings thus far. A spokesman confirmed to The Associated Press that Alexander would announce his decision on the witness vote shortly after the end of Thursday’s questions.

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AP Exclusive: Woman who says Trump raped her seeks his DNA

NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for a woman who accuses President Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s are asking for a DNA sample, seeking to determine whether his genetic material is on a dress she says she wore during the encounter.

Advice columnist E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers served notice to a Trump attorney Thursday for Trump to submit a sample on March 2 in Washington for “analysis and comparison against unidentified male DNA present on the dress.”

Carroll filed a defamation suit against Trump in November after the president denied her allegation, saying he didn’t know and had never even met her. Her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, then had the black wool coat-style dress tested. A lab report with the legal notice says DNA found in skin cells on the outer surface of the sleeves was a mix of at least four people, at least one of them male.

Several other people were tested and eliminated as possible contributors to the mix, according to the lab report, which was obtained by The Associated Press. Their names are redacted, but the report indicates they were involved in a photo shoot where she wore the dress last year, the only time Carroll says she has donned the dress since the alleged assault.

“Unidentified male DNA on the dress could prove that Donald Trump not only knows who I am, but also that he violently assaulted me in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman and then defamed me by lying about it and impugning my character,” Carroll said in a statement Thursday.

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Experts on Dershowitz’s impeachment defence: Quid pro whoa

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alan Dershowitz delivered a stunning defence of President Donald Trump in the Senate that would essentially make it impossible to impeach a president for anything he might do to boost his reelection prospects. It was a contention quickly and forcefully denounced by a range of legal scholars and historians who said there were clear limits on presidential authority.

Dershowitz said on Thursday that his remarks have been misinterpreted, but Democrats seized on them as they pressed their case for Trump’s removal from office for tying the release of military aid to Ukraine to an investigation of his political rivals.

His starting point was the benign assertion that every politician believes his election is in the public interest, but he pivoted abruptly to Ukraine, and began to frame an argument that would rewrite most conventional understanding of the scope of presidential power.

As novel as it was, his premise in many ways tracked the views of Trump who has said he was not bound by some constitutional constraints that other presidents have readily accepted. And several Republican senators seemed to find merit in what Dershowitz said.

The person in the chamber who in other settings might have a lot to say about the matter, Chief Justice John Roberts, was instead rendered essentially a spectator as he watched the arguments play out.

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Biden, Buttigieg amplify Sanders criticism before Iowa vote

WAUKEE, Iowa (AP) — Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden stepped up their criticisms of Bernie Sanders on Thursday, as moderates are under growing pressure to dull any momentum the progressive senator may gain heading into next week’s Iowa caucuses.

Biden, a former vice-president, was blunt when asked by reporters to contrast himself with Sanders, who has long identified as a democratic socialist and was elected as an independent senator from Vermont.

“I’m a Democrat,” Biden told reporters. “He’s not a registered Democrat, to the best of my knowledge. And Bernie has a different view — I mean everything I’ve suggested to you that I want to do, I’ve figured out how to pay for it.”

Sanders signed a loyalty pledge with the party last year that acknowledges he’s a member of the Democratic Party and would serve as one if elected president.

Buttigieg, meanwhile, bemoaned Sanders’ demands for adherence to progressive ideals as “a kind of politics that says you’ve got to go all the way here and nothing else counts.”

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Estranged husband accused of killing Jennifer Dulos dies

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A man charged with murdering his wife who went missing amid a contentious divorce case died Thursday, his lawyer said.

Fotis Dulos, 52, had been hospitalized since Tuesday when he was found at his home in Farmington, Connecticut, following an apparent suicide attempt.

“It’s been a truly horrific day for the family filled with difficult decisions, medical tests and meeting the requirements to determine death,” attorney Norm Pattis said.

“To those who contend that Mr. Dulos’ death reflects a consciousness of guilt, we say no,” he added. “We say it was more a conscience overborne with the weight of a world that was too busy to listen and wanted a story more than it wanted the truth.”

Dulos, a luxury home builder originally from Greece, was accused of killing Jennifer Dulos, who has not been seen since she dropped their five children off at school in May in New Canaan. Her body has not been found despite extensive searches. Fotis Dulos had denied any role in her disappearance.

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Dating apps face US inquiry over underage use, sex offenders

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A House subcommittee is investigating popular dating services such as Tinder and Bumble for allegedly allowing minors and sex offenders to use their services.

Bumble, Grindr, The Meet Group and the Match Group, which owns such popular services as Tinder, Match.com and OkCupid, are the current targets of the investigation by the U.S. House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on economic and consumer policy.

In separate letters Thursday to the companies, the subcommittee is seeking information on users’ ages, procedures for verifying ages, and any complaints about assaults, rape or the use of the services by minors. It is also asking for the services’ privacy policies and details on what users see when they review and agree to the policies. It also seeks information on what data is collected on people, including sexual orientation, drug use and political views.

Although the minimum age for using internet services is typically 13 in the U.S., dating services generally require users to be at least 18 because of concerns about sexual predators.

“Our concern about the underage use of dating apps is heightened by reports that many popular free dating apps permit registered sex offenders to use them, while the paid versions of these same apps screen out registered sex offenders,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the Illinois Democrat who heads the subcommittee, said in a statement. “Protection from sexual predators should not be a luxury confined to paying customers.”

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US finds ally in Mexico as asylum policy marks first year

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — The Perla family of El Salvador has slipped into a daily rhythm in Mexico while they wait for the U.S. to decide whether to grant them asylum.

A modest home has replaced the tent they lived in at a migrant shelter. Their 7- and 5-year-old boys are in their second year of public school, and their third son is about to celebrate his second birthday in Tijuana.

They were among the first migrants sent back to Mexico under a Trump administration policy that dramatically reshaped the scene at the U.S.-Mexico border by returning migrants to Mexico to wait out their U.S. asylum process. The practice initially targeted Central Americans but has expanded to other nationalities, excluding Mexicans, who are exempt. The Homeland Security Department said Wednesday that it started making Brazilians wait in Mexico.

Today, a year after the policy began, many other migrants have given up and gone back to the home countries they fled. Others, like the Perlas, became entrenched in Mexican life. The system known as the Migrant Protection Protocols helped change Washington’s relationship with Mexico and made the neighbour a key ally in President Donald Trump’s efforts to turn away a surge of asylum seekers.

The Perlas are faring better than most of the roughly 60,000 asylum-seekers, many of whom live in fear of being robbed, assaulted, raped or killed. Human Rights First, a group critical of the policy, has documented 816 public reports of violent crimes against those who were returned to Mexico. Late last year, the body of a Salvadoran father of two was found dismembered in Tijuana. A Salvadoran woman was kidnapped into prostitution in Ciudad Juarez.

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Ginni Rometty, 1st female CEO at IBM, to step down in April

ARMONK, N.Y. (AP) — Ginni Rometty, the first female CEO in IBM’s century-long history, is leaving the helm in April.

Rometty, 62, will remain IBM’s executive chairwoman until the end of the year. Her departure, announced Thursday, caps nearly 40 years with a technology giant famous for its conservative corporate culture. Rometty became IBM CEO eight years ago after previously overseeing sales and marketing.

As of this month, Rometty was one of 29 female CEOs leading S&P 500 companies, according to data from Catalyst, a non-profit for women in business. That’s less than 6%.

IBM said the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion advanced under Rometty’s leadership. This includes extending parental leave and making it easier for women to return to work after taking time off to care for children.

IBM said in a statement that Rometty “reinvented more than 50% of IBM’s portfolio” during her tenure, building a $21 billion cloud business while also advancing the company’s initiatives in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain technology.

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Jennifer Lopez and Shakira vow ’empowering’ halftime show

MIAMI (AP) — Jennifer Lopez and Shakira said their Super Bowl halftime show will pay homage to Latino culture, promising a joint performance that has an empowering message and also one that will remember NBA icon Kobe Bryant.

Lopez and Shakira on Thursday held a press conference before Sunday’s big game in Miami, telling media they worked hard to put together an eye-popping, high-energy 12-minute performance before the San Francisco 49ers take on the Kansas City Chiefs at Hard Rock Stadium.

“When I was living in Barranquilla, my hometown, as a little girl no one would have thought that I would be performing at the Super Bowl,” Colombian singer Shakira said. “It would be so hard to believe. And it’s a reality today, now. I think that this is a palpable example of how anything is possible really and I think what matters is the size of dreams.”

Shakira and Lopez have separately released a number of chart-topping hits that dominated both the pop and Latin charts in the last two decades. While rehearsing days ago, Lopez said her beau Alex Rodriguez came to her in tears to let her know Bryant, a friend of his, had passed away. Lopez said Thursday she wanted to send love and support to Bryant’s wife and family.

“We have to love people when they’re here and not wait,” said Lopez “I think about Vanessa as a mom and losing her best friend and partner and losing her child, you know, how awful that must be for her right now, and I just wanted to send the message and praying God guides her through every moment because she has three more babies to take care of.”