Hopkins begins nation's first HIV-positive organ transplants

Hopkins begins nation's first HIV-positive organ transplants

 

Doctor Dorry Segev answers questions about the first ever HIV-positive liver transplant in the world during a news conference at Johns Hopkins hospital, March 30, 2016 in Baltimore. Johns Hopkins University announced Wednesday that both recipients are recovering well after one received a kidney and the other a liver from a deceased donor — organs that ordinarily would have been thrown away because of the HIV infection.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Surgeons in Baltimore for the first time have transplanted organs between an HIV-positive donor and HIV-positive recipients, a long-awaited new option for patients with the AIDS virus whose kidneys or livers also are failing.

Johns Hopkins University announced Wednesday that both recipients are recovering well after one received a kidney and the other a liver from a deceased donor - organs that ordinarily would have been thrown away because of the HIV infection.

Doctors in South Africa have reported successfully transplanting HIV-positive kidneys but Hopkins said the HIV-positive liver transplant is the first worldwide. Hopkins didn't identify its patients, but said the kidney recipient is recuperating at home and the liver recipient is expected to be discharged soon.

"This could mean a new chance at life," said Dr. Dorry Segev, a Hopkins transplant specialist who pushed for legislation lifting a 25-year U.S. ban on the approach and estimates that hundreds of HIV-positive patients may benefit.

For patients who don't already have the AIDS virus, nothing changes - they wouldn't be offered HIV-positive organs.

Instead, the surgeries, performed earlier this month, are part of research to determine if HIV-to-HIV transplants really help.

The reason: Modern anti-AIDS medications have turned HIV from a quick killer into a chronic disease - meaning patients may live long enough to suffer organ failure, either because of the HIV or for some other reason. In the U.S., HIV-positive patients already are eligible to receive transplants from HIV-negative donors just like anyone else on the waiting list.

That list is long - for kidneys, more than 100,000 people are in line - and thousands die waiting each year. There's no count of how many of those waiting have HIV, but Segev said it increases the risk of death while waiting.

If the new approach works, one hope is that it could free up space on the waiting list as HIV-positive patients take advantage of organs available only to them. Segev estimated that 300 to 500 would-be donors who are HIV-positive die each year, potentially enough kidneys and livers for 1,000 additional transplants.

"It increases the pool of potential organ donors and allows more people to be transplanted. That's the advantage of this whole thing, but it is a research project so we are going to monitor it very carefully," said Dr. David Klassen of the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation's transplant system.

Hopkins is the first hospital given permission for HIV-to-HIV transplant research. Two others - Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia and Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York - also are approved for studies, according to the UNOS.

Segev helped spur a 2013 law - the HIV Organ Policy Equity, or HOPE, Act - that lifted a federal ban on any use of HIV-infected organs and paved the way for that research.

UNOS says at least 1,376 people with HIV have undergone transplants using HIV-negative organs since 2005. Special expertise is required to coordinate both the anti-HIV medications and anti-rejection drugs those patients require, but large studies have shown that HIV patients fare well after transplant.

Using an HIV-positive organ adds an extra concern: Transplant recipients are exposed to a second strain of the virus from the donor, explained Dr. Christine Durand, a Hopkins infectious disease specialist. Doctors have to consider what anti-AIDS medications the donor took to avoid introducing HIV drug resistance.

Hopkins' first HIV-to-HIV transplants were possible thanks to a deceased donor. The New England Organ Bank, which arranged for that donation, issued a statement from the unidentified woman's family expressing gratitude that someone who fought HIV's stigma was able to donate and help others.

But Segev said his team also is exploring how to safely attempt kidney transplants using living donors who have HIV.

And advocates said it's time for more people to ask about becoming organ donors.

"If you have considered donation but think that no one would want your organs, let the doctors decide that," said Morris Murray, an HIV-positive Maryland man who waited years before receiving an HIV-negative liver transplant in 2013.

Apple remains in dark how FBI hacked iPhone without its help

Apple remains in dark how FBI hacked iPhone without its help
 

FILE - In this Feb. 17, 2016 file photo, an iPhone is seen in Washington. The FBI’s announcement that it mysteriously hacked into an iPhone is a setback for Apple and increases pressure on the technology company to restore the security of its flagship product.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI's announcement that it mysteriously hacked into an iPhone is a public setback for Apple Inc., as consumers suddenly discover they can't keep their most personal information safe. Meanwhile, Apple remains in the dark about how to restore the security of its flagship product.

The government said it was able to break into an iPhone used by a gunman in a mass shooting in California, but it didn't say how. That puzzled Apple software engineers - and outside experts - about how the FBI broke the digital locks on the phone without Apple's help. It also complicated Apple's job repairing flaws that jeopardize its software.

The Justice Department's announcement that it was dropping a legal fight to compel Apple to help it access the phone also took away any obvious legal avenues Apple might have used to learn how the FBI did it. The Justice Department declined through a spokeswoman to comment Tuesday.

A few clues have emerged. A senior law enforcement official told The Associated Press that the FBI managed to defeat an Apple security feature that threatened to delete the phone's contents if the FBI failed to enter the correct passcode combination after 10 tries. That allowed the government to repeatedly and continuously test passcodes in what's known as a brute-force attack until the right code is entered and the phone is unlocked.

It wasn't clear how the FBI dealt with a related Apple security feature that introduces increasing time delays between guesses. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss the technique publicly.

FBI Director James Comey has said with those features removed, the FBI could break into the phone in 26 minutes.

The FBI hacked into the iPhone used by gunman Syed Farook, who died with his wife in a gun battle with police after they killed 14 people in December in San Bernardino. The iPhone, issued to Farook by his employer, the county health department, was found in a vehicle the day after the shooting.

The FBI is reviewing information from the iPhone, and it is unclear whether anything useful can be found.

Apple said in a statement Monday that the legal case to force its cooperation "should never have been brought," and it promised to increase the security of its products. CEO Tim Cook has said the Cupertino-based company is constantly trying to improve security for its users.

The FBI's announcement - even without revealing precise details - that it had hacked the iPhone was at odds with the government's firm recommendations for nearly two decades that security researchers always work cooperatively and confidentially with software manufacturers before revealing that a product might be susceptible to hackers.

The aim is to ensure that American consumers stay as safe online as possible and prevent premature disclosures that might damage a U.S. company or the economy.

As far back as 2002, the Homeland Security Department ran a working group that included leading industry technology industry executives to advise the president on how to keep confidential discoveries by independent researchers that a company's software could be hacked until it was already fixed. Even now, the Commerce Department has been trying to fine-tune those rules. The next meeting of a conference on the subject is April 8 in Chicago and it's unclear how the FBI's behavior in the current case might influence the government's fragile relationship with technology companies or researchers.

The industry's rules are not legally binding, but the government's top intelligence agency said in 2014 that such vulnerabilities should be reported to companies.

"When federal agencies discover a new vulnerability in commercial and open source software - a so-called 'zero day' vulnerability because the developers of the vulnerable software have had zero days to fix it - it is in the national interest to responsibly disclose the vulnerability rather than to hold it for an investigative or intelligence purpose," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement in April 2014.

The statement recommended generally divulging such flaws to manufacturers "unless there is a clear national security or law enforcement need."

Last week a team from Johns Hopkins University said they had found a security bug in Apple's iMessage service that would allow hackers under certain circumstances to decrypt some text messages. The team reported its findings to Apple in November and published an academic paper after Apple fixed it.

"That's the way the research community handles the situation. And that's appropriate," said Susan Landau, professor of cybersecurity policy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She said it was acceptable for the government to find a way to unlock the phone but said it should reveal its method to Apple.

Mobile phones are frequently used to improve cybersecurity, for example, as a place to send a backup code to access a website or authenticate a user.

The chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology, Joseph Lorenzo Hall, said keeping details secret about a flaw affecting millions of iPhone users "is exactly opposite the disclosure practices of the security research community. The FBI and Apple have a common goal here: to keep people safe and secure. This is the FBI prioritizing an investigation over the interests of hundreds of millions of people worldwide."

Syrian forces recapture ancient city of Palmyra from IS

Syrian forces recapture ancient city of Palmyra from IS

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Syrian government forces recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra on Sunday, scoring an important victory over Islamic State fighters who waged a 10-month reign of terror there and dealing the group its first major defeat since an international agreement to battle terrorism in the fractured nation took effect last year.

The city known to Syrians as the "Bride of the Desert" is famous for its 2,000-year-old ruins that once drew tens of thousands of visitors each year before IS destroyed many of the monuments. The extent of the destruction remained unclear. Initial footage on Syrian TV showed widespread rubble and shattered statues. 

But Palmyra's grand colonnades appeared to be in relatively good condition.

The government forces were supported by Lebanese militias and Russian air power. The Islamic State now faces pressure on several fronts as Kurdish ground forces advance on its territory in Syria's north and government forces have a new path to its de facto capital, Raqqa, and the contested eastern city of Deir el-Zour.

International airstrikes have pounded IS territory, killing two top leaders in recent weeks, according to the Pentagon. Those strikes have also inflicted dozens of civilian casualties.

In Iraq, government forces backed by the U.S. and Iran are preparing a ground offensive to retake the country's second largest city, Mosul.

The fall of Palmyra comes a month after a partial cease-fire in Syria's civil war came into force. The truce was sponsored by the United States and Russia in part to allow the government and international community to focus on Al-Qaeda styled militants, among them the IS group.

In comments reported on state TV, President Bashar Assad described the Palmyra operation as a "significant achievement" offering "new evidence of the effectiveness of the strategy espoused by the Syrian army and its allies in the war against terrorism."

IS drove government forces from Palmyra in a matter of days last May and later demolished some of its best-known monuments, including two large temples dating back more than 1,800 years and a Roman triumphal archway.

State TV showed the rubble left over from the destruction of the Temple of Bel as well as the damaged archway, the supports of which were still standing. It said a statue of Zenobia, the third century queen who ruled an independent state from Palmyra and figures strongly in Syrian lore, was missing.

Artifacts inside the city's museum also appeared heavily damaged on state TV. A sculpture of the Greek goddess Athena was decapitated, and the museum's basement appeared to have been dynamited, the hall littered with broken statues.

Still, state media reported that a lion statue dating back to the second century, previously thought to have been destroyed by IS militants, was found in a damaged but recoverable condition.

Extremists beheaded the archaeological site's 81-year-old director, Riad al-Asaad, in August after he reportedly refused to divulge where authorities had hidden treasures before the group swept in. Militants viewed the ruins as monuments to idolatry.

IS also demolished Palmyra's infamous Tadmur prison, where thousands of government opponents were reportedly tortured.

Syrian state TV hailed the government's advance, and a local reporter spoke live from inside Palmyra, showing troops in the center of the town, where some buildings had been reduced to rubble.

Syrian Culture Minister Issam Khalil described the recapture as a "victory for humanity and right over all projects of darkness."

Maamoun Abdulkarim, director of the museums and antiquities department in Damascus, said Palmyra's Great Colonnade had suffered only minor damage. "We will rebuild what you have destroyed," he said, addressing IS.

The Syrian opposition, which blames the government for the country's devastating civil war and the rise of IS, rejected that narrative.

"The government wants through this operation to win the favor of Western nations by fighting against terrorism, while obscuring its responsibility as providing the reasons for the spread of terror," said Khaled 

Nasser, a member of the opposition coalition that has been negotiating with the government in Geneva.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict through local activists, confirmed that IS had lost the town. Observatory chief Rami Abdurrahman said three weeks of fighting killed more than 400 IS fighters, as well as 180 troops and allied militiamen.

Residents told The Associated Press that IS evacuated all of Palmyra's civilians to other territories under its control before government forces entered the city.

"It's joyful for people to return home. Still we are sad to see damage in this historical city," said Sohban Eleiwi, a businessman from Palmyra now residing in Homs.

Other residents said they would not return to live under government rule.

"We don't hate the regime any less than we hate Daesh," said Osama Khatib, a Palmyra native who fled to 

Turkey three years ago after serving a jail sentence for taking part in demonstrations.

"Daesh and the regime behave the same way," he said.

Government forces had been trying to retake the town for nearly three weeks. Gen. Ali Mayhoub announced on the Syrian TV Sunday afternoon that its recapture "directs a fatal blow to Daesh, undermines the morale of its mercenaries and ushers in the start of its defeat and retreat," referring to IS by its Arabic acronym.

Government forces have advanced on a number of fronts in recent months, aided by a Russian air campaign. Moscow announced earlier this month that it would begin drawing down its forces, but said it will continue to target IS and other extremist groups.

Syria's conflict began a little more than five years ago with mostly peaceful protests against the Assad family's four-decade rule. A fierce government crackdown and the rise of an insurgency plunged the country into a full-blown civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people.

Illinois prosecutor: Man couldn't have slain girl in 1957

Illinois prosecutor: Man couldn't have slain girl in 1957
 

FILE - In this July 2, 2011 file photo, the grave site of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph is seen at Elmwood Cemetery in Sycamore, Ill. On Friday, March 25, 2016, DeKalb County State's Attorney Richard Schmack says his review of evidence has convinced him that Jack McCullough, the man convicted in 2012 in the 1957 killing of a Ridulph, could not have committed the crime. His six-month court-ordered review was prompted by McCullough's push for a new trial.

  

CHICAGO (AP) -- A man convicted in the 1957 abduction and slaying of a 7-year-old girl in northern Illinois couldn't have committed the crime, a prosecutor said Friday, marking a stunning turnaround in one of the oldest unsolved crimes in American history to make it to trial.

DeKalb County State's Attorney Richard Schmack said his court-ordered, six-month review of the case included new evidence that firmed up an alibi for Jack McCullough, who was initially cleared by investigators but then charged in 2011.

Schmack said evidence convinced him it was a "manifest impossibility" that McCullough could have been anywhere nearby when Maria Ridulph vanished on Dec. 3, 1957, while she was playing outside in the snow near her home in the small community of Sycamore.

The girl was choked and stabbed to death in an alley, and her body was found months later, dumped in woods more than 100 miles away. The slaying remained a mystery for decades.

McCullough, now 76, was a neighbor at the time of the killing. He had long ago been cleared by authorities before a renewed effort was launched to solve the case. He was found guilty in 2012, and sentenced to life in prison.

Schmack said in a court filing that he joined in the defendant's motion to set aside the guilty verdict. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

New evidence included recently subpoenaed phone records that proved McCullough made a collect call to his parents from a phone booth in the lobby of the Post Office in downtown Rockford, Illinois, about 35 miles from Sycamore, just minutes after the abduction took place.

That had always been McCullough's professed alibi, though the precise location of the phone had previously come under doubt.

Testimony that the abduction had taken place earlier was also discredited, Schmack said, meaning there was no possibility McCullough could have committed the crime and driven to Rockford in time to place that call.

"I know there are people who will never believe that he is not responsible for the crime," said Schmack, whose own family has lived for 30 years in the small Sycamore neighborhood where the crime occurred. 

"But I cannot allow that to sway me from my sworn duty."

His findings, he said, also cast doubt on the fairness of a photo array that authorities prepared for a witness who identified McCullough as the suspect a half-century later.

Schmack was not the state's attorney who prosecuted the case; he was elected around the time of the trial's conclusion. His office was ordered to conduct the review as part of a push by McCullough's attorney for a new trial.

"We're very pleased," said McCullough's attorney, public defender Tom McCulloch.

Their appeal will be back in court on Tuesday, and McCulloch is hopeful his client could be released soon.

"Given this filing, hopefully this comes to a rapid and favorable conclusion," he said.

But Maria's sister remains convinced that McCullough is guilty.

"It's all very upsetting for us," said Patricia Quinn of El Paso, Illinois, her voice cracking with emotion. "We're just trusting in what the judge will do Tuesday at the hearing."

McCullough's conviction had put to rest some of the decades of anguish endured by Maria's family and friends.

At his sentencing in 2012, McCullough turned to them in the courtroom and proclaimed his innocence.

"I did not, did not, kill Maria Ridulph," said the silver-haired McCullough, who grew up in Sycamore and was 17 when Maria died. "It was a crime I did not, would not, could not have done."

Cruz-Trump spat over wives takes nastier turn

Cruz-Trump spat over wives takes nastier turn

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and wife Heidi, walk on stage before the candidate spoke at a campaign stop Thursday, March 24, 2016, in Dane, Wis.

  

DANE, Wis. (AP) -- Ted Cruz branded Donald Trump a "sniveling coward" Thursday as the feud between the Republican presidential contenders over their wives took a nastier turn.

After an earlier and vague threat to "spill the beans" about Heidi Cruz, Trump stoked the spat on Twitter when he retweeted side-by-side images of Cruz's wife, with an unflattering grimace, and his wife, Melania, in a gauzyruz, glamorous pose.

"No need to spill the beans," said the caption. "The images are worth a thousand words."

Ted Cruz, campaigning in Wisconsin, was livid.

"Leave Heidi the hell alone," Cruz said, speaking through reporters to Trump.

"Donald does seem to have an issue with women," he said. "Donald doesn't like strong women. Strong women scare Donald."

Trump was set off this week when a group that opposes him released an ad before the Utah presidential contest raising questions about the propriety of Melania Trump becoming first lady. The ad showed a provocative, decade-old magazine photo of her when she was a model and before she married Trump.

Trump wrongly attributed the ad to the Cruz campaign and warned on Twitter: "Be careful, Lyin' Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!"

The lurch into personal territory normally off limits in campaigns came as an anti-Trump super PAC ran an ad in primary states that features women reciting derogatory comments made by the billionaire about women. 

The ad was produced by Our Principles, a group founded by a former Mitt Romney campaign adviser who is trying to help the Republican Party appeal to more women.

Trump has a substantial lead in the delegate chase for the GOP nomination. Cruz has a stiff challenge trying to catch him in remaining races and may only have a shot at the nomination if the contest spills into the summer convention.

Brussels bomb brothers latest in string of sibling attackers

Brussels bomb brothers latest in string of sibling attackers
  

LONDON (AP) -- The Tsarnaev brothers wreaked carnage in Boston. The Kouachi brothers attacked Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. In Brussels, officials say the El Bakraoui brothers struck the airport and metro this week, killing more than 30 people.

Several recent terror attacks have been inspired, and possibly directed, by the Islamic State group, but executed by close-knit gang of friends - and often brothers.

Blood ties have long been a feature of criminal networks, from the outlaws Frank and Jesse James to the family structure of the Mafia. The phenomenon extends to terror plotters for reasons that experts say are both logistical and social.

Individual radicalization often comes through close friends and family members, rather than just external teaching and preaching. And the tight sibling bond can be a tough nut for law enforcement to crack.

"A terror cell made up of two brothers cannot be infiltrated. It's the most secure network possible," said Claude Moniquet, a French security analyst who works in Brussels.

Some recent sibling attackers:

---

Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui have been identified by a Belgian prosecutor as two of the bombers who killed more than 30 people in Brussels on Tuesday. Elder brother Ibrahim, 29, blew himself up at the airport. 

Khalid, 27, detonated his bomb at the Maelbeek subway station.

It's not clear how much Belgian authorities knew of them. Turkish officials say the older brother was caught in June at the Turkish-Syrian border and was deported to the Netherlands. Turkey says it warned both Belgium and the Netherlands that he was a "foreign terrorist fighter."

---

Salah and Brahim Abdeslam - Brussels-born French brothers of Moroccan descent - were among attackers who killed 130 people in gun and bomb attacks in Paris in November. Brahim, 31, blew himself up outside a cafe, while 26-year-old Salah, who had handled car rental and other logistics, fled Paris on the night of the attacks. He was arrested last week in Brussels.

The brothers had run a bar in Brussels' Molenbeek district, a neighborhood with links to several recent jihadi plots. Both had served jail time for petty crimes - it was in prison that Salah met Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who would become the ringleader of the Paris attacks.

---

Paris-born Said Kouachi, 34, and his 32-year-old brother Cherif stormed the office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, shooting a dozen people dead. They were killed two days later in a police raid on their hideout outside Paris.

As children they spent time in state care after the death of their mother; as adults they drifted into low-paying jobs, petty crime and a circle of Islamic radicals. Their links to Islamic militants brought them to the attention of authorities years before the Charlie Hebdo attack. Cherif was stopped from going to Iraq in 2005 and jailed in 2008 for helping to send militants to fight U.S. forces in Iraq. Said had spent time with an al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen.

---

Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, brothers of Central Asian origin, planted two pressure-cooker bombs along the route of the Boston Marathon in April 2013, killing three people and wounding 260.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died days later after a gun battle with police. Dzokhar, then 19, was shot, wounded and captured.

At his murder trial, defense lawyers argued that Dzhokar had acted under the sway of his older brother, a former boxer who had embraced radical Islam and masterminded the attack. A jury nonetheless convicted him of the bombings last year. He has been sentenced to death.

Obama, Castro lay bare tensions on embargo, human rights

Obama, Castro lay bare tensions on embargo, human rights

 
  

HAVANA (AP) -- Laying bare a half-century of tensions, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro prodded each other Monday over human rights and the longstanding U.S. economic embargo during an unprecedented joint news conference that stunned Cubans unaccustomed to their leaders being aggressively questioned.

The exchanges underscored deep divisions that still exist between the two countries despite rapidly improved relations in the 15 months since Obama and Castro surprised the world with an announcement to end their Cold War-era diplomatic freeze.

Obama, standing in Havana's Palace of the Revolution on the second day of his historic visit to Cuba, repeatedly pushed Castro to take steps to address his country's human rights record.

"We continue, as President Castro indicated, to have some very serious differences, including on democracy and human rights," said Obama, who planned to meet with Cuban dissidents Tuesday. Still, Obama heralded a "new day" in the U.S.-Cuba relationship and said "part of normalizing relations means we discuss these differences directly."

Castro was blistering in his criticism of the American embargo, which he called "the most important obstacle" to his country's economic development. He also pressed Obama to return the Guantanamo detention center, which is on the island of Cuba, to his government.

"There are profound differences between our countries that will not go away," Castro said plainly.

White House officials spent weeks pushing their Cuban counterparts to agree for the leaders to take questions from reporters after their private meeting, reaching agreement just hours before Obama and Castro appeared before cameras. It's extremely rare for Castro to give a press conference, though he has sometimes taken questions from reporters spontaneously when the mood strikes.

While the issue of political prisoners is hugely important to Cuban-Americans and the international community, most people on the island are more concerned about the shortage of goods and their struggles with local bureaucracy.

Castro appeared agitated at times during the questioning, professing to not understand whether inquiries were directed to him.

But when an American reporter asked about political prisoners in Cuba, he pushed back aggressively, saying if the journalist could offer names of anyone improperly imprisoned, "they will be released before tonight ends."

"What political prisoners? Give me a name or names," Castro said.

Cuba has been criticized for briefly detaining demonstrators thousands of times a year but has drastically reduced its practice of handing down long prison sentences for crimes human rights groups consider to be political. Cuba released dozens of prisoners as part of its deal to normalize relations with the U.S., and in a recent report, Amnesty International did not name any current prisoners of conscience in Cuba.

Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said the U.S. regularly raises specific cases and some are resolved, but added Cuba typically insists they're being held for other crimes. Rhodes said, "I've shared many lists with the Cuban government."

Obama's and Castro's comments were broadcast live on state television, which is tightly controlled by the government and the Communist Party.

At an outdoor cafe in Havana, about a dozen Cubans and tourists watched in awed silence. One woman held her hand to her mouth in shock.

"It's very significant to hear this from our president, for him to recognize that not all human rights are respected in Cuba," said Raul Rios, a 47-year-old driver.

Ricardo Herrera, a 45-year-old street food vendor said, "It's like a movie but based on real life."

After responding to a handful of questions, Castro ended the news conference abruptly, declaring, "I think this is enough."

Obama then appeared to lean in to pat Castro on the back. In an awkward moment, the Cuban leader instead grabbed Obama's arm and lifted it up as the U.S. president's wrist dangled, an image that immediately grabbed attention on social media.

White House officials said Obama did not plan to meet with Fidel Castro, the older brother of the Cuban president and his predecessor in office, hoping to keep the visit focused on the future of the island. Rhodes, the White House adviser, said there were also other considerations, including Castro's "health issues."

Obama, in an interview with ABC News, said he has no problem with such a meeting "just as a symbol of the end of this Cold War chapter."

Obama's visit to Cuba is a crowning moment in his and Raul Castro's bid to normalize ties between two countries that sit just 90 miles apart. The U.S. leader traveled with his family and was taking in the sights in Old Havana and attending a baseball game between the beloved Cuban national team and the Tampa Bay Rays of America's American League.

Several American business leaders joined Obama on the trip, many eager to gain a foothold on the island nation. Technology giant Google announced plans to open a cutting-edge online technology center offering free Internet at speeds nearly 70 times faster than those now available to the Cuban public. Obama said Google's efforts in Cuba are part of a wider plan to improve access to the Internet across the island.

While Castro has welcomed increased economic ties, he insisted his country would still suffer as long as the American economic embargo was in place. Obama has called on Congress to lift the blockade, but lawmakers have not held a vote on the repeal.

Obama's visit is being closely watched in the United States, where public opinion has shifted in support of normalized relations with Cuba. Still, many Republicans - including some hoping to succeed Obama as president - have vowed to roll back the diplomatic opening if elected.

Castro was asked by an American reporter whether he favored the election of Republican front-runner Donald Trump or likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Castro smiled and said simply, "I cannot vote in the United States."

Hillary Clinton faces challenge: Black voters in Rust Belt

Hillary Clinton faces challenge: Black voters in Rust Belt
  

Bradley Thurman, owner of Coffee Makes You Black, a well-known breakfast spot on Milwaukee’s predominantly African-American north side, talks Friday, March 18, 2016 in his Milwaukee shop. Thurman says he supports Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. in the upcoming Democratic primary in Wisconsin.

  

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- This month has brought a new challenge for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign: Black voters in Rust Belt states aren't as solidly behind her as they've been in the South.

I

t led to the Democratic front-runner's surprise loss in Michigan, where about a third of black voters supported Bernie Sanders, and it nearly cost her Missouri, where African-Americans voted more like their counterparts across the Midwest than in the South. Now it could foreshadow vulnerability for Clinton in Wisconsin, the next Northern battleground primary.

What's behind the trend? Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research reveal a possible answer:

Black voters up North have appeared more likely than black voters down South to say race relations in the U.S. have recently gotten worse. And while large majorities of African-Americans in both regions trust Clinton to handle the issue, those in the Midwest have been much more likely to say they trust Sanders.

Rust Belt blacks live closer to some of the major racial conflicts of recent years - the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; the police shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio; and the tainted water crisis in heavily black Flint, Michigan. And they are well positioned to turn out and express their dismay at the polls.

"Absolutely, there are enough to make a difference," said Bradley Thurman, 66, an African-American cafe owner in Milwaukee, noting that black support twice helped tip Wisconsin toward Barack Obama, even as many other races in the state have gone in favor of Republicans.

Down South, Clinton has routinely picked up support from 8 in 10 black voters or more. But in areas farther north across the Midwest where manufacturing has contracted and factories have closed, support has been as low as Missouri's 67 percent. That primary election had been too close to call until Sanders conceded 

Thursday, giving Clinton a 1,531-vote win.

About 7 in 10 black voters backed Clinton in Ohio and Illinois, less than in the South but not enough of a drop to deny her those states on a day when she also picked up victories in Florida and North Carolina.

The tight vote in Missouri - a swing state where residents have long debated whether they're Midwestern or Southern - underscored feelings that could help keep Sanders afloat.

"I didn't like the statement Clinton made calling our kids 'super predators,'" said Syreeta Myers, 42, who is black.

Myers' only child, VonDerrit Myers, was killed in St. Louis in 2014 by a white police officer, two months after Brown was fatally shot in nearby Ferguson. She's been politically active ever since, attending rallies and marches. Myers said most of the people she knows are behind Sanders because of "what he said about stopping police from killing our children."

Marquette University senior Nick Truog also sees race relations as an area where Sanders has an edge.

"I saw online where someone said, 'I can't vote for Dr. King, so I'm going to vote for the guy who marched with him,'" said Truog, whose father is black and mother is white.

Truog studies international affairs and political science in Milwaukee, a city that saw months of protests over the death of Dontre Hamilton, a black man killed by a white police officer in 2014. He said he backs Sanders, citing the candidate's positions on income inequality and student debt as factors.

But Bobby Sanford, 42, who runs a small Milwaukee-area pest control business, doesn't like Sanders' idea of free college.

"No," Sanford said. "We have to pay for that."

Sanford, who is a black independent, remains undecided. "Honestly, I just don't like Clinton," he said. He said he's a fan of Republican front-runner Donald Trump's outspoken style but doesn't admire Trump enough to vote for him.

"I don't think so, but I don't want to vote for Sanders, either," Sanford said. "I pay enough in taxes as it is."

Similar dissatisfaction with the government comes up in Michigan. Exit poll figures show black voters there were somewhat less likely than those in Southern states where the question was posed to have positive feelings about the way the government is working.

This also could hurt Clinton, who's seen as the establishment candidate. The data show that black support at the high levels Clinton has seen in the South probably would have flipped Michigan into the win column and added breathing room for her in Missouri.

Overall, about 45 percent of whites have supported Clinton in the Midwest, making the minority vote a decisive factor. Black voters make up a smaller percentage of the Wisconsin Democratic electorate than other Rust Belt states. In 2008, about 8 percent of Wisconsin Democratic primary voters were black. By comparison, African-Americans made up about 21 percent of Democratic primary voters in both Michigan and Missouri this year.

Still, Thurman, owner of Coffee Makes You Black, a well-known breakfast spot on Milwaukee's predominantly African-American north side, thinks it's enough.

He supports Sanders because of the Vermont independent's bold proposals. "It's a lot of pie in the sky, but at least he's throwing it out there," Thurman said.

His wife looked surprised when she heard his position.

"We don't really discuss politics," said Laurie Thurman, who co-owns the shop.

She's leaning toward Clinton because "she's been around." But the matter isn't decided, she said, and "maybe my husband can convince me."

Syria's Kurds declare de-facto federal region in north

Syria's Kurds declare de-facto federal region in north
  

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria's Kurds on Thursday declared a de-facto federal region in Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria, drawing sharp condemnation from both the Damascus government and its opponents who decried the unilateral move as unconstitutional and setting a dangerous precedent.

The declaration further complicates the situation on the ground in Syria even as peace talks press ahead in Geneva. The main Syrian Kurdish party has been excluded from those talks - perhaps an indication of why the Kurds chose this particular moment for their move.

In Syria's civil war, Kurdish fighters have emerged as the most effective fighting force against the Islamic State group and are backed militarily by the United States. More recently, Russia has backed them politically.

But despite Russia's insistence that they should be part of the talks that started this week in Geneva, they have not been invited because Turkey considers the group to be a terrorist organization.

"Everybody rhetorically appreciates the Kurds, they all acknowledge the Kurdish fight against ISIS and that they are great warriors, but this is not being reflected in the diplomatic spectrum," said Mutlu Civiroglu, a Washington-based Kurdish affairs analyst, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group.

Thursday's announcement triggered fears that a Kurdish federal unit would lead to a partition of the war-shattered country - a formula that may make sense in principle after five years of devastating fighting but one that would be messy and unpalatable to most parties.

Some 200 Kurdish officials, who met in the town of Rmeilan in Syria's predominantly Kurdish province of Hassakeh, insisted they are not partitioning Syria nor seeking secession - but rather making sure the country remains one nation.

"A federal and democratic Syria is a guarantee of coexistence and brotherly relations," said an online posting from the conference.

Nawaf Khalil, an official with the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, said participants at the Rmeilan meeting included Turkmen, Arabs, Christian and Kurds.

They all approved a "democratic federal system for Rojava-Northern Syria," he said. Rojava is a Kurdish word that refers to three distinct enclaves, or cantons, under Kurdish control in northern Syria: Jazira, Kobani and Afrin.

The Kurds, a longtime oppressed minority under decades of Assad family rule, have taken advantage of the chaos of the civil war to advance their goals of autonomy. After overstretched government troops withdrew from Kurdish areas to focus on fighting insurgents in other parts of the country, they declared their own civil administration in those three areas in 2013.

It was not immediately clear how the declaration of a federal region would change the situation on the ground.

"The idea of a decentralized Syria is becoming every day more and more common," said Civiroglu, the analyst. "I see that it can be a real system for all of Syria in the future, something tried on the ground."

Syria's Foreign Ministry rejected the move, describing it as "unconstitutional and worthless" and warned against any attempt to encroach upon the integrity of Syrian territory.

The Syrian National Coalition, one of the main Syrian opposition groups, also said it rejects such unilateral declarations and warned of any attempt to form autonomous regions that "confiscate the will of the Syrian people."

The idea of a federal region appears to have gained some traction lately as world and regional powers grapple with ways to end the conflict.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week said a federal system is one possible option if the Syrian people agree to it. The United States has also been an ardent supporter of the Kurds in Syria and in the wider region but has not commented on Thursday's declaration. Turkey said Wednesday that such unilateral moves carry no validity, but did not comment Thursday.

The plan could make sense in a country that has a multitude of sectarian and ethnic minorities for whom it would be difficult to share a unifying national sentiment.

But Syria's war, with its changing front lines, has also created a geographical chaos.

The government, dominated by President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect of Shiite Islam, controls Damascus, the Alawite heartland along the Mediterranean coast, and other cities and connecting corridors in between. The Kurds run their own affairs in the northeast.

The militants of the Islamic State group control much of the Sunni heartland in the east. Other Sunni rebels control pockets in the north and south. Members of the Muslim minority Druse, who make up about 5 percent of Syria's prewar population of 23 million, have also started talking about autonomy in their southern areas.

But any move to carve up the country could risk yet more violence, including ethnic or sectarian cleansing.

Kurds control an area along the Turkish border stretching from eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border, to Afrin in the west, interrupted only by a stretch of territory controlled by the Islamic State group.

"Only a Kurdish federal region is definitively possible since the Kurds control most of their territories in Kobani and the Hassakeh province," said Wladimir van Wilgenburg, a political analyst with Jamestown Foundation specializing in Kurdish politics.

"The only problem they have is that they have not connected nor linked their administrations from Kobani up to Afrin," he added.

Meanwhile, the U.N. envoy for Syria emerged from the fourth day of peace talks in Geneva to tell reporters that significant gaps remain between the two sides.

Staffan de Mistura said he'd host both sides separately on Friday to accelerate the process. He said there were "no discussions about federalism" - a reference to the Syrian Kurdish declaration.

In other developments, 61 trucks with aid from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations began entering four areas besieged by government forces and insurgents, said ICRC spokesman Pawel Krzysiek.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said on its Twitter account that aid is on the way to the rebel-held towns of Madaya Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon, and the government-held villages of Foua and Kfarya in the northwestern Idlib province.

A U.N. aid official, Jan Egeland, said the world body has given the Syrian government its plan to deliver humanitarian aid to 1.1 million Syrians by the end of April. But he said Damascus still has not granted authorization for aid to six of 18 priority areas the U.N. hopes to reach.

From Moscow, Vladimir Putin warned that despite the Russian drawdown in Syria - a surprising move the Russian president announced this week to bolster the Geneva talks - Russia can again build up its forces "in a few hours" in the Mideast country if necessary.

Putin said that Russia has kept some forces in Syria to support the Syrian army's action against militant groups and would continue striking them.

The statement underlined Russia's intention to maintain a strong military presence in Syria to keep its gains after a five-and-a-half-month air campaign that has helped turn the tide of war and allowed Assad's forces to make significant advances.

North Korea sentences US tourist to 15 years in pr

North Korea sentences US tourist to 15 years in pr

American student Otto Warmbier, center, is escorted at the Supreme Court in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, March 16, 2016. North Korea's highest court sentenced Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student, from Wyoming, Ohio, to 15 years in prison with hard labor on Wednesday for subversion. He allegedly attempted to steal a propaganda banner from a restricted area of his hotel at the request of an acquaintance who wanted to hang it in her church.

  

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- North Korea's highest court sentenced an American tourist to 15 years in prison with hard labor for subversion on Wednesday, weeks after authorities presented him to media and he tearfully confessed that he had tried to steal a propaganda banner.

Otto Warmbier, 21, a University of Virginia undergraduate, was convicted and sentenced in a one-hour trial in North Korea's Supreme Court.

The U.S. government condemned the sentence and accused North Korea of using such American detainees as political pawns.

The court held that Warmbier had committed a crime "pursuant to the U.S. government's hostile policy toward (the North), in a bid to impair the unity of its people after entering it as a tourist."

North Korea regularly accuses Washington and Seoul of sending spies to overthrow its government to enable the U.S.-backed South Korean government to take control of the Korean Peninsula.

Tensions are particularly high following North Korea's recent nuclear test and rocket launch, and massive joint military exercises now underway between the U.S. and South Korea that the North sees as a dress rehearsal for invasion.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday imposed new U.S. sanctions on North Korea in response to what the White House called "illicit" nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Warmbier's sentence was "unduly harsh" and urged North Korea to pardon him and release him on humanitarian grounds.

"Despite official claims that U.S. citizens arrested in the DPRK are not used for political purposes, it's increasingly clear from its very public treatment of these cases that the DPRK does exactly that," Toner told reporters, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Warmbier's family in Wyoming, Ohio, could not be reached for comment. Susanna Max, a spokeswoman for Wyoming City Schools, said last month that the district, where Otto Warmbier attended school, had been in touch with the family. She said Wednesday that the district continues "to respect their privacy" and declines to comment. The University of Virginia also declined to comment.

Before the trial, Warmbier had said he tried to steal a propaganda banner as a trophy for an acquaintance who wanted to hang it in her church. That would be grounds in North Korea for a subversion charge. He identified the church as Friendship United Methodist Church. Meshach Kanyion, pastor of the church in Wyoming, declined to comment Wednesday.

Ohio Gov. and Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich said in a statement that Warmbier's was detention "completely unjustified" and that the sentence was "an affront to concepts of justice."

Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he had met with North Korean diplomats to the U.N. in New York on Tuesday to request Warmbier's release after the student's parents and Kasich asked him to intervene. Richardson said he was neither encouraged nor discouraged by the meeting with the diplomats, who told him they would relay his request to Pyongyang.

Richardson said based on past experience, North Korea could release Warmbier after sentencing, but current U.S.-North Korean tensions could hurt those prospects.

"My concern now is that the U.S.-North Korean relationship is in a very low, negative ebb, and I hope that does not affect a humanitarian negotiation for the release of Otto," Richardson told The Associated Press.

Trials for foreigners facing similar charges in North Korea are generally short and punishments severe. 

Warmbier was arrested as he tried to leave the country in early January. He was in North Korea with a New Year's tour group.

U.S. tourism to North Korea is legal. Arrests of tourists are rare but the State Department strongly advises against such travel.

Further complicating matters, Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang acts as a go-between in consular issues when U.S. citizens run afoul of North Korean authorities.

North Korea announced Warmbier's arrest in late January, saying he committed an anti-state crime with "the tacit connivance of the U.S. government and under its manipulation." It remains unclear how the U.S. government was allegedly connected to Warmbier's actions.

Warmbier had been staying at the Yanggakdo International Hotel. It is common for sections of tourist hotels to be reserved for North Korean staff and off-limits to foreigners.

In a tearful statement made before his trial, Warmbier told a gathering of reporters in Pyongyang he was offered a used car worth $10,000 if he could get a propaganda banner and was also told that if he was detained and didn't return, $200,000 would be paid to his mother in the form of a charitable donation.

Warmbier said he accepted the offer because his family was "suffering from very severe financial difficulties."

Warmbier also said he had been encouraged by the university's "Z Society," which he said he was trying to join. The magazine of the university's alumni association describes the Z Society as a "semi-secret ring society" founded in 1892 that conducts philanthropy, puts on honorary dinners and grants academic awards.

In previous cases, people who have been detained in North Korea and made a public confession often recant those statements after their release.

In the past, North Korea has held out until senior U.S. officials or statesmen came to personally bail out detainees, all the way up to former President Bill Clinton, whose visit in 2009 secured the freedom of American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling.

In November 2014, U.S. spy chief James Clapper went to Pyongyang to bring home Matthew Miller, who had ripped up his visa when entering the country and was serving a six-year sentence on an espionage charge, and Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, who had been sentenced to 15 years for alleged anti-government activities.

Jeffrey Fowle, another U.S. tourist from Ohio detained for six months at about the same time as Miller, was released just before that and sent home on a U.S. government plane. Fowle left a Bible in a local club hoping a North Korean would find it, which is considered a criminal offense in North Korea.

Obama abolishes last major restrictions on US travel to Cuba

Obama abolishes last major restrictions on US travel to Cuba
 

Refrigerator magnets are displayed for sale in a tourist shop, several showing images of U.S. President Barack Obama, at a market in Havana, Cuba, Monday, March 14, 2016. President Obama will travel to Cuba on March 20.

  

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama sent an unmistakable message to Americans on Tuesday ahead of his historic trip to Havana: Cuba is open for business.

Punching fresh holes in the generations-old U.S. embargo, Obama's administration removed the last meaningful restrictions on travel, putting a Cuba vacation within reach for millions of Americans over the coming years. The sweeping changes also clear a path for Cuban athletes to one day play Major League Baseball and other professional sports.

Although tourism is still technically off-limits, the ban becomes essentially unenforceable, with Americans permitted to travel on their own with no prior permission. White House officials said there would be "no shortage" of opportunities for Americans to fill the loosely defined requirement that they engage with locals in a bid to further U.S.-Cuban understanding.

"The travel ban is on life support here, because for all intents and purposes, anybody can go," Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who supports Obama's approach, said in an interview. "All these barriers are coming down."

The White House announced the package of changes five days before Obama will embark on the first presidential trip to the communist country in nearly 90 years. The more lenient rules, like the trip itself, aim to further the rapprochement that Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro began more than two years ago.

Among the changes unveiled Tuesday:

- The U.S. eliminated a ban on Cuban access to the international banking system

- Cuba announced that the first direct mail in a half-century would fly from the U.S. to Cuba starting Wednesday

- Cuban citizens can start to earn salaries in the U.S. in most circumstances without immigrating

- Cuban citizens can open U.S. bank accounts and use them to send remittances back home.

The United States is also poised to ease security restrictions for ships coming from Cuba bound for American ports, U.S. officials told The Associated Press, a step that would ease the way for both ferry service between Florida and Cuba and U.S. cruise ships docking in Havana. Obama's administration has approved both ferries and cruises over the last year, but neither service has started.

The officials weren't authorized to discuss the details publicly ahead of the formal announcement.

Yet it was unclear whether Cuba would respond by easing its own barriers on U.S. travel and commerce, including a requirement that U.S. companies operating in Cuba hire workers through a state-run agency, a key U.S. sticking point. The Castro government has moved slowly enough to raise questions about whether there will significant trade will resume before Obama leaves office.

"These unilateral actions will further prop up a communist regime in Cuba that has a long record of brutal human rights abuses," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif.

The wave of changes unveiled Tuesday marked some of the most significant shifts since Obama and Castro restored relations. Embassies have re-opened, U.S. companies can now manufacture in Cuba and commercial flights are to begin within months. U.S. hotel chains including Starwood and Marriott are expected to soon get U.S. approval to manage hotels in Cuba - all signs of a functioning economic relationship that seemed unimaginable just a few years ago.

Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said the policy is driven by the belief that more direct interaction with Americans will eventually lead to greater freedom for Cubans.

"When they're engaged with the American people, they have greater access to information, they have greater access to different resources, different points of view," Rhodes said.

Yet the U.S. trade embargo that Congress enacted after Cuba's 1959 revolution remains in place. Obama will use his trip to Cuba to renew his call for Congress to lift the embargo, though near-term prospects are bleak.

Cuban-Americans who oppose the rapprochement say Obama has flagrantly ignored the sanctions and rewarded a government with a troubling human rights record. But Obama has claimed near-limitless leverage to implement the embargo in a way that essentially renders it void. Matthew Borman of the U.S. Commerce Department said the embargo merely requires all commerce to be licensed by the U.S.; it doesn't limit how generously those licenses are granted.

"From that perspective, that's how we implement the embargo," Borman said.

Allowing Cubans to earn U.S. salaries clears one major hurdle for Cuban baseball players to start filling U.S. dugouts. Major League Baseball is negotiating with both the U.S. and Cuba to create a legal means for Cubans to play without abandoning their country, eliminating the need for some of the world's highest-priciest baseball talent to use human traffickers to get to the major leagues.

Clinton sweeps Ohio, Florida; Trump, Kasich split; Rubio out

Clinton sweeps Ohio, Florida; Trump, Kasich split; Rubio out
 

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a rally, Tuesday, March 15, 2016, in West Palm Beach, Fla.

  

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Hillary Clinton triumphed Tuesday in the Florida, Ohio and North Carolina presidential primaries, a commanding showing for the Democratic front-runner now eager to move on to the general election. But the contests brought little clarity to the Republican race, with Donald Trump winning big in Florida but falling in Ohio to the state's governor, John Kasich.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio ended his once-promising campaign after his home-state loss, so the GOP primary is now down to three candidates: Trump, Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. It is far from clear if any can reach the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the GOP nomination, ratcheting up the prospects of a contested convention.

"It's a real election for someone who knows how to fix the country, the economy," Kasich said in an interview with CNN moments after the Ohio race was called. "We're fired up."

Clinton declared to cheering supporters at her victory rally: "We are moving closer to securing the Democratic Party nomination and winning this election in November."

Rubio implicitly rebuked Trump throughout a speech announcing he was dropping out of the race, imploring Americans to "not give in to the fear, do not give in to the frustration."

Rubio, a favorite of Republican leaders, is the latest candidate to fall victim to an unpredictable election cycle and Trump's unmatched ability to tap into the public's anger with Washington and frustration with sweeping economic changes.

Clinton's victories in Ohio and Florida bolstered her argument that she's the best Democratic candidate to take on Republicans in the general election. Her win in Ohio was a particular relief for her campaign, which grew anxious after rival Bernie Sanders pulled off a surprising win last week in Michigan, another important Midwestern state.

Clinton kept up her large margins with black voters, a crucial group for Democrats in the general election. Democratic voters were more likely to describe Sanders as honest, but more likely to describe Clinton's policies as realistic, according to exit polls.

Campaigning Tuesday in North Carolina, Clinton said "the numbers are adding up in my favor." She signaled an eagerness to move on to a possible general election showdown with Trump, saying he's laid out a "really dangerous path" for the country.

Votes were also being counted Tuesday in Missouri and Illinois, though races in both parties were too close to call. Trump and Cruz were in a close race in North Carolina.

Trump entered Tuesday's primaries embroiled in one of the biggest controversies of his contentious campaign. The GOP front-runner has encouraged supporters to confront protesters at his events and is now facing accusations of encouraging violence after skirmishes at a rally last week in Chicago.

The atmosphere at his events has deepened the concern over his candidacy in some Republican circles. Rubio and Kasich have suggested they might not be able to support Trump if he's the nominee, an extraordinary stance for intraparty rivals.

Trump's closest competition so far has come from Cruz, who has kept relatively close to the businessman in the delegate count. Cruz has been urging Rubio and Kasich to step aside and let him get into a one-on-one race.

Even before Tuesday's results, a group of conservatives was planning a meeting to discuss options for stopping Trump, including at a contested convention or by rallying around a third-party candidate. While such no candidate has been identified, the participants in Tuesday's meeting planned to discuss ballot access issues, including using an existing third party as a vehicle or securing signatures for an independent bid.

A person familiar with the planning confirmed the meeting on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the gathering by name.

Despite concerns from party leaders, Republican voters continue to back Trump's most controversial proposals, with two-thirds of those who participated in GOP primaries Tuesday saying they support temporarily banning Muslims from the United States.

The exit polls were conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.

Trump's Florida victory brought his delegate total to 568. Cruz has 370 delegates, Rubio has 163 and Kasich has 63. It takes 1,237 to win the GOP nomination.

Clinton has at least 1,353 delegates, including the superdelegates who are elected officials and party leaders free to support the candidate of their choice. Sanders has at least 625. It takes 2,383 to win the Democratic nomination.

Vatican monsignor admits to passing documents in trial

Vatican monsignor admits to passing documents in trial

Public relations expert Francesca Chaouqui, left, and her lawyer Laura Sgro' arrive at the Vatican for her trial, Monday, March 14, 2016. Two Italian journalists who wrote books detailing Vatican mismanagement face trial in a Vatican courtroom along with three people accused of leaking them the information in a case that has drawn scorn from media watchdogs.

  

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- A Vatican monsignor admitted in court Monday that he passed confidential Holy See documents on to journalists but said he did so at a time when he feared for his life after a friendship with a woman turned sour.

Monsignor Angelo Lucio Vallejo Balda, a former high-ranking official in the Vatican's finance office, was the first defendant called to testify in the Vatican's controversial trial over leaked documents. In addition to Vallejo, the two journalists, the woman and Vallejo's secretary are on trial.

Under repeated questioning from the chief prosecutor and the tribunal president, Vallejo confessed that he passed documents to journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi.

"Yes, I passed documents," he said. "I did it spontaneously, probably not fully lucid."

"I was convinced I was in a situation without exit," he said.

Fittipaldi's book "Avarice," and Nuzzi's book "Merchants in the Temple," detailed millions of euros in lost potential rental income from the Vatican's real estate holdings, millions in missing inventory from the Vatican's tax-free stores, the exorbitant costs for getting someone declared a saint and the greed of bishops and cardinals lusting after huge apartments.

The books were based on documents produced by a reform commission Pope Francis appointed in 2013 to get a handle on the Vatican's financial holdings and propose reforms so that more money could be devoted to the poor. Vallejo was the commission's No. 2; Francesca Chaouqui was a member and outside public relations expert; and the fifth defendant, Nicola Maio, was Vallejo's assistant.

Vallejo admitted that he gave Nuzzi a five-page list of some 87 passwords to access the reform commission's password-protected emails. But he said he did so after becoming certain that his email account had already been entered and that Nuzzi had already obtained the documents.

He also admitted to exchanging text messages with Fittipaldi about providing him with other documents.

Chaouqui introduced him to both journalists, he said.

Vallejo acknowledged that he had somewhat fallen for Chaouqui, saying he felt "compromised" as a priest after one evening when she entered his hotel room in Florence. Vallejo's lawyer said Chaouqui had a "seductive personality."

But over three hours of testimony in his native Spanish, Vallejo explained how he increasingly became terrorized by Chaouqui, saying she and her husband sent increasingly aggressive and threatening text messages especially after the reform commission wrapped up in 2015 and Chaouqui was left without work.

Vallejo said he ascertained with "moral certainty" that Chaouqui mingled in a "dangerous world" of Italian power brokers and had ulterior interests. He testified that she repeatedly told him she worked for Italy's secret services and once claimed to be arranging a meeting for a visiting U.S. President Barack Obama.

Vallejo said when he decided to cut her off, "I felt as if my physical safety was in danger."

Chaouqui is now pregnant, and attended the court session sitting against a fluffy pillow and frequently getting up to stretch.

Nuzzi and Fittipaldi face up to eight years in prison if convicted of putting pressure on Vallejo to obtain the documents and publish them. Vallejo, Chaouqui and Maio are accused of forming a criminal organization and providing the documents.

The questioning continues Tuesday.

Ivory Coast: Extremists kill 14 civilians, 2 special forces

Ivory Coast: Extremists kill 14 civilians, 2 special forces

Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara, center, visits the area were gunmen attacked people in Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast, March 13, 2016. At least six armed men attacked beachgoers outside three hotels Sunday in Grand-Bassam, killing several civilians and special forces, sending tourists fleeing through the historic Ivory Coast resort town.

  

GRAND-BASSAM, Ivory Coast (AP) -- Armed men attacked an Ivory Coast beach resort Sunday, killing at least 16 people and sending tourists fleeing through the historic town of Grand-Bassam in an attack claimed by al-Qaida's North Africa branch.

Bloody bodies were sprawled on the beach and witnesses described horrific scenes as a lazy weekend afternoon was shattered by the West Africa's latest extremist strike.

Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara told reporters at the scene that 14 civilians, two special forces and six assailants were killed when the gunmen stormed the beach. The president arrived in Grand-Bassam a few hours after the attack, visiting the hotels and saluting security forces for their quick response.

"I present my condolences to the families of the people who were murdered, and of course I am very proud of our security forces who reacted so fast," Ouattara said outside the Etoile du Sud, one of the targeted hotels. "The toll could've been much heavier."

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attack, according to SITE Intelligence Group which monitors jihadist websites. The Islamic extremist group made the declaration in a post to its Telegram channels, calling three of the attackers "heroes" for the assault.

The bursts of gunfire sent people running from the beach at Grand-Bassam, a UNESCO World Heritage site and popular destination for Ivorians and foreigners about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial center. It was the third major attack on a tourism center in West Africa since November.

Some witnesses said the assailants fired at random, while others said the killing was more targeted. Witness Marcel Guy said that gunmen raced across the beach in small groups, toting Kalashnikov rifles and hunting for victims.

One gunman, who had a long beard, approached two children on the beach and Guy said he heard the man speaking Arabic. One of the children then knelt and started praying. He was spared, while the other boy was not.

"The Christian boy was shot and killed right in front of my eyes," Guy said.

An Associated Press reporter saw four bodies sprawled out on the beach in front of a small resort next to the Etoile du Sud hotel, which is popular with foreigners.

Jacques Able, who identified himself as the owner of Etoile du Sud, said he rushed to the hotel after getting a phone call. He said one person had been killed at the hotel.

A receptionist at the Etoile du Sud described the mayhem.

"We don't know where they came from, and we don't know where they've gone," said the receptionist, who would not give his name.

Beachgoers could be seen lining up with their hands above their heads as they filed out of the area. Residents who heard the gunfire hid in their homes, said Josiane Sekongo, 25, who lives across from one of the town's beachfront hotels.

An American embassy delegation was in Grand-Bassam on Sunday, but the U.S. Embassy in Abidjan said it was monitoring the situation and had no evidence U.S. citizens were targeted or harmed.

Dozens of people were killed in the earlier attacks on West African tourist sites, starting with a siege at a Malian hotel in November and then an assault on a hotel and cafe in Burkina Faso in January. Analysts have warned for months that Ivory Coast, which shares a border with both of those affected countries, could be hit by jihadists as well.

All three West African countries are former French colonies and at least one of those killed in Grand-Bassam Sunday was French. The Paris prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into the attack, calling it murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise. Anti-terrorism investigators will handle the probe because there was a French victim.

The West African attacks indicate that extremist violence is spreading from North Africa, where a beach attack in June killed 38 people in Tunisia.

"I have always said that Abidjan (Ivory Coast) and Dakar (Senegal) are the next targets for jihadist groups because these two countries represent windows of France in Africa," said Lemine Ould M. Salem, an expert on al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and author of a book "The Bin Laden of the Sahara."

The United States strongly condemned the attack in Grand-Bassam, sending "thoughts and prayers to all affected by this senseless violence." The U.S. Embassy in Abidjan is making every effort to account for the welfare of American citizens in the area, said the statement issued by State Department spokesman John Kirby.

Ivory Coast is an important regional partner to the United States, said the statement. "In the days ahead we stand ready to support the Ivorian government as it investigates this heinous attack," said the statement.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Sunday he was "appalled" by the attack in Grand-Bassam as well as a bombing in Turkey's capital that also occurred Sunday.