COLU @ CONCEPTS

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump personally appealed to FBI Director James Comey to abandon the bureau’s investigation into National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, according to notes Comey wrote after the meeting. The White House issued a furious denial after the notes were disclosed late Tuesday, near the end of a tumultuous day spent beating back potentially disastrous news reports from dawn to dusk. The bombshell Comey news came as the beleaguered administration was still struggling mightily to explain Monday’s revelation that the president had disclosed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and the country’s ambassador to the United States. The White House is disputing a report that President Donald Trump asked former FBI Director James Comey to shut down an investigation into ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn. The New York Times says he made the request in February. (May 16) Trump tweeted Tuesday that he had “an abso...

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — A Shariah court in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province has sentenced two gay men to public caning for the first time, further undermining the country’s moderate image after a top Christian politician was imprisoned for blasphemy. The court, whose sentencing Wednesday coincided with International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, said the men, aged 20 and 23, would each be subjected to 85 lashes for having sexual relations. One of the men wept as his sentence was read out and pleaded for leniency. The chief prosecutor, Gulmaini, who goes by one name, said they will be caned next week, before Ramadan starts on about May 25. The couple was arrested in late March after neighborhood vigilantes in the provincial capital Banda Aceh suspected them of being gay and broke into their rented room to catch them having sex. Mobile phone footage that circulated online and formed part of the evidence shows one of the men naked and visibly distressed as h...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Dubai firm’s dream of towing icebergs from the Antarctic to the Arabian Peninsula could face some titanic obstacles. Where many see the crumbling polar ice caps as a distressing sign of global warming, the National Advisor Bureau Limited sees it as a source of profit, and a way of offsetting the effects of climate change in the increasingly sweltering Gulf. The firm has drawn up plans to harvest icebergs in the southern Indian Ocean and tow them 9,200 kilometers (5,700 miles) away to the Gulf, where they could be melted down for freshwater and marketed as a tourist attraction. “The icebergs are just floating in the Indian Ocean. They are up for grabs to whoever can take them,” managing director Abdullah al-Shehi told The Associated Press in his Dubai office. He hopes to begin harvesting them by 2019. It is perhaps no surprise that the idea would originate in Dubai, which is already famous for its indoor ski slope, artificial islands and...

BRUSSELS (AP) — U.S. and European officials will discuss Wednesday plans to broaden a U.S. ban on in-flight laptops and tablets to include planes from Europe. The move would create logistical chaos on the world’s busiest corridor of air travel — as many as 65 million people a year travel between Europe and North American on over 400 daily flights, many of them business travelers who rely on their electronics to work during the flight. The ban would dwarf in size the current one, which was put in place in March and affects about 50 flights per day from 10 cities, mostly in the Middle East. Airlines have said it is merely a matter of time before the ban is put in place, but the prospect has alarmed officials in the European Union, who want to know more about any new threats and the disruption such a move would create. There is also the question of the relative safety of keeping in the cargo area a large number of electronics with lithium batteries, which have been known to c...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s presidential election is seen as a referendum on Hassan Rouhani’s outreach to Western nations and the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which lifted crippling international sanctions. The average Iranian has yet to see benefits from the deal, making Rouhani vulnerable in his bid for another four-year term. Many Iranians believe Friday’s election will not bring any major change regardless of who wins. Reformist candidates and women were again excluded from the ballot by a clerical vetting committee. Of more than 1,600 hopefuls who registered to run, only six were allowed in the race. Ultimate power remains with the supreme leader, who is chosen by a clerical body. Iranians voice their opinions about their country ahead of the nation’s presidential election on Friday. (May 17) Hard-liners are backing Ebrahim Raisi, considered close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Authorities blocked a bid by former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ...