COLU @ CONCEPTS

NEW YORK (AP) — A man accused of steering his car onto one of the busiest sidewalks in the U.S. and mowing down pedestrians for three blocks before a row of steel security barriers finally stopped him told police he was “hearing voices,” law enforcement officials said. Police said 23 people were struck, including an 18-year-old tourist from Michigan who died. The driver, Richard Rojas, a 26-year-old Bronx man who had been discharged from the U.S. Navy following disciplinary problems, told police he was hearing voices and expected to die, two law enforcement officials said. Two law enforcement officials say a driver accused of running down pedestrians in Times Square told officers he was hearing voices and expected to die. (May 18) After the wreck he emerged from his vehicle running, yelling and jumping before being subdued by police and bystanders in a chaotic scene. “He began screaming, no particular words but just utter screaming. He was swinging his arms at the ...

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s president is vowing to remain in power despite a damaging new corruption allegation, but Latin America’s largest nation could very well be rudderless as long as he stays at the head of what one analyst is calling a “walking dead administration.” President Michel Temer struck a defiant note Thursday, promising he would be found innocent in a Supreme Court investigation into allegations that he endorsed a scheme to pay hush money to a former influential legislator who is now in prison for corruption. But Brazil and his administration will not shrug off the incendiary allegations so easily. Stock prices and Brazil’s currency were pummeled as investors digested the allegation first reported by the newspaper Globo late Wednesday. Two small allied parties pulled their support for his agenda in Congress and one Cabinet minister resigned amid talk that others might follow. As long as Temer stays in power, the political turmoil could leave the country adrift...

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump sits down for dinner in Saudi Arabia, caterers have ensured that his favorite meal — steak with a side of ketchup — will be offered alongside the traditional local cuisine. At NATO and the Group of 7 summits, foreign delegations have gotten word that the new U.S. president prefers short presentations and lots of visual aids. And at all of Trump’s five stops on his first overseas trip, his team has spent weeks trying to build daily downtime into his otherwise jam-packed schedule. It’s all part of a worldwide effort to accommodate America’s homebody president on a voyage with increasingly raised stakes given the ballooning controversy involving his campaign’s possible ties to Russia. For a former international businessman, Trump simply doesn’t have an affinity for much international. Even before Trump’s trip morphed from a quick jaunt to Europe into a nine-day behemoth, White House aides were on edge about how the president would t...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranians head to the polls Friday to vote in the Islamic Republic’s presidential election. The contest is largely seen as a referendum on the incumbent president’s more moderate political stance, which helped pave the way for the country’s nuclear deal with world powers. President Hassan Rouhani is widely seen as the front-runner after his moderate administration struck the atomic accord. He could face tough competition from hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who is perceived to be close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Two other candidates also are running. Under Iran’s constitution, the supreme leader has final say on all state matters. Iran’s president is subordinate but still powerful, with considerable influence over both domestic policy and foreign affairs. Here’s a look at the candidates competing. HASSAN ROUHANI Rouhani, 68, is a moderate cleric elected in 2013 on pledges of greater personal freedoms and improved relations with the West....

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranians vote Friday for the next president of the Islamic Republic, but how does that elected leader fit into the country’s clerically managed government that approves candidates ultimately overseen by its supreme leader? THE SUPREME LEADER’S POWER At the heart of Iran’s complex power-sharing government created after its 1979 Islamic Revolution is the supreme leader, a position now held by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The supreme leader also serves as the country’s commander in chief over its military and the powerful Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force involved in the war in Syria and the battle against the Islamic State group militants in Iraq that also has vast economic holdings across Iran. An 88-member elected clerical panel called the Assembly of Experts appoints the supreme leader and can remove one as well, though that’s never happened. THE PRESIDENT’S POWERS Iranian presidents serve four-year terms. Iran’s president i...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence has tiptoed gingerly through the chaos engulfing the White House — offering loyalty to his boss, while trying to avoid the spreading stain of scandal. It hasn’t been easy, and it’s getting harder by the day. While some conservatives view Pence as a calming force in an administration mired in turmoil, Democrats are eager to tie him to President Donald Trump’s vulnerabilities. The appointment of a special counsel to probe ties between Russia and Trump’s campaign and associates has turned up the heat for everyone in Trump’s orbit. And there are fresh questions about how much Pence knew as head of Trump’s transition team. The vice president was under new scrutiny Thursday after reports that former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn in January alerted the transition team about a Justice Department inquiry into whether he was secretly working as a foreign lobbyist for Turkish interests. The White House has said Flynn was fired in Febru...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is looking ahead toward a decisive battleground in its bid to destroy the Islamic State group, even as U.S.-backed local forces must still finish the fight for the extremists’ two main strongholds in Iraq and Syria. The roughly 100-mile stretch of IS-controlled territory straddling the Iraq-Syria border could represent the start of an endgame for defeating an extremist group that had gobbled up large swaths of territory in the heart of the Middle East, at one point even threatening Baghdad. Three years into America’s campaign, President Donald Trump is studying ways to accelerate the pace. He hasn’t yet announced results of a strategy review he ordered the Pentagon to undertake in late January in collaboration with the State Department and other agencies, but officials are already plotting how to wrest the final territories from IS’ control. “ISIS will go down fighting, of course, and do enormous amounts of harm in its death throes,” Hal B...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranians voted Friday in the country’s first presidential election since its nuclear deal with world powers, as incumbent Hassan Rouhani faced a staunch challenge from a hard-line opponent over his outreach to the West. The election is largely viewed as a referendum on the 68-year-old cleric’s more moderate policies, which paved the way for the nuclear accord despite opposition from hard-liners. Economic issues also will be on the minds of Iran’s over 56 million eligible voters as they head to more than 63,000 polling places across the country. The average Iranian has yet to see the benefits of the deal, which saw Iran limit its contested nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some sanctions. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast the first vote in Iran’s Presidential election on Friday. President Hassan Rouhani faces a stiff challenge from a hard-line opponent over his outreach to the world. (May 19) Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khame...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — First she’s in the hands of her father, then she moves to her husband. Often, she ends up under the power of her son. From childhood through adulthood into old age, every Saudi woman passes from the control of one legal guardian to another, a male relative whose decisions or whims can determine the course of her life. Under Saudi law, the guardian’s permission is required for a woman to get a passport, to travel abroad or to marry. It is also often demanded whenever a woman tries to do any number of things, including rent an apartment, buy a car, undergo a medical procedure or take a job. As a result, women are consigned to the legal status of minors. Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving is what often grabs the most attention, but rights advocates say guardianship laws are the factor that most powerfully enshrines inequality for women. President Donald Trump heads to Saudi Arabia this weekend to cement ties with the deeply conservative kingd...

WASHINGTON (AP) — If President Donald Trump was hoping to head out on his first big foreign trip with turmoil calmed at home, he’s going to have a disappointing Air Force One departure on Friday. Combative and complaining, Trump fell short Thursday in trying to resolve investigations into his campaign and his first four months in office. He’s departing having fervently denied that his campaign had collaborated with Russia or that he’d tried to kill an FBI probe of the issue — and claiming to be the most hounded president in history. Even his enemies, Trump declared, recognize his innocence. President Donald Trump has responded with a direct “no, no” to a question about whether he asked former FBI Director James Comey to shelf an investigation into his former national security adviser, and denied revelations that he had shared secrets with the Russians. (May 18) Asked point-blank if he’d done anything that might merit prosecution or even impeachment, Trump said no — and...