COLU @ CONCEPTS

LOVELOCK, Nev. (AP) — O.J. Simpson was granted parole Thursday after more than eight years in prison for a Las Vegas hotel-room heist, successfully making his case for freedom in a nationally televised hearing that reflected America’s enduring fascination with the former football star. Simpson, 70, could be released as early as Oct. 1. By then, he will have served the minimum of his nine-to-33-year sentence for a bungled attempt to snatch sports memorabilia he claimed had been stolen from him. O.J. Simpson will be paroled after serving nine years in prison for a botched bid to retrieve sports memorabilia in Las Vegas. (July 20) During the more than hourlong hearing on live TV, Simpson was, by turns, remorseful, jovial and defensive, heatedly insisting the items taken in the armed robbery were “my stuff.” At one point, the murder defendant in the 1995 “Trial of the Century” set off a storm of sarcasm and incredulity on social media when he said, “I’ve basically spen...

LOVELOCK, Nev. (AP) — O.J. Simpson was granted parole Thursday after more than eight years in prison for a Las Vegas hotel-room heist, successfully making his case for freedom in a nationally televised hearing that reflected America’s enduring fascination with the former football star. Simpson, 70, could be released as early as Oct. 1. By then, he will have served the minimum of his nine-to-33-year sentence for a bungled attempt to snatch sports memorabilia he claimed had been stolen from him. O.J. Simpson will be paroled after serving nine years in prison for a botched bid to retrieve sports memorabilia in Las Vegas. (July 20) During the more than hourlong hearing on live TV, Simpson was, by turns, remorseful, jovial and defensive, heatedly insisting the items taken in the armed robbery were “my stuff.” At one point, the murder defendant in the 1995 “Trial of the Century” set off a storm of sarcasm and incredulity on social media when he said, “I’ve basically spen...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A powerful earthquake shook the Greek resort island of Kos overnight, damaging older buildings and the main port, killing at least two people and causing more than 120 injuries. The 6.5-magnitude quake about 1:30 a.m. Friday rattled other islands and Turkey’s Aegean coast as well, but Kos was nearest to the epicenter and appeared to be the worst-hit, with all of the deaths and injuries reported there. Fallen bricks and other debris coated many streets, and the island’s seafront road and parts of the main town were flooded by a small tsunami. A powerful earthquake shook the Greek resort island of Kos early Friday morning, damaging older and historic buildings and the main port. Authorities say at least two people are dead, and dozens injured. (July 21) Giorgos Hadjimarkos, regional governor, said four or five of the injuries were “worrying” and damaged buildings were being inspected, but the “main priority at the moment is saving lives.” The Kos ...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A powerful earthquake shook the Greek resort island of Kos overnight, damaging older buildings and the main port, killing at least two people and causing more than 120 injuries. The 6.5-magnitude quake about 1:30 a.m. Friday rattled other islands and Turkey’s Aegean coast as well, but Kos was nearest to the epicenter and appeared to be the worst-hit, with all of the deaths and injuries reported there. Fallen bricks and other debris coated many streets, and the island’s seafront road and parts of the main town were flooded by a small tsunami. A powerful earthquake shook the Greek resort island of Kos early Friday morning, damaging older and historic buildings and the main port. Authorities say at least two people are dead, and dozens injured. (July 21) Giorgos Hadjimarkos, regional governor, said four or five of the injuries were “worrying” and damaged buildings were being inspected, but the “main priority at the moment is saving lives.” The Kos ...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A powerful earthquake shook the Greek resort island of Kos overnight, damaging older buildings and the main port, killing at least two people and causing more than 120 injuries. The 6.5-magnitude quake about 1:30 a.m. Friday rattled other islands and Turkey’s Aegean coast as well, but Kos was nearest to the epicenter and appeared to be the worst-hit, with all of the deaths and injuries reported there. Fallen bricks and other debris coated many streets, and the island’s seafront road and parts of the main town were flooded by a small tsunami. A powerful earthquake shook the Greek resort island of Kos early Friday morning, damaging older and historic buildings and the main port. Authorities say at least two people are dead, and dozens injured. (July 21) Giorgos Hadjimarkos, regional governor, said four or five of the injuries were “worrying” and damaged buildings were being inspected, but the “main priority at the moment is saving lives.” The Kos ...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A powerful earthquake shook the Greek resort island of Kos overnight, damaging older buildings and the main port, killing at least two people and causing more than 120 injuries. The 6.5-magnitude quake about 1:30 a.m. Friday rattled other islands and Turkey’s Aegean coast as well, but Kos was nearest to the epicenter and appeared to be the worst-hit, with all of the deaths and injuries reported there. Fallen bricks and other debris coated many streets, and the island’s seafront road and parts of the main town were flooded by a small tsunami. A powerful earthquake shook the Greek resort island of Kos early Friday morning, damaging older and historic buildings and the main port. Authorities say at least two people are dead, and dozens injured. (July 21) Giorgos Hadjimarkos, regional governor, said four or five of the injuries were “worrying” and damaged buildings were being inspected, but the “main priority at the moment is saving lives.” The Kos ...

WAKISO, Uganda (AP) — Some menstruating schoolgirls were locked in dormitories while their peers were in class. To avoid the humiliation, others stayed home. As more girls skipped class because they couldn’t afford sanitary pads, authorities at a government-backed school outside Uganda’s capital, Kampala, were forced to do what few have done: provide free sanitary pads. “We looked at the absenteeism rate and you would find that in a class if there are six people who are absent, at least four of them are girls. Some boldly came to us and said, ‘When we are on our period there is no care, so that’s why we prefer staying at home,’” said Vincent Odoi, a teacher at Wampewo Ntakke Secondary School. Menstrual hygiene has emerged as a serious, and often emotional, subject in Africa, where some experts say governments must supply free sanitary pads to schoolgirls who often are at risk of dropping out because of embarrassment. The issue recently became politically charged in Uganda ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s persistent overtures toward Russia are placing him increasingly at odds with his national security and foreign policy advisers, who have long urged a more cautious approach to dealing with the foreign adversary. The uneasy dynamic between the president and top aides has been exacerbated by the revelation this week of an extended dinner conversation between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the recent summit in Germany. The previously undisclosed conversation, which occurred a few hours after their official meeting, raised red flags with advisers already concerned by the president’s tendency to shun protocol and press ahead with outreach toward Russia, according to two U.S. officials and three top foreign officials. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity. Deep divisions are increasingly apparent within the administration on the best way to approach M...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s extraordinary public denouncement of Attorney General Jeff Sessions reflected a long-simmering frustration with one of his staunchest allies, but was not a calculated attempt to force Sessions from the Cabinet, according to two Trump advisers. For weeks, the president has seethed about Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the federal investigation into whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia during last year’s election. On Wednesday, Trump told The New York Times that he would never have appointed Sessions to the post if he had known the former Alabama senator would make that decision. “Sessions should have never recused himself,” Trump told the paper, “And if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else.” The White House notably made no effort to walk back Trump’s comments or display confidence in the attorney general. Instead, the two Trump adviser...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, Vietnam prisoner of war and political maverick in Congress for more than three decades, has been diagnosed with an aggressive type of brain tumor. The 80-year-old Arizona lawmaker has glioblastoma, according to doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, where McCain had a blood clot removed from above his left eye last Friday. He and his family are considering further treatment, including chemotherapy and radiation. “Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot,” his office said in a statement late Wednesday. According to the American Brain Tumor Association, more than 12,000 people a year are diagnosed with glioblastoma, the same type of tumor that struck McCain’s close Democratic colleague in legislative battles, the late Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. The American Cancer Society puts the five-year survival rate for patien...

WASHINGTON (AP) — There are no proven ways to stave off Alzheimer’s, but a new report raises the prospect that avoiding nine key risks starting in childhood just might delay or even prevent about a third of dementia cases around the world. How? It has to do with lifestyle factors that may make the brain more vulnerable to problems with memory and thinking as we get older. They’re such risks as not getting enough education early in life, high blood pressure and obesity in middle age, and being sedentary and socially isolated in the senior years. Thursday’s report in the British journal Lancet is provocative — its authors acknowledge their estimate is theoretical, based on statistical modeling. A recent U.S. report was much more cautious, saying there are encouraging hints that a few lifestyle changes can bolster brain health but little if any proof. Still, it’s never too early to try, said Lancet lead author Gill Livingston, a psychiatry professor at University College London...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A short video of a Saudi woman walking around in a miniskirt and crop top sparked an outcry after going viral, leading to the woman being detained for several hours. The woman was eventually released without charge, but the incident and the online debate it ignited point to the tension in Saudi Arabia between proponents of its conservative, state-enforced strictures and those pushing for greater rights. Here’s a look at why the video caused such an uproar. ___ THE SHOCK The woman, whose name has not been released, defied the kingdom’s conservative dress code, which requires all women, even foreigners, to wear long, loose robes known as abayas in public. Most Saudi women also cover their hair and face with black veils. It is common in Saudi Arabia to see heavily blurred or pixelated images of women’s faces on billboards and storefronts — in stark contrast to the many towering images of senior male royals displayed across the country. ...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his opponents face a crucial showdown Thursday as the country’s opposition calls the first national strike since 2002 stoppage that failed to topple Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez. Fifteen years later, Chavez’s socialist party controls vast swathes of the Venezuelan economy, making it harder to bring the country to a halt. Easing the opposition’s task is the fact that much of the economy is already faltering, hamstrung by a plunge in oil prices and years of corruption and mismanagement. The 24-hour strike is meant to begin at 6 a.m. as an expression of national disapproval of Maduro’s plan to convene a constitutional assembly that would reshape the Venezuelan system to consolidate the ruling party’s power over the few institutions that remain outside its control. The opposition is boycotting a July 30 election to select members of the assembly. The country’s largest business group, Fedecamaras, has cautiousl...