COLU @ CONCEPTS

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar’s emir is persona non grata to four U.S.-allied Arab states that accuse his wealthy Gulf nation of sponsoring extremists, but he recently received a warm welcome at the sprawling military base his troops share with thousands of American soldiers. Qatar’s al-Udeid Air Base, a crucial staging ground for U.S. operations in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, is one of several American military outposts across the Gulf that are intended to serve as a bulwark against Iran, but now put Washington in a delicate balancing act. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cut all ties to Qatar in June, accusing it of supporting extremism and being soft on Iran. Some U.S. officials have defended Qatar, but are making little headway in mediating the crisis. With its hosts at each other’s throats, the Pentagon has been placed in an awkward position. “We’re tracking all the Gulf nations’ disputes right now,” said U.S. Air Force Col. John...

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the Syrian conflict (all times local): 3:15 p.m. Russia’s military says it fired seven cruise missiles at Islamic State targets in the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour. The Defense Ministry said the Kalibr cruise missiles were launched from two submarines in the Mediterranean on Thursday. Russia has provided military backing for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces since 2015. It has repeatedly fired salvoes of such missiles, from both the sea and mainland Russia. In this strike, the missiles were aimed at IS command points, communication hubs and arms dumps southeast of the city of Deir el-Zour, where Syrian troops and allied militias are battling the extremists. The ministry said all the targets were destroyed. ___ 10:30 a.m. A Syria monitoring group says a convoy of Islamic State militants and their relatives transferred from the border with Lebanon has finally crossed into an extremist stronghold in eastern Syria, ending a s...

CLEVELAND (AP) — Just a little more than a month ago, Jay Bruce was in New York sinking with the Mets as a season that began with promise and a richness of pitching was undermined by injuries. The plunge was dramatic. So was the rise. A trade rescued Bruce and dropped him in Cleveland, where he made history on Wednesday. “I pretty much went from the least fun situation in baseball to the most fun,” he said. Bruce hit a three-run homer in the first inning as the Indians set the AL record with their 21st straight win, a 5-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers that pushed Cleveland closer to another division title and within reach of a 101-year mark that has come under scrutiny because of a peculiarity. Unbeaten and nearly unchallenged for three weeks, the Indians surpassed the “Moneyball” 2002 Oakland Athletics for the league record and tied the 1935 Chicago Cubs for the second longest streak since 1900. The only team to win more consecutive games was the 1916 New York Giant...

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AP) — Nearly three weeks into a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar, thousands were still flooding across the border Thursday in search of help and safety in teeming refugee settlements in Bangladesh. The crisis has drawn global condemnation, with U.N. officials demanding Myanmar halt what they described as a campaign of ethnic cleansing that has driven some 400,000 Rohingya to flee Rakhine state. One of the dozens of boats carrying Rohingya to the Bangladeshi border town of Teknaf capsized Thursday and at least two people drowned, police said. That brought known drownings in the Naf River to 88 since the crisis began. Those who arrived Wednesday in wooden boats on beaches near Shah Porir Dwip fishing village described ongoing violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where smoke could be seen billowing from a burning village — suggesting more Rohingya homes had been set alight. One Rohingya man said his village of Rashidon...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A fire that blocked the only exit to an Islamic school dormitory killed 23 people, mostly teenagers, on the outskirts of Malaysia’s largest city early Thursday, officials said. A government official said a wall separating the victims from a second exit “shouldn’t have been there.” Firefighters and witnesses described scenes of horror — first of boys screaming for help behind barred windows as neighbors watched helplessly, and later of burned bodies huddled in corners of the room. Islamic teacher Arif Mawardy said he woke up to what he thought was a thunderstorm, only to realize it was the sound of people screaming. Firefighters rushed to the scene after receiving a distress call at 5:41 a.m. and took an hour to put out the blaze, which started on the top floor of the three-story building, Kuala Lumpur police chief Amar Singh said. Singh said 23 charred bodies were recovered — 21 boys between the ages of 13 and 17 and two teachers. “We believe ...

NEW YORK (AP) — Frank Vincent, a veteran character actor who often played tough guys, including mob boss Phil Leotardo on “The Sopranos,” has died. He was 80. Vincent died peacefully on Wednesday, a statement from his family said. No cause of death was given. Besides Leotardo, the ruthless New York mob boss who frequently clashed with Tony Soprano on the popular HBO drama and who was memorably whacked at a service station, Vincent portrayed gangsters for director Martin Scorsese. He appeared in “Raging Bull,” ″Goodfellas” — where he played Billy Batts, a made man in the Gambino crime family — and “Casino,” playing Frank Marino, based on real-life gangster Frank Cullotta. Vincent had small roles in two Spike Lee films, “Do the Right Thing” and “Jungle Fever,” and also was in “The Pope of Greenwich Village,” ″Last Exit to Brooklyn,” ″Night Falls on Manhattan” and “Shark Tale,” among his more than 50 movies. His manager Melissa Prophet said in a statement that Vincent “li...

TORONTO (AP) — Angelina Jolie arrives for an interview with the familiar harried air of a parent who has just barely managed to withdraw from her children, all six of whom she’s left having breakfast upstairs in their Toronto hotel suite. “The reason I was a little late is they made me change,” Jolie says, smiling. “They thought what I was wearing was too revealing.” It’s just another example of the extreme balancing act of Jolie’s life, one which combines global celebrity with humanitarian devotion, A-list stardom with sober filmmaking, glamour and family. “I actually went to a premiere once with pee on me,” she says. “It was when the kids were little and I just got peed on at the last minute. There was nothing to do but wear it.” But Jolie’s latest film, the powerfully immersive Cambodian genocide drama “First They Killed My Father,” represents a kind of amalgamation of Jolie’s multifarious life. Her initial interest in Cambodia came when she arrived — in a much earlie...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday said he was “fairly close” to a deal with congressional leaders to preserve protections for young immigrants living illegally in America but he’s insisting on “massive border security” as part of any agreement. Trump, speaking to reporters before surveying hurricane damage in Florida, pushed back against Democratic leaders who claimed there was a deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative. He also said his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would “come later.” “We’re working on a plan subject to getting massive border controls. We’re working on a plan for DACA. People want to see that happen,” Trump said. He added: “’I think we’re fairly close but we have to get massive border security.” After he landed in Florida, he declared repeatedly, “If we don’t have a wall, we’re doing nothing.” Trump, in a series of early morning tweets, disputed the characterization of a private White House ...

NEW YORK (AP) — ESPN says it has accepted the apology of its “Sportscenter” host Jemele Hill for tweeting earlier this week that President Donald Trump was a “white supremacist” and “bigot.” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday called Hill’s comments outrageous and something that could be considered a fire-able offense by ESPN. The network said in a statement issued shortly before midnight that Hill has a right to her personal beliefs, but not to share them on a public platform that implies she is speaking for the network. ESPN said she’s acknowledged that her tweets crossed the line. In her own tweet , Hill said she regretted that her comments painted her company in an unfair light. Source: www.apnews.com 

Selena Gomez recently received a kidney transplant from television actress Francia Raisa due to her struggle with lupus, the actress-singer revealed Thursday. Gomez disclosed in  an Instagram post  confirmed by her publicist that she has been somewhat out of the spotlight this summer because she was recovering from the procedure. The 25-year-old calls the transplant “what I needed to do for my overall health.” The post didn’t reveal Gomez’s current condition or say where or when the procedure took place. Gomez’s publicist declined to release more information. Gomez wrote “there aren’t words to describe” how she can thank Raisa, who she says gave “the ultimate gift and sacrifice by donating her kidney.” “I am incredibly blessed,” she added. The Instagram post includes a picture of Gomez and Raisa holding hands while lying side-by-side in hospital beds and another photo of a scar on Gomez’s abdomen. The 29-year-old Raisa is best known for her role on the ABC F...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Norwegian archaeologist says a well-preserved, if rusty, iron sword dating to the Viking era has been found in southern Norway. Lars Holger Piloe says the nearly one-meter-long (3-foot) sword was found slid down between rocks with the blade sticking out, and may have been left by a person who got lost in a blizzard and died on the mountain from exposure. Piloe said Thursday the sword, dating from about 850-950 A.D., was found in Lesja, some 275 kilometers (170 miles) north of Oslo. Piloe said the sword’s preservation was likely due to the quality of the iron, as well as the cold, dry conditions. It was found in late August by two men who were on a reindeer hunt some 1,640 meters (1 mile) above sea level. Source: www.apnews.com 

NEW YORK (AP) — Five prominent species of ash tree in the eastern U.S. have been driven to the brink of extinction from years of lethal attack by a beetle, a scientific group says. Tens of millions of trees in the U.S. and Canada have already succumbed, and the toll may eventually reach more than 8 billion, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said Thursday. Ash trees are a major part of eastern forests and urban streets, providing yellow and purplish leaves to the bounty of fall colors. Their timber is used for making furniture and sports equipment like baseball bats and hockey sticks. The rampage of the  emerald  ash borer is traced to the late 1990s, when it arrived from Asia in wood used in shipping pallets that showed up in Michigan. Asian trees have evolved defenses against the insect, but the new North American home presented it with vulnerable trees and no natural predators. “The populations are exploding,” said Murphy Westwood of the Mort...

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. (AP) — He inspected a mock-up nuclear warhead, but there was no Kim Jong Un lookalike posing for photographs. He chatted with nuclear missile launch officers in their underground command post, but there was no talk of unleashing nuclear hell on North Korea. A subtle, unspoken message of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ visit to this nuclear weapons base Wednesday was that America is a mature nuclear power not intimidated by threats from an upstart North Korean leader who flaunts his emerging nuclear muscle. Mattis was quietly reminding North Korea that it has no match for a U.S. nuclear arsenal that, while old, is still capable of sudden and swift destruction if Kim were to throw the first nuclear punch. In his only public comments, Mattis cast his visit as part of an effort to ensure that the U.S. maintains the kind of nuclear firepower that convinces any potential nuclear opponent that attacking would be suicidal. “You can leave no doubt at al...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is going to hear firsthand from people affected by Hurricane Irma as he makes his third visit in less than three weeks to survey storm damage and recovery efforts. For Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, the visit Thursday to Naples and Fort Myers on Florida’s southwestern coast offered the chance to see how people were coping and how the Federal Emergency Management Agency has responded. “Historically there’s never been anything like this,” Trump told reporters before leaving the White House. “But the United States Coast Guard, FEMA, working along with Gov. (Rick) Scott, they’ve really done an amazing job,” adding that “power is being turned on rapidly,” he said. After Harvey struck Texas, Trump drew criticism for having minimal interaction with residents during his first trip in late August. He saw little damage and offered few expressions of concern. On his second visit, to Texas and Louisiana, he was more hands-on. He toure...

IMMOKALEE, Fla. (AP) — Larry and Elida Dimas didn’t have much to begin with, and Hurricane Irma left them with even less. The storm peeled open the roof of the old mobile home where they live with their 18-year-old twins, and it destroyed another one they rented to migrant workers in Immokalee, one of Florida’s poorest communities. Someone from the government already has promised aid, but Dimas’ chin quivers at the thought of accepting it. “I don’t want the help,” said Dimas, 55. “But I need it.” Dimas is one of millions of Floridians who live in poverty, and an untold number of them have seen their lives up-ended by Irma. Their options, already limited, were narrowed even further when the hurricane destroyed possessions, increased expenses and knocked them out of work. Not far from Dimas in impoverished Immokalee, located on the edge of the Everglades, Haitian immigrant Woodchy Darius, a junior at Immokalee High School, must decide whether to return to class when school...

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — Emergency crews around hurricane-scarred Florida worked Thursday to make sure elderly residents were safe, after eight people died in a sweltering nursing home that lost its air conditioning in the storm and multiple other facilities were evacuated. In one of the latest actions to protect older residents, firefighters helped relocate 122 people late Wednesday from two assisted living centers near Orlando that had been without power since Hurricane Irma hit. Elsewhere, facilities lacking electricity statewide tried to keep residents cool with dampened cloths and urged utilities to work quickly. Stepped-up safety checks came after the deaths at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, which shocked Florida’s top leaders even as they surveyed destruction from a storm that spread its punishing effects across the entire state. “Unfathomable,” Gov. Rick Scott said of the nursing home deaths. “Inexcusable,” U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson added. Around the sta...