COLU @ CONCEPTS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday scrapped Obama-era guidance on investigating campus sexual assault, replacing it with new instructions that allow universities to require higher standards of evidence when handling complaints. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has said that President Barack Obama’s policy had been unfairly skewed against those accused of assault and had “weaponized” the Education Department to “work against schools and against students.” The change is the latest in Trump’s broader effort to roll back Obama policies. Women’s rights groups slammed Friday’s decision, saying it will discourage students from reporting assault. The guidance released in 2011 and then updated in 2014 instructed universities to use a “preponderance of the evidence” standard when assessing and investigating a claim of sexual assault. DeVos’ new interim guidelines let colleges choose between that standard and a “clear and convincing evidence” standard, which is har...

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — President Donald Trump implored his supporters Friday to get behind an establishment-backed incumbent in a Republican runoff race in Alabama, arguing that Sen. Luther Strange will “drain the swamp” and doesn’t know the Senate Majority Leader “at all.” Acknowledging he was putting his own political capital on the line, the president insisted to thousands of cheering fans in Huntsville, Alabama, that backing Strange — who was appointed in February to temporarily fill the seat that opened up when Jeff Sessions became attorney general — would help further the Trump agenda. “We can only win the fights and we can only drain the swamp if we have smart, tough, tenacious leaders who know who they are and know how to deliver,” Trump said. “Luther Strange is our man.” Despite Trump’s endorsement and heavy spending by a super political action committee tied to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Strange remains locked in a tight race against former Alabama Ch...

The federal government on Friday told election officials in 21 states that hackers targeted their systems before last year’s presidential election. The notification came roughly a year after U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials first said states were targeted by hacking efforts possibly connected to Russia. The states that told The Associated Press they had been targeted included some key political battlegrounds, such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. The AP contacted every state election office to determine which ones had been informed that their election systems had been targeted. The others confirming were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Washington. Being targeted does not mean that sensitive voter data was manipulated or results were changed. A hacker targeting a system without getting inside is similar to a burglar c...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Latest on Mexico’s major earthquake (all times local): 11 p.m. Mexico’s federal prosecutors’ office says one of its employees has died in the crash of a helicopter that was carrying aid to a remote village in Oaxaca state. The office started aid flights to supply the village after an 8.1 magnitude earthquake struck on Sept. 7, killing 96 people. The office said three of its employees and two Red Cross aid workers were aboard the helicopter when it crashed, but only one, an aircraft maintenance employee, died. ___ 9:45 p.m. The morgue service in Mexico City is reporting that eight foreigners are among the city’s 155 dead in Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake. The city’s justice tribunal said Friday the dead include four Taiwanese women. One of the buildings that collapsed in the quake housed a business listed as Asia Jenny Importaciones, S.A. de C.V. A South Korean man was also confirmed dead. A Panamanian woman died, as did one man from Spain...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hope mixed with fear Friday on a 60-foot stretch of a bike lane in downtown Mexico City, where families huddled under tarps and donated blankets, awaiting word of their loved ones trapped in the four-story-high pile of rubble behind them. On Day 4 of the search for survivors of the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that brought down the seven-floor office building and many others, killing at least 295 people, hope rose and fell on the small things. A change in the weather, word that Japanese rescuers — strangers from half a world away — had joined the recovery effort, officials’ assurances that people remained alive inside, a call from a familiar number. For Patricia Fernandez Romero, who spent the morning on a yellow folding stool under a handwritten list with the names of the 46 missing, it was remembering how badly her 27-year-old son, Ivan Colin Fernandez, sang and realizing how much she wanted to hear him again. “There are moments when you feel like you’re b...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — They made it look oh-so-easy, and made it seem woefully difficult. Now, these Los Angeles Dodgers figure they’re braced for anything. They’ll get to find out in the postseason after their 4-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Friday night gave Los Angeles its fifth consecutive NL West title, setting off yet another September party at Dodger Stadium. “You have to celebrate,” said Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw. “You never know if this is the last time you’re going to win a division championship. We’re celebrating, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know there’s more work to do.” The capper was highlighted by a homer from a player who couldn’t legally drink for most of this division title run. Cody Bellinger set an NL rookie record with his 39th homer, a three-run shot in the third inning. The 22-year-old topped the mark set by Wally Berger in 1930 and matched by Frank Robinson in 1956. Veteran Rich Hill (11-8) threw six strong innings for the Dodgers,...

AP PHOTOS: A selection of pictures from the past w Here’s your look at highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see. This week’s gallery includes images of muddy swimmers in Israel; a couple in their hurricane-damaged home in Puerto Rico; and Rohingya refugees reaching for food during a distribution in Bangladesh. ___ This gallery contains photos from the week of Sept. 16-22, 2017. Source: www.apnews.com  By The Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian ultraconservative Muslim preacher hears on his car radio news of the death of Michael Jackson, the pop singer he idolized in his teens, and he becomes so distraught he crashes his car. The news of the passing of the King of Pop is the start of a crisis of conscience for Sheikh Khalid Hani, the main character of the movie “Sheikh Jackson,” Egypt’s first feature film to focus on the religious movement known as Salafis, followers of one of the strictest interpretations of Islam. It follows Sheikh Hani, a Salafi, as his love for Michael Jackson throws him onto a bumpy journey to discover his own identity, mirroring how Egypt’s conservative society is torn between its Islamic and Arab traditions and Western culture in an age when television, telecommunications and social media bring together people and cultures from all corners of the world. “I no longer cry while I am praying. That means my faith is faltering,” Hani confides to a female psychiatris...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — When she saw images unfold from a deadly white supremacist rally this summer in Virginia, Minnijean Brown Trickey immediately thought about the angry mob she and eight other black students faced when they integrated an all-white high school in Little Rock 60 years ago. “That triggered me so much and watching the mindless mob action just touched me, and I thought, ‘This is 60 years later. I can’t believe this happened in this time,’” Trickey said Friday, referring to the violence that erupted at a rally of white nationalists opposed to the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. “So where did I see it last? In Virginia or wherever people coalesce into mindless violence,” she added. Trickey and the seven other surviving members of the “Little Rock Nine” — who were escorted by federal troops into Little Rock’s Central High School in September 1957 — gathered at the University of Arkansas’ Clinton School of Public Service for a joint n...

BEIRUT (AP) — Iran is working to restore a lost link in its network of alliances in the Middle East, trying to bring Hamas fully back into the fold after the Palestinian militant group had a bitter fall-out with Iranian ally Syria over that country’s civil war. Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah are quietly trying to mediate a reconciliation between Syria and Hamas. If they succeed, it would shore up a weak spot in the alliance at a time when Iran has strengthened ties with Syria and Iraq, building a bloc of support across the region to counter Israel and the United States’ Arab allies. Hamas had long been based in Syria, receiving Damascus’ support in the militant group’s campaign against Israel. Hamas’ powerful leadership-in-exile remained in Syria even after the group took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007. Together with Iran and the Shiite guerrilla group Hezbollah, they touted themselves as the “Axis of Resistance” to oppose Israel. But when Syria tipped into civil ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Melania Trump is set to take her biggest step yet as first lady. She’s leading the U.S. delegation to an international sporting event for wounded service members, her first solo trip outside of the U.S. to represent her adopted country without President Donald Trump at her side. The daylong stop Saturday in Toronto also includes a brush with royalty. The first lady is scheduled to meet for the first time with Britain’s Prince Harry, who founded the Invictus Games in 2014. She was also meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and delivering remarks at a reception for the nearly 100 American athletes participating in the weeklong Olympic-style competition. Mrs. Trump will also attend Saturday’s opening ceremony. Her decision to lead the U.S. delegation, whose members include Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, professional golfer Nancy Lopez and entertainer Wayne Newton, reflects the first lady’s “utmost respect” for the hard work, coura...

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — President Donald Trump says National Football League owners should fire players who kneel during the national anthem. And he’s encouraging spectators to walk out in protest. In an extended riff during a freewheeling rally speech in Alabama Friday night, Trump also bemoaned that football games have become less violent. “They’re ruining the game,” he complained. Several athletes, including a handful of NFL players, have refused to stand during “The Star-Spangled Banner” to protest of the treatment of blacks by police. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who started the trend last year when he played for the San Francisco 49ers, hasn’t been signed by an NFL team for this season. Trump says those players are disrespecting the flag and deserve to lose their jobs. “That’s a total disrespect of our heritage. That’s a total disrespect of everything that we stand for,” he said, encouraging owners to act. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, whe...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — In the stylish Condesa neighborhood young revelers typically spill out from dimly lit bars and restaurants on a Friday night. But the first weekend since a 7.1-magnitude earthquake toppled buildings just blocks away began on a somber note. Instead of crowds gathered with beers, small handfuls of rescue workers still dressed in reflective vests took breaks from digging through rubble. Entire restaurants with white linen tables were empty. Metal gates shuttered others. “It feels lifeless,” said Mariana Aguilar, 27, a hostess at a bar and restaurant who stood waiting for guests yet to arrive. “I walk through these streets every day and you never imagine something like this would happen.” The upscale Mexico City neighborhood was one of the hardest hit, with more than a half-dozen collapsed buildings in the immediate vicinity. The few Condesa residents who ventured out Friday night said they were anxious for relief from an anguishing week. “The city is stil...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rican officials rushed to evacuate tens of thousands of people downstream of a failing dam and said they could not reach more than half the towns in the U.S. territory as the massive scale of the disaster wrought by Hurricane Maria started to become clear on Friday. Government spokesman Carlos Bermudez said that officials had no communication with 40 of the 78 municipalities on the island more than two days after the Category 4 storm crossed the island, toppling power lines and cellphone towers and sending floodwaters cascading through city streets. Officials said 1,360 of the island’s 1,600 cellphone towers had been downed, and 85 percent of above-ground and underground phone and internet cables were knocked out. With roads blocked and phones dead, officials said, the situation may be worse than they know. “We haven’t seen the extent of the damage,” Gov. Ricardo Rossello told reporters in the capital. More than 15 inches (nearly 40 ce...