Bombers on mission to deter Iran

WASHINGTON -- In a new show of military might, two American bomber aircraft flew from the United States to the Middle East on Thursday, in a round-trip mission that U.S. officials said covered a wide swath of the region and was a direct message of deterrence to Iran. The flight of the two massive B-52H Stratofortress bombers, the second such mission in less than a month, was designed to underscore America's continuing commitment to the Middle East even as President Donald Trump's administration withdraws thousands of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. The long-range heavy bombers, which are capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear weapons, are a formidable sight and are flown less frequently in the Middle East than smaller combat aircraft, such as American fighter jets. Adversaries often complain about bomber flights in their region, deeming them a provocative show of force. The troop cuts coupled with the impending departure of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group in the Gulf have fueled allies' concerns that the U.S. is abandoning the region. Those worries are compounded by fears that Iran may strike out at the U.S. or allies in retaliation for the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Church gets permit in Minnesota

MURDOCK, Minn. -- The city council in a small Minnesota farming community has voted to grant a permit that allows a controversial Nordic heritage church that has been identified as a white supremacist group to gather at an abandoned church. The vote Wednesday night came after the council in the Swift County community of Murdock was advised by the city attorney that rejecting the Asatru Folk Assembly's request could violate its religious rights. The AFA wants to turn the former Lutheran church into a Midwest regional gathering hall. Council members, meeting online because of the coronavirus pandemic, kept video cameras turned off and refused to identify who voted for or against the permit. It was passed on a voice vote without a roll call, the Star Tribune reported. One member of the five-person council could be heard voting no. City Attorney Don Wilcox told council members that they faced possible legal action if they voted against the AFA based on its beliefs. "There are certain constitutional protections that apply to religions," Wilcox said. "I haven't seen any evidence sufficient to overcome the presumption that they are a religion, whether you agree with it or not. There's not a compelling interest in keeping that building from being used for meetings. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean they can't do it." The group has sparked a wave of activism in Murdock, a community of about 300 about 115 miles west of the Twin Cities. After the AFA purchased the church earlier this year for $45,000, area residents formed a group called the Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate and have held several protests. AFA board member Allen Turnage has said the church would not admit a Black person "because they're not of northern European descent." The AFA is among groups that seek to practice a pre-Christian, European spirituality and, according to a statement on its website, it's pro-white. The Southern Poverty Law Center has added the AFA to its list of hate groups. Turnage said the AFA has about 500 members nationwide, and 20 or so in and around Minnesota.

Baby elephant dies suddenly

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A baby elephant at a Syracuse zoo died from a virus just before his second birthday. The Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse announced the death of Ajay (Ah-JYE), an Asian elephant calf, on Wednesday. He died from Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpes Virus, which poses a high risk to young elephants. Ajay was the second calf born to his mother, Mali, and father, Doc, the zoo said. Blood samples from his 5-year-old brother Batu tested positive for the virus last week, and the zoo said it began aggressively treating him, though he showed no symptoms. Staff also monitored Ajay, who was asymptomatic until Tuesday morning when staff observed swelling under his eyes and darkening on his tongue. "Within two hours, despite the tireless efforts of the zoo and Cornell veterinary staff, he was gone," said Ted Fox, director of the zoo. "That is how awful this disease is, especially with young elephants. When it hits, it hits hard." The virus is believed to occur naturally in elephants and may become active without warning, the zoo said. The zoo lost another calf in 2003 to the virus. Ajay, whose name was chosen in an online vote, was remembered as precocious and active. Ajay means "invincible" in Sanskrit, the zoo said. He would have turned two on Jan. 15.

Lebanon charges caretaker PM

BEIRUT -- The Lebanese prosecutor probing last summer's port explosion in Beirut filed charges on Thursday against the caretaker prime minister and three former ministers, accusing them of negligence that led to the death of hundreds of people, Lebanon's official news agency said. The four are the most senior individuals to be indicted so far in the investigation, which is being conducted in secrecy. And though it is too early to predict whether any of the four would end up on trial, the development was significant in Lebanon, where a culture of impunity has prevailed for decades, including among the entrenched political elites. Judge Fadi Sawwan, the prosecutor responsible for the investigation, filed the charges against Hassan Diab and former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, as well as Ghazi Zeiter and Youssef Fenianos, both former ministers of public works. All four were charged with carelessness and negligence leading to death over the Aug. 4 explosion at Beirut's port, which killed more than 200 people and injured thousands.

Paramedics can regain licenses

DETROIT -- Michigan authorities have agreed to reinstate the licenses of two suburban Detroit paramedics if they pass a national exam after a young woman declared dead on their watch was discovered to be alive at a funeral home. The condition is part of a settlement with Michael Storms and Scott Rickard of the Southfield Fire Department, according to state health department documents released to The Associated Press. Storms must fulfill other requirements, including reading a book about how to deal with families and writing a three-page essay about what he learned. Storms and Rickard went to the home of Timesha Beauchamp, a 20-year-old woman with cerebral palsy, on Aug. 23 after her family said she was in respiratory distress. The paramedics said they couldn't revive her. A doctor consulted by phone declared her dead. But Beauchamp gasped and

Lost painting found in dumpster

BERLIN -- A surrealist painting worth more than a quarter million euros that was forgotten by a businessman at Duesseldorf's airport has been recovered from a nearby recycling dumpster, police said Thursday. The businessman, whose identity was not given, accidentally left behind the painting by French surrealist Yves Tanguy at a check-in counter as he boarded a flight from Duesseldorf to Tel Aviv on Nov. 27. By the time he landed in Israel and contacted Duesseldorf police, the 280,000-Euro (340,000-dollar) oeuvre, which had been wrapped in cardboard, had disappeared. Despite multiple emails with details about the 40×60-centimeter (16X24-inch) painting, authorities could not locate the artwork, police spokesman Andre Hartwig said. It was only after the businessman's nephew traveled to the airport from neighboring Belgium and talked with police directly with more information that an inspector was able to trace the painting to paper recycling dumpster used by the airport's cleaning company. "This was definitely one of our happiest stories this year," Hartwig said. "It was real detective work."

Northern lights a 'big miss'

PORTLAND, Maine -- An initially promising U.S. forecast for the northern lights has gone bust. Stargazers in the continental 48 states have essentially zero chance of seeing the astronomical phenomenon this week, the head of operations at the U.S. government's space weather prediction center said Thursday. Curtains of color paint the night sky when the northern lights, or aurora borealis, are visible. Some early reports had suggested they would be viewable as far south as Illinois this week. Robert Rutledge, the lead of operations at the Space Weather Prediction Center, said the agency had high hopes for Thursday and Friday, but it downgraded its forecast because the chances turned out to be a "big miss." He called the disappointing news "not incredibly unusual in space weather forecasting." The silver lining for sky watchers is that conditions in the coming months and years look more favorable, Rutledge said. New England stargazers had hoped to catch a glimpse of the northern lights, but clouds would have made it difficult, said David Clark, a member of Penobscot Valley Star Gazers in Maine. "I'm sure people are going to try," he said. "I don't have high hopes for it."

5 bicyclists killed in Nevada

BOLDER CITY, Nev. -- Five bicyclists were killed and three others injured in a crash Thursday involving a box truck on U.S. Highway 95 north of Searchlight. Authorities said the truck driver remained on the scene and commercial units were called to inspect the vehicle's brakes, tires and overall function following the 9:40 a.m. crash. Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman Tony Illia said the truck allegedly hit a safety escort vehicle that was following the group of about 20 bicyclists. The group was on an informal ride to celebrate one of the bicyclist's retirement. Witnesses said the bike riders were struck by the box truck after it crossed into the bicycle lane. The driver wasn't believed to have been impaired at the time of the crash.

Brewery releases Biden beer

WILMINGTON, Del. -- A brewery in Delaware is making a beer that honors President-elect Joe Biden and his long association with Amtrak. Wilmington Brew Works released its new IPA on Monday. The beer is called "Rail Car One: Wilmington to Washington." Biden has long been known for commuting on Amtrak during his decades as a U.S. senator. The triple dry-hopped brew is made with mosaic, citra and sultana Hops. It has an ABV of 8%. The brewery tweeted Monday that its first batch had sold out. Ironically, Biden doesn't drink beer. He's well known as a life-long teetotaler. Wilmington Brew Works decided against using Biden's likeness on the can. It instead went with an Amtrak Acela train design.

Israel, Morocco to normalize ties

WASHINGTON -- Israel and Morocco have agreed to normalize relations as President Donald Trump, in his final weeks in office, announced the fourth Arab-Israeli agreement in four months on Thursday. In a related major policy shift, the U.S. agreed to recognize Morocco's claim over the long-disputed Western Sahara region as part of the deal. The agreement adds to Trump's Mideast legacy just as Joe Biden prepares to assume the presidency in January with an eye toward revamping America's policies in the region, from Israel to Iran, Iraq and beyond. With Israel, Biden has pledged to return to a more traditional U.S. position, particularly regarding the Palestinians and their aspirations for statehood. Trump said Israel and Morocco would restore diplomatic and other ties, including the immediate reopening of liaison offices in Tel Aviv and Rabat, the eventual opening of embassies and joint overflight rights for the two nations' airlines.

Dutch uncover two Russian spies

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- A Dutch intelligence agency said Thursday that it has uncovered two Russian spies who were targeting the Netherlands' science and technology sector, a move likely to further strain tense relations between the two countries. The General Intelligence and Security Service, known by its Dutch acronym AIVD, said the agents worked at the Russian embassy and had diplomatic accreditation. Both have been declared "persona non grata" by the foreign ministry meaning they can no longer work as diplomats and will have to leave the country. The agency said that the officers both worked for Russia's civil intelligence agency known as SVR. One of them built a network of sources who work or used to work in the high-tech sector in the Netherlands, the AIVD said, the second agent "played a supporting role." "Some of these individuals received payment from the intelligence officer in exchange for information," the agency said.

Asian American income rises

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Asian American households saw the biggest income growth of any racial or ethnic group in the United States over the past decade and a half -- almost 8%, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Household income for Latinos grew by nearly 6% over that time, while households led by non-Hispanic whites and Blacks had comparatively stagnant income growth -- 3% and almost 2% respectively -- over the past decade and a half. Nationwide, median household income grew 2.3% from the 2005-2009 period to the 2015-2019 period, according to the latest 5-year American Community Survey. Economists said a lot of the difference in income growth among racial and ethnic groups has to do with the thriving job markets where Asian American and Latino-led households are concentrated -- cities and communities in the West and Southwest.Education also played an important role, said Marlene Kim, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Boston. More than 54% of Asian Americans had a bachelor's degree, the highest of any racial or ethnic group, compared to 32% overall for U.S. residents, according to the 2015-2019 American Community Survey. By comparison, 35.8% of non-Hispanic whites, 21.6% of Blacks and 16.4% of Latinos had bachelor's degrees.

Sea level satellite sends readings

PASADENA, Calif. -- A newly launched European-U.S. satellite designed to continue a decades-long record of tracking global sea levels has sent back its first measurements. The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite was launched Nov. 21 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California and controllers spent several weeks activating instruments and making sure operations were normal. The first measurements provided information on sea surface height, wave height and wind speed off the southern tip of Africa. Josh Willis, project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement that "the data look fantastic." Named for a late NASA official who had a key role in developing space-based oceanography, the satellite's main instrument is an extremely accurate radar altimeter that bounces energy off the sea surface. Space-based sea level measurements have been uninterrupted since the 1992 launch of the U.S.-French TOPEX-Poseidon satellite. The rate of sea level rise has doubled since then to 0.16 inch per year, almost entirely due to the combination of meltwater from land-based glaciers and ice sheets and the fact that seawater expands as it warms, NASA said.

Virus tightens grip on economies

WASHINGTON -- The worsening of the viral pandemic across the United States and Europe is threatening their economies and intensifying pressure on governments and central banks on both continents to intervene aggressively. In a worrisome sign of the harm the virus is inflicting in the U.S, the government said Thursday that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits jumped last week to 853,000 -- the most since September. The surge in jobless claims made clear that many companies are still shedding workers as states reimpose business shutdowns and consumers avoid shopping, traveling or dining out. Consumers thus far haven't spent as much this holiday shopping season as they have in previous years, according to credit and debit card data, and last month U.S. employers added jobs at the slowest pace since April. Restaurants, bars and retailers all cut jobs in November. Responding to similar pressures, the European Central Bank announced Thursday that it will ramp up its bond-buying program to try to hold down longer-term interest rates to spur borrowing and spending.

No GOP support for emerging deal

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is hitting the brakes on emerging COVID-19 aid package from a bipartisan group of lawmakers, saying Republican senators won't support $160 billion in state and local funds as part of a potential trade-off in the deal. McConnell's staff conveyed to top negotiators that the GOP leader sees no path to an agreement on a key aspect of the lawmakers' existing proposal -- a slimmed-down version of the liability shield for companies and organizations facing potential COVID-19 lawsuits -- in exchange for $160 billion in state and local funds that Democrats want. The hardened stance from McConnell, who does not appear to have the votes from Republicans for a far-reaching compromise, creates a new stalemate over the $900-billion-plus package, despite days of toiling by a bipartisan group of lawmakers toward a deal.