Leaders warn of harrowing risk of nuclear-armed terrorists
Leaders warn of harrowing risk of nuclear-armed terrorists
WASHINGTON (AP) — World leaders declared progress Friday in securing nuclear materials worldwide but warned of a persistent and harrowing threat: terrorists getting their hands on a nuclear bomb. “It would change our world,” President Barack Obama said.
Obama, addressing a nuclear security summit, said there was no doubt that if “madmen” in the Islamic State group obtained nuclear material, they would use it to kill as many people as possible. He urged fellow leaders not to be complacent about the risk of catastrophe and called IS the most active extremist group currently menacing the planet.
So far, no terrorists have gotten a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb, Obama said, crediting global efforts to secure nuclear material. But he said it wasn’t for lack of trying: Al-Qaida has sought nuclear materials, IS has deployed chemical weapons and extremists linked to the Brussels and Paris attacks were found to have spied on a top Belgian nuclear official.
“We have measurably reduced the risk,” Obama said. Still, he added, “the threat of nuclear terrorism persists and continues to evolve.”
At this year’s summit — Obama’s last major push on denuclearization — deep concerns about nuclear terrorism have tempered other, more positive signs of the world coming together to confront the broader nuclear threat.
Secret Tut chamber? Egypt calls experts to examine evidence
VALLEY OF THE KINGS, Egypt (AP) — Egypt on Friday invited archaeologists and experts from around the world to examine new data from new, extensive radar scanning conducted on King Tutankhamun’s tomb to explore a theory that secret chambers could be hidden behind its walls.
The open invitation to a conference in Cairo in May, issued by the antiquities minister at a news conference just outside the tomb, aims to bring broader scientific rigor to what so far have only been tantalizing clues.
The new exploration was prompted by a theory by British Egyptologist Nicolas Reeves that undiscovered chambers lie behind the tomb’s western and northern walls and that they likely contain the tomb of Queen Nefertiti, one of pharaonic Egypt’s most famous figures — whose bust, on display at the Berlin Museum, is a much storied symbol of ancient beauty.
Preliminary scans whose results were announced last month suggested two open spaces with signs of metal and organic matter. Egypt’s archaeologists announced Friday they completed more extensive scanning, sponsored by National Geographic, and the results must now be analyzed.
If chambers — whether containing Nefertiti’s tomb or not — are discovered behind the western and northern walls covered in hieroglyphs and bas-reliefs in Tut’s tomb, it would likely be the biggest discovery in Egyptology since Howard Carter first discovered the king’s 3,300-year-old burial chamber and its treasures in 1922.
Trooper slain at bus station hailed for arrests, rescue
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — When Virginia State Trooper Chad P. Dermyer pulled a woman over last year on Interstate 64 for expired license plates, his gut told him something wasn’t right.
Dermyer called a former partner and said the driver was acting normal but he couldn’t shake a strange feeling. Dermyer eventually searched the trunk and found the remains of the driver’s long-missing son, authorities said. The driver has since been charged with murder.
It was the kind of career-making stop that friends and colleagues said highlighted his natural gift for police work. Dermyer was fatally shot Thursday at the Richmond Greyhound bus station when an ex-con opened fire just inches from the trooper’s chest.
“That was him: he dug, he didn’t give up,” said Cyndi Grace, who partnered with Dermyer for four years at the Newport News Police Department. “He was exceptional in every sense of the word.”
Dermyer had been participating in a counterterrorism training exercise at the bus station with about a dozen other troopers, special agents and supervisors when he was shot.
Syria’s Palmyra: Ghost town bearing scars of IS destruction
PALMYRA, Syria (AP) — Explosions rocked the ancient town of Palmyra on Friday and on the horizon, black smoke wafted behind its majestic Roman ruins, as Syrian army experts carefully detonated hundreds of mines they say were planted by Islamic State militants before they fled the town.
An Associated Press crew visiting the town Friday witnessed firsthand the destruction inflicted by the extremist group on the town’s famed archaeological site, less than a mile away from the modern-day town of the same name, now completely deserted.
While some parts of the site, including the Roman-era grand colonnades and amphitheater appeared relatively untouched, the damage was very much visible elsewhere.
The remarkable Arch of Triumph, built under the Roman emperor Septimius Severus between A.D. 193 and A.D. 211, has been reduced to a pile of stones, blown up by IS extremists who filmed the destruction for the world to see. The monumental arch once sat atop the famed colonnaded streets of the ancient town.
The Temple of Baalshamin and parts of the Temple of Bel, one of the best-preserved Roman-era sites, are also destroyed.
$15 minimum-wage movement sets sights on more states
NEW YORK (AP) — California and New York — where almost 1 in 5 Americans live — are on their way to raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour, and the activists who spearheaded those efforts are now setting their sights on other similarly liberal, Democratic-led states.
Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington are among the states with active “Fight for $15” efforts, and even economic experts who oppose the increased rate see it gaining momentum.
“There is lots of pressure to do this,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director who is now president of the conservative American Action Forum, which says big minimum-wage increases cost jobs.
The idea faces headwinds in more conservative and rural states in the South and the Midwest. But activists believe the movement is picking up steam, even if their two big victories so far were achieved in two highly receptive places: trend-setting, liberal, labor-friendly states with a high cost of living and yawning gaps between rich and poor, especially in New York City and Silicon Valley.
“In the beginning, it looked impossible,” said Alvin Major, a former fast food worker who is now a leader of the Fight for $15 campaign. But now, “what happened in New York, in California, it’s going to spread around the country.”
Will Apple’s FBI tussle take a bite out of the brand?
NEW YORK (AP) — The revelation that the FBI was able to break into a secured iPhone without Apple’s help won’t take a bite out of Apple’s brand reputation, but consumers will be looking for security improvements soon.
The Apple brand has already withstood worse. In 2014, hackers posted nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities after guessing their passwords and breaking into their Apple iCloud accounts. Beyond security, Apple has faced complaints that the iPhone 6 Plus bent too easily and that the iPhone 4 lost signal strength when users held it a certain way.
In each case, Apple’s reputation recovered — and the company went on to sell 232 million iPhones last year. And on Thursday, crowds formed at some stores as the new iPhone SE went on sale, though the company hasn’t released figures.
YouGov BrandIndex, which tracks brand perceptions, said that the Apple brand has been trending modestly positively since early March and that the FBI dropping the case had no effect on that.
And investors haven’t shown much concern: Apple’s stock has increased 4 percent since the FBI said late Monday that it didn’t need help to break into the phone. Investors have typically been more worried about whether Apple can maintain its growth as smartphone sales slow down.