Miss Universe show, host apologize for crowning wrong woman ADVERTISING Miss Universe show, host apologize for crowning wrong woman NEW YORK (AP) — The Miss Universe pageant and host Steve Harvey doubled down on the apologies Monday after an excruciating
Miss Universe show, host apologize for crowning wrong woman
NEW YORK (AP) — The Miss Universe pageant and host Steve Harvey doubled down on the apologies Monday after an excruciating live television moment — announcing incorrectly that Miss Colombia had won and then taking the crown from her head to give to a rival from the Philippines.
The fallout from Sunday’s show made Harvey an online symbol of “oops” moments, drew a reaction from Colombia’s president and even a gloating tweet from Donald Trump, the pageant’s former owner.
As televised on Fox, the contest was down to Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo of Colombia and Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach of the Philippines when Harvey, a first-time Miss Universe host, proclaimed Gutierrez the winner after a long dramatic pause.
Music swelled, Gutierrez was fitted for a sash, given flowers and a crown was placed on her head. That made it two straight Miss Universe winners for Colombia, where the pageants are taken seriously. She bathed in applause for nearly two minutes before Harvey slowly made his way back onto the stage.
“I have to apologize,” he said. “The first runner-up is Colombia.”
Israel: Palestinian shot after West Bank stabbing attempt
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says a Palestinian tried to stab troops in the West Bank city of Hebron, before being shot with rubber bullets.
The army said on Sunday that the Palestinian woman was arrested and evacuated for medical care. No soldiers were reported wounded.
It was the latest incident in three months of near-daily Palestinian attacks on Israelis that have killed 20. At least 116 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, of which Israel says 79 were assailants. The rest were killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
Israel blames the violence on incitement by political and religious leaders. Palestinians say the attacks stem from despair at nearly half a century of Israeli military occupation.
Obama: Trump exploiting blue-collar fears in campaign
HONOLULU (AP) — President Barack Obama, in a broadside against the leading Republican presidential candidate, says billionaire Donald Trump is “exploiting” the fears that working-class men in particular have about the economy and stagnant wages.
In a year-end interview with NPR News, Obama said demographic changes combined with the “economic stresses” people have been feeling because of the financial crisis, technology and globalization have made life harder for those who rely on a steady paycheck.
“Particularly blue-collar men have had a lot of trouble in this new economy, where they are no longer getting the same bargain that they got when they were going to a factory and able to support their families on a single paycheck,” Obama said in the radio interview released Monday. “You combine those things and it means that there is going to be potential anger, frustration, fear. Some of it justified but just misdirected.”
“I think somebody like Mr. Trump is taking advantage of that. That’s what he’s exploiting during the course of his campaign,” Obama said.
Trump has called for temporarily banning Muslims from entering the U.S., and has made inflammatory comments about Hispanics and others.
Lindsey Graham ends his 2016 presidential campaign
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham ended his 2016 campaign for president Monday, saying he remains committed to working to achieve security for the American people and helping the GOP expand its base.
With just over a month to go until voting begins, the South Carolina senator — the only candidate from one of the four early voting states — posted a video telling supporters “we have run a campaign we can be proud of.” He noted his emphasis on national security and improving the nation’s balance sheet, saying he “put forth bold and practical solutions to big problems.”
In a taped interview broadcast later on CNN, the 60-year-old senator warned that the election is “not about 2016” but instead “an election for the heart and soul of the Republican Party.” He warned that the current GOP front-runner Donald Trump cannot defeat a Democrat like Hillary Clinton “without some major adjustments.”
Having mustered little support in the polls, Graham’s exit will not have an immediate effect on the race in the final stretch before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses and the Feb. 9 New Hampshire primary. But his decision could produce a ripple effect in his home state, which follows New Hampshire with a Feb. 20 primary. Graham will likely be a highly sought-after endorsement for those still in the race, though he’s given no indication of who he would back.
By ending his campaign, Graham deprives the GOP field of perhaps its most aggressive military hawk — he said even before the June 1 launch of his campaign that more American servicemen and women “will die in Iraq and eventually in Syria to protect our homeland.” That was often a stark contrast to other candidates who joined Graham in blasting President Barack Obama as weak in his approach to Islamic State militants, yet hedged when it came to questions of ground forces.
Study: Some cardiac arrest victims ignore warning symptoms
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sudden cardiac arrest may not always be so sudden: New research suggests a lot of people may ignore potentially life-saving warning signs hours, days, even a few weeks before they collapse.
Cardiac arrest claims about 350,000 U.S. lives a year. It’s not a heart attack, but worse: The heart abruptly stops beating, its electrical activity knocked out of rhythm. CPR can buy critical time, but so few patients survive that it’s been hard to tell if the longtime medical belief is correct that it’s a strike with little or no advance warning.
An unusual study that has closely tracked sudden cardiac arrest in Portland, Oregon, for over a decade got around that roadblock, using interviews with witnesses, family and friends after patients collapse and tracking down their medical records.
About half of middle-aged patients for whom symptom information could be found had experienced warning signs, mostly chest pain or shortness of breath, in the month before suffering a cardiac arrest, researchers reported Monday. The research offers the possibility of one day preventing some cardiac arrests if doctors could figure out how to find and treat the people most at risk.
“By the time the 911 call is made, it’s much too late for at least 90 percent of people,” said Dr. Sumeet Chugh of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, who led the study reported in Annals of Internal Medicine. “There’s this window of opportunity that we really didn’t know existed.”
Bill Cosby sues model Beverly Johnson over drugging claim
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bill Cosby sued supermodel Beverly Johnson for defamation on Monday, calling her a liar over her claims that the comedian drugged and attempted to sexually assault her in the 1980s.
Cosby’s lawsuit contends Johnson has been using the story to try to rekindle her career.
Johnson’s “false allegations against Mr. Cosby have been the centerpiece of her attempted resurgence and she has played them to the hilt, repeatedly and maliciously publishing the false accusations in articles, interviews, and television appearances,” Cosby’s lawsuit states.
It seeks unspecified damages and an injunction preventing the model from repeating her claims that the comedian drugged her with a cappuccino in his New York home in the 1980s. Johnson, 63, first described the incident in a piece for Vanity Fair magazine, and has recounted it and her angry reaction to Cosby in several interviews and a memoir released in August.
A call to Johnson’s publicist Ann-Marie Nieves was not immediately returned.
