SISTER: NO CAUSE OF DEATH GIVEN IN UNDERWATER PROPOSAL DEATH

The sister of a Louisiana man who died during an underwater marriage proposal in Tanzania last week says authorities have conducted an autopsy but didn't provide his cause of death.

Mandy Hoffman tells The Associated Press that brother Steven Weber Jr. died Thursday at a resort on Pemba Island. Hoffman says authorities informed her of the autopsy by email Monday.

Kenesha Antoine of Baton Rouge posted on Facebook early Friday that her boyfriend died before she could tell him yes.

Antoine and Weber were staying in a submerged bedroom at an offshore hotel. A video Antoine posted shows Weber swimming outside and holding a handwritten proposal note against their room's underwater window. Antoine says Weber never surfaced.

A State Department official confirmed the death of a U.S. citizen in Tanzania but declined to comment further.

US OLYMPIC HALL OF FAME WELCOMES TOMMIE SMITH, JOHN CARLOS

UNDATED (AP) _ Tommie Smith and John Carlos are part of the 2019 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame class that will be inducted later this year.

The sprinters were sent home from the 1968 Mexico City Games after staging a protest by raising their gloved fists on the medals stand. They were long left on the sidelines at the USOPC, but the federation has worked to bring them back inside the family in recent years.

The class will be inducted at a ceremony in Colorado Springs on Nov. 1. It will be the first class inducted since 2012.

The rest of the class: Candace Cable, Erin Popovich, Chris Waddell (Paralympics), Lisa Leslie (basketball), Nastia Liukin (gymnastics), Misty May-Treanor (beach volleyball), Apolo Anton Ohno (short track speedskating), Dara Torres (swimming), the 1998 U.S. Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Team), Ron O'Brien (diving coach) and Tim Nugent (special contributor).

CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST FLORIDA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Prosecutors say they're dropping charges against two 6-year-old students who were arrested at a Florida elementary school last week.

State Attorney Aramis Ayala, head prosecutor of Orange and Osceola counties, said Monday she was dismissing misdemeanour battery charges against the girl and boy.

Ayala says the criminal justice system shouldn't replace traditional school discipline.

Officials weren't saying what led to the arrests.

The girl's grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, told WKMG News 6 in Orlando that the girl had not been sleeping well because of a medical condition and kicked a staff member Thursday at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy. This prompted a school resource officer to put the girl in handcuffs and take her to a juvenile detention centre. Orlando police says they've suspended Officer Dennis Turner pending an investigation.

MONKEY INJURED IN APPARENT BREAK-IN AT KANSAS ZOO RECOVERING

DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — A capuchin monkey at a western Kansas zoo is recovering after it was injured while apparently trying to stop an intruder from taking a younger monkey.

Officials at the Wright Park Zoo in Dodge City say the older monkey, named Vern, was hurt and his son, Pickett, was found on the outskirts of Dodge City Sept. 3. The younger monkey was not injured.

The Dodge City Daily Globe reports officials initially thought Vern's injuries were minor but a veterinarian found injuries apparently caused by blunt force trauma. The monkey underwent surgery at Kansas State University Sept. 10 to repair broken bones.

Zoo spokeswoman Abbey Martin said Monday Pickett is doing well and is back on display. Vern remains in quarantine while he recovers.

Dodge City police are investigating the incident. Martin says there are no developments in the investigation.

SAN FRANCISCO'S CABLE CARS RUNNING AGAIN AFTER REHAB WORK

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco's famed cable cars are running again after a 12-day service halt to rehabilitate the gearboxes that help run the 19th century public transportation system.

The wooden cars are slowly climbing San Francisco's hills Monday, with operators ringing their brass bells.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency removed the manually-operated cable cars from streets on Sept. 11.

The gearboxes spin 30-foot (9-meter) tall wheels in a cable car powerhouse that pull the 12 miles (19 kilometres) of steel cables under the cable car tracks that lift the engineless cable cars up the city's steep hills.

Officials say the work is part of an upgrade project started in 2017 to repair heavy equipment in service since 1984.

It has an estimated cost of about $6 million.

LINGERING PACIFIC HEAT WAVE THREATENS HAWAII CORAL

CAPTAIN COOK, Hawaii (AP) — Just four years after a major marine heat wave killed huge swaths of Hawaii's fragile reefs, scientists are warning that a return of record-setting hot water in the Pacific will cause more widespread bleaching, and possibly coral death.

One of the state's most vibrant coral reefs thrives just below the surface in a bay on the west coast of Hawaii's Big Island.

On a remote shoreline far from the impacts of sunscreen and throngs of tourists, scientists see early signs of what's expected to be a catastrophic season of coral bleaching in Hawaii.

The ocean here is about three and a half degrees above normal for this time of year. Coral can recover from bleaching, but when it is exposed to heat over several years, the likelihood of survival decreases.

News from © The Associated Press, 2019