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AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Original Publication Date March 31, 2018 - 9:06 PM

Trump on deal to protect 'Dreamer' immigrants: 'NO MORE'

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday declared "NO MORE" to a deal to help "Dreamer" immigrants and threatened to pull out of a free trade agreement with Mexico unless it does more to stop people from crossing into the U.S. He claimed they're coming to take advantage of protections granted certain immigrants.

"NO MORE DACA DEAL!" Trump tweeted one hour after he began the day by wishing his followers a "HAPPY EASTER!"

He said Mexico must "stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!" The U.S., Canada and Mexico are participating in tense negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement at Trump's insistence. Trump says NAFTA is bad for the U.S.

"Mexico has got to help us at the border," Trump, holding his wife's hand, told reporters before the couple attended Easter services at an Episcopal church near his Palm Beach home. "If they're not going to help us at the border, it's a very sad thing between our two countries."

"A lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of DACA," he added.

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Ruling party candidate easily wins Costa Rica presidency

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Costa Rica's governing party won a big presidential election victory Sunday as many voters rejected an evangelical pastor who had jumped into political prominence by campaigning against same-sex marriage.

The head of the Supreme Electoral Council, Luis Antonio Sobrado, said that with 90.6 per cent of ballots counted Sunday night, Carlos Alvarado of the ruling Citizen Action Party had 60.6 per cent of the votes in the runoff election. His opponent, Fabricio Alvarado of the National Restoration party, had 39.4 per cent. The two men are not related.

Fabricio Alvarado rose from being a political unknown to the leading candidate in the election's first round in February after he came out strongly against a call by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for Costa Rica to allow same-sex marriage.

Carlos Alvarado, a novelist and former labour minister who finished second in February to get the final spot in the runoff, spoke in favour of letting gays wed.

Recent opinion polls had said the candidates were running head-to-head going into the runoff, but in the end Carlos Alvarado had an easy win.

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10 Things to Know for Monday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Monday:

1. 'NO MORE DACA DEAL!'

President Trump insists a program to help "Dreamer" immigrants is finished, and he threatens a free trade agreement with Mexico unless it does more to stop people from crossing into the U.S.

2. WHO MAKES IT CLEAR HE WAS FIRED

Former Veterans Affairs chief David Shulkin says he had no plans to resign, and was only told of Trump's decision to replace him shortly before the president's Twitter announcement.

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China space lab mostly burns up on re-entry in south Pacific

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese space authorities say the defunct Tiangong 1 space station mostly burned up on re-entry into the atmosphere over the central South Pacific.

The China Manned Space Engineering Office said the experimental space laboratory re-entered around 8:15 a.m. Monday.

Scientists monitoring the craft's disintegrating orbit had forecast the craft would mostly burn up and would pose only the slightest of risks to people. Analysis from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center showed it had mostly burned up.

Launched in 2011, Tiangong 1 was China's first space station, serving as an experimental platform for bigger projects, such as the Tiangong 2 launched in September 2016 and a future permanent Chinese space station.

Two crews of Chinese astronauts lived on the station while testing docking procedures and other operations. Its last crew departed in 2013 and contact with it was cut in 2016.

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Ogunbowale encore! Final Four hero lifts Notre Dame to title

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Arike Ogunbowale hit the shot of her life — again.

Ogunbowale floated in a 3-pointer from the corner with 0.1 seconds left, lifting Notre Dame to its second women's basketball title with a thrilling 61-58 comeback victory over Mississippi State in the NCAA championship game on Sunday night.

It was the second straight game that the junior guard hit a shot in the final second to carry the Irish. Her jumper with one second remaining in overtime knocked off previously unbeaten UConn in the semifinals Friday.

With this game tied, Ogunbowale took the inbounds pass from Jackie Young, dribbled twice toward the corner and, closely guarded, lofted home an off-balance 3 from in front of the Notre Dame bench, nearly the same angle as her shot that beat the Huskies.

"It just felt right," said Ogunbowale, who scored 16 of her 18 points in the second half. "I practice late-game all the time. I just ran to Jackie and said, 'Throw it to me, throw it to me.'"

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China raises tariffs on US pork, fruit in trade dispute

BEIJING (AP) — China raised import duties on U.S. pork, fruit and other products Monday in an escalating tariff dispute with President Donald Trump that companies worry might depress global commerce.

The Finance Ministry said the charges were in response to a U.S. tariff hike on steel and aluminum that took effect March 23. But a bigger dispute looms over Trump's approval of possible higher duties on nearly $50 billion of Chinese goods in a dispute over technology policy.

Forecasters say the immediate economic impact should be limited, but investors worry the global recovery might be set back if other governments respond by raising their own import barriers. Those fears temporarily depressed financial markets, though stocks have recovered some of their losses.

Effective Monday, Beijing raised tariffs on pork, aluminum scrap and some other products by 25 per cent, the ministry said. A 15 per cent tariff was imposed on apples, almonds and some other goods.

The government said earlier China's imports of those goods last year totalled $3 billion.

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Data breach hits Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor stores

A data breach at department store chains Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off Fifth and Lord & Taylor has compromised the personal information of customers who shopped at the stores.

The chains' parent company, Canada-based Hudson's Bay Co., announced the breach of its store payment systems on Sunday. The company said it was investigating and taking steps to contain the attack.

The disclosure came after New York-based security firm Gemini Advisory LLC revealed on Sunday that a hacking group known as JokerStash or Fin7 began boasting on dark websites last week that it was putting up for sale up to 5 million stolen credit and debit cards. The hackers named their stash BIGBADABOOM-2. While the extent of its holdings remains unclear, about 125,000 records were immediately released for sale.

The security firm confirmed with several banks that many of the compromised records came from Saks and Lord & Taylor customers.

Hudson's Bay said in a statement that it "deeply regrets any inconvenience or concern this may cause," but it hasn't said how many Saks or Lord & Taylor stores or customers were affected. The company said there's no indication that the breach affected its online shopping websites or other brands, including the Home Outfitters chain or Hudson's Bay stores in Canada.

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Israel rejects calls for inquiry into Gaza violence

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's defence minister on Sunday rejected international calls for an investigation into deadly violence along Gaza's border with Israel, saying troops acted appropriately and fired only at Palestinian protesters who posed a threat.

Fifteen Palestinians were killed and over 700 wounded in Friday's violence near the Israeli border, according to Palestinian health officials. It was the area's deadliest violence since a war four years ago.

Human rights groups have accused the army of using excessive force, and both the U.N. secretary-general and the European Union's foreign policy chief have urged an investigation.

In an interview, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel would not co-operate with a U.N. inquiry if there were one.

"From the standpoint of the Israeli soldiers, they did what had to be done," Lieberman told Israeli Army Radio. "I think that all of our troops deserve a commendation, and there won't be any inquiry."

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Cosby jury being picked amid anti-sexual misconduct movement

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jury selection is set to get underway in Bill Cosby's sexual assault retrial in a cultural landscape changed by the #MeToo movement, posing new challenges for both the defence and the prosecution.

Experts say the movement could cut both ways for the comedian, making some potential jurors more hostile toward him and others more likely to think men are being unfairly accused.

"We really have had this explosion of awareness since that last trial and it has changed the entire environment," said Richard Gabriel, a jury consultant who has worked on over 1,000 trials. "It is a huge challenge for the defence, but it could also provide an avenue and open up the topic."

The process of picking 12 jurors was to begin on Monday in suburban Philadelphia.

A jury deadlocked last June at the former TV star's first trial after Cosby's lawyers managed to sow enough doubt in the minds of a few jurors. That was before the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct started toppling famous men in rapid succession, among them Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Kevin Spacey and Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken.

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Harper Lee letters offer candid takes on religion, family

NEW YORK (AP) — Around the same time "To Kill a Mockingbird" made Harper Lee a bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner, she was still fighting for creative control.

"I must say it's increasingly difficult for magazine articles to be written any other way than a magazine editor standing over your shoulder telling you what to write. You know how well that sets with me," the Monroeville, Alabama, native wrote to her New York friend Harold Caufield (affectionately referred to as "Darling Aitch"). The 1961 letter — the year after the book was published — told of Esquire's turning down a piece she had been asked to write.

"I didn't confirm to their Image (or the one they wish to project) of the South. My pastiche had some white people who were segregationists & at the same time loathed & hated the K.K.K. This was an axiomatic impossibility, according to Esquire! I wanted to say that according to those lights, nine-tenths of the South is an axiomatic impossibility."

Lee's letter is among six donated to Emory University by a California-based book collector and being made public Monday. The typed correspondence dates from the mid-1950s, when she began writing "Go Set a Watchman," the precursor to "Mockingbird" that unexpectedly came out in 2015, through the early '60s and the release of "Mockingbird." They touch upon everything from politics and writing to religion and dating. They also describe her caring for her ailing father, Amasa Coleman (A.C) Lee, the lawyer and newspaper man who was the basis for one of literature's most famous characters, Atticus Finch.

"This correspondence from Harper Lee provides wonderful insight into her life during the critical years when she wrote what would be her only two novels," Joseph Crespino, an Emory professor and author of the upcoming "Atticus Finch: The Biography," said in a statement. "They provide a window into her life and her views during a period of tumultuous change in southern political life."

News from © The Associated Press, 2018
The Associated Press

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