Weinstein rebukes continue, brother says business continues

NEW YORK (AP) — The chorus of Hollywood stars denouncing film producer Harvey Weinstein echoed across the Atlantic on Friday, even as his brother said the embattled production company that bears both their names insisted business was "continuing as usual."

Bob Weinstein, co-chairman of The Weinstein Co. issued a statement saying the company wasn't shutting down or exploring a sale following allegations that co-founder Weinstein sexually harassed or sexually assaulted dozens of women. The statement mentioned a slate of three upcoming films — "Polaroid," ''Paddington 2" and "War with Grandpa" — and said: "Business is continuing as usual as the company moves ahead."

The public pressure increased on the one-time movie mogul, with Oscar-winners and former Weinstein colleagues Emma Thompson and Quentin Tarantino airing their displeasure, and more actresses coming forward to describe harrowing hotel encounters with movie mogul.

"I don't think you can describe him as a sex addict — he's a predator. There's a difference," Thompson, who starred in the Weinstein produced film "Brideshead Revisited," said on BBC Two's "Newsnight." ''What he's at the top of the ladder of is a system of harassment and belittling and bullying and interference."

Some 30 women — including actresses Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow — have spoken out recently to say Weinstein had sexually harassed or sexually assaulted them. Weinstein was fired Sunday by The Weinstein Co., a studio he co-founded with his brother. Harvey Weinstein has denied any nonconsensual sexual conduct with any women.

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In Weinstein saga, Rose McGowan emerges as powerful voice

NEW YORK (AP) — In a flurry of unrestrained tweets and with the "RoseArmy" at her back, Rose McGowan has emerged a kind of whistleblowing avenger in the Harvey Weinstein saga, leaving a scorched path behind her across social media.

After long referencing a past incident with Weinstein, McGowan on Thursday for the first time said it outright: "HW raped me," the actress wrote, apparently referring to the embattled former Weinstein Co. co-chairman. Weinstein representative Sallie Hofmeister said "any allegations of non-consensual contact are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein."

The Hollywood Reporter said McGowan confirmed it was Weinstein she was referring to; her representative did not respond to a message seeking comment.

McGowan's accusation was the latest development in the fast-unraveling saga surrounding Weinstein.

Police detectives in New York and London said Thursday that they are taking a fresh look into sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein now that some 30 women have accused the Hollywood film producer of inappropriate conduct. Hachette Book Group, one of the country's top publishers, announced it has pulled the plug on its Weinstein Books imprint.

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Trump's blow to 'Obamacare' jolts health consumers, politics

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's abrupt move to cut off federal payments to insurers jolted America's health care and political worlds alike on Friday, threatening to boost premiums for millions, disrupt insurance markets and shove Republicans into a renewed civil war over their efforts to shred "Obamacare."

Defiant Democrats, convinced they have important leverage, promised to press for a bipartisan deal to restore the money by year's end. That drive could split the GOP. On one side: pragmatists seeking to avoid political damage from hurting consumers. On the other: conservatives demanding a major weakening of the Affordable Care Act as the price for returning the money.

"The American people will know exactly where to place the blame," declared Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., all but daring Trump to aggravate what could be a major issue in the 2018 congressional elections.

The money goes to companies for lowering out-of-pocket costs like co-payments and deductibles for low- and middle-income customers. It will cost about $7 billion this year and help more than 6 million people.

Ending the payments would affect insurers because President Barack Obama's law requires them to reduce their poorer customers' costs. Carriers are likely to recoup the lost money by increasing 2018 premiums for people buying their own health insurance policies.

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Family freed from captivity returns to Canada

TORONTO (AP) — U.S.-Canadian couple Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle landed in Canada late Friday, five years after they were kidnapped in Afghanistan. They arrived with their three young children, who were all born in captivity.

Boyle provided a written statement to The Associated Press on the plane saying his family has "unparalleled resilience and determination."

Coleman and Boyle were rescued Wednesday, five years after they had been abducted by a Taliban-linked extremist network while in Afghanistan as part of a backpacking trip. Coleman was pregnant at the time. Coleman is from Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, and Boyle is Canadian.

The final leg of the family's journey was an Air Canada flight Friday from London to Toronto.

Coleman, wearing a tan-colored headscarf, sat in the aisle of the business class cabin. She nodded wordlessly when she confirmed her identity to a reporter on board the flight. In the two seats next to her were her two elder children. In the seat beyond that was Boyle, with their youngest child in his lap. U.S. State Department officials were on the plane with them.

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Teams report first progress against wine country wildfires

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — A fifth day of desperate firefighting in California wine country brought a glimmer of hope Friday as crews battling the flames reported their first progress toward containing the massive blazes, and hundreds more firefighters poured in to join the effort.

The scale of the disaster also became clearer as authorities said the fires had chased an estimated 90,000 people from their homes and destroyed at least 5,700 homes and businesses. The death toll rose to 36, making this the deadliest and most destructive series of wildfires in California history.

In all, 17 large fires still burned across the northern part of the state, with more than 9,000 firefighters attacking the flames using air tankers, helicopters and more than 1,000 fire engines.

"The emergency is not over, and we continue to work at it, but we are seeing some great progress," said the state's emergency operations director, Mark Ghilarducci.

Over the past 24 hours, crews arrived from Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, North and South Carolina, Oregon and Arizona. Other teams came from as far away as Canada and Australia.

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Texas couple survives being stranded 6 days in rural Utah

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Texas couple who set out for a day trip to Lake Powell while on vacation in southern Utah ended up narrowly surviving six harrowing days stranded on a rocky, desolate dirt road that was impassable in their rental car, authorities said Friday.

Helena Byler, 78, was found lying on the road Oct. 2 by a rancher who happened to be checking on his cattle in the area of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Kane County Chief Deputy Alan Alldredge said. She was confused and severely dehydrated.

Search and rescue teams aboard a helicopter found her husband, Gerald Byler, 76, later that day in a trailer he took shelter in after spotting an SOS sign made out of rocks and flowers that was nearby. He was severely dehydrated and unable to move, but could speak with rescuers.

Gerald Byler remained hospitalized Friday in St. George, where he is in good condition in a neuro specialty rehabilitation unit at Dixie Regional Medical Center, said hospital spokeswoman McKoye Mecham. Helena Byler only had to spend one night in the hospital.

The couple from Houston may not have survived one more day in the extremely remote area with no cellphone coverage where it's normal to go a full week without any cars using the road, Alldredge said. They had hardly any food or water, drinking only from puddles that formed in the ground after rains.

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Dungey has 3 TD passes, Syracuse stuns No. 2 Clemson 27-24

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Eric Dungey threw for 278 yards and three touchdowns, Cole Murphy kicked a tiebreaking field goal in the fourth quarter, and Syracuse stunned No. 2 Clemson 27-24 on Friday night to put a damper on the Tigers' chances to repeat as national champions.

Clemson (6-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) had won 12 consecutive games on the opponent's home field, the longest streak in Clemson history and tied for the second longest active streak in the nation. Clemson also had won 11 consecutive games overall, the longest active winning streak in the nation, and 12 straight away from home against ACC teams. Clemson lost its last road game of 2014 at Georgia Tech.

The Orange (4-3, 2-1) are 3-6 against the previous year's national champion, also beating Penn State in 1987 and Michigan in 1998.

The Tigers took a big blow when quarterback Kelly Bryant suffered a concussion in the final minute of the first half. He was knocked down hard by defensive tackle Chris Slayton and lay on the turf for a couple of minutes before being helped to the locker room. Slowed after spraining his left ankle last week in the Tigers' victory over Wake Forest, Bryant passed for 116 yards and ran for minus-8 yards.

Bryant, who watched the second half from the sideline, entered the game averaging 277 yards of total offence, but noticeably favoured an injured ankle as Syracuse gained a surprising 17-14 halftime lead.Zerrick Cooper replaced Bryant to start the second half and guided the Tigers to a tying field goal.

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Trump won't pull out of 'worst' Iran nuclear deal _ for now

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday angrily accused Iran of violating the landmark 2015 international nuclear accord, blaming the Iranians for a litany of sinister behaviour and hitting their main military wing with anti-terror penalties. But Trump, breaking his campaign pledge to rip up the agreement, did not pull the U.S. out or re-impose nuclear sanctions.

He still might, he was quick to add. For now, he's tossing the issue to Congress and the other world powers in the accord, telling lawmakers to toughen the law that governs U.S. participation and calling on the other parties to fix a series of deficiencies. Those include the scheduled expiration of key restrictions under "sunset provisions" that begin to kick in in 2025, as well as the omission of provisions on ballistic missile testing and terrorism.

Without the fixes, Trump warned, he would likely pull the U.S. out of the deal — which he has called the worst in U.S. history — and slap previously lifted U.S. sanctions back into place. That would probably be a fatal blow for the accord.

"Our participation can be cancelled by me, as president, at any time," Trump declared in a carefully delivered speech read from a teleprompter in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House. He added later, speaking of Congress, "They may come back with something that's very satisfactory to me, and if they don't, within a very short period of time, I'll terminate the deal."

Under U.S. law, Trump faces a Sunday deadline to certify to Congress whether Iran is complying with the accord. That notification must take place every 90 days, a timetable that Trump detests. Since taking office, he has twice reluctantly certified that Iran is fulfilling its commitments.

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Las Vegas gunman targeted responding police, jet fuel tanks

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The gunman who sprayed more than 1,000 bullets into a Las Vegas country music concert also took shots at jet fuel tanks and targeted police officers responding to the scene, investigators said Friday in portraying a killer who seemed determined to inflict even more carnage than the 58 people he murdered.

Investigators gave more details on the chronology of events surrounding the shooting and pushed back against criticism that they were changing their story. Shifting accounts about when Stephen Paddock fired his first shots in his 32nd floor Mandalay Bay suite have led to questions about whether police could have done more to stop him on Oct. 1.

"In the public space, the word 'incompetent' has been brought forward," Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said. "I am absolutely offended with that characterization."

In a chronology provided Monday, Lombardo had said Paddock started spraying 200 rounds from his suite into the hallway of the Mandalay Bay at 9:59 p.m., wounding an unarmed security guard in the leg. He said Friday that the security guard came to a barricaded stairwell door at 9:59 and wasn't shot until around 10:05 p.m.

About that time, the gunman unleashed a barrage of bullets on the festival crowd. Then he killed himself with a gunshot to the head.

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In Harvey Weinstein saga, young lives forever altered

NEW YORK (AP) — Katherine Kendall was 23 and fresh out of acting school when she met him. A former ballet dancer working hard to launch herself as an actress, she had just landed a good agent and was juggling a schedule packed with auditions.

"He was so warm when I met him and so inviting. He made me feel he was going to take me under his wing," Kendall, now 48, recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. "He literally said, 'Welcome to the Miramax family.'"

Her meeting with Harvey Weinstein, she thought, was going really well.

Weinstein gave her scripts to read and took her to a movie screening at an Upper West Side theatre, she said. When they exited, he said he needed to stop at his apartment. There, after spending some time talking, she said, Weinstein came back from the bathroom in a robe and asked for a massage. When she hesitated, Weinstein implored, "Everybody does it," Kendall recalled. She fled after he briefly left the room and returned nude, chasing her around the room, she said.

Like variations of a scene shot over and over again, there have been common hallmarks in the disturbing allegations levelled against Weinstein in the past week by some 30 women: A bathrobe. A request for a massage. A suggestion that it's simply the way things work in the movie business.

News from © The Associated Press, 2017