North America

New York, Aug 16 (AFP) An autopsy of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein found broken bones in his neck, US media reported on Thursday, as New York's medical examiner said the cause of death required further study.

Epstein, a convicted sex offender who befriended many celebrities and politicians, was found dead in jail on Saturday from an apparent suicide as he awaited trial on federal charges that he trafficked underage girls for sex.

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Joe Darby, a South Carolina pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, pondered a sensitive question that he knew was on the mind of his congregation. Would black voters be able to reconcile their conservative religious doctrine with voting for a gay candidate for president?

“It’s a heavy lift in the black church,” says Darby, who is also a Charleston-area NAACP leader. “Just as nobody who is racist likes to say, ‘I’m a racist,’ nobody who is homophobic in the black community likes to say, ‘I’m homophobic.’”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s encouragement and support of Israel’s decision to ban two Democratic lawmakers may play well to his political base, but it could endanger the foundations of the U.S.-Israel relationship in the longer term.

The move to bar Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota from Israel fueled a partisan fire over the Jewish state that has been raging in the United States, with Trump eagerly fanning the flames.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rather than speak up strongly for the Hong Kong protesters, President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested the answer to their complaints of Chinese oppression is simply for Beijing’s “great leader,” Xi Jinping, to meet with them and peacefully sort out the unrest that has been decades in the making.

DENVER (AP) — A black man was running from Colorado police officers when they shot him three times in the back and he collapsed on a street, according to footage from cameras worn by police and an autopsy report released Thursday.

The Colorado Springs Police Department released the video nearly two weeks after the death of 19-year-old De’Von Bailey, following calls from his family for the footage to be made public.

Attorneys for Bailey’s family separately released the autopsy report by the El Paso County coroner’s office.

CINCINNATI (AP) — The gunman in Dayton who killed nine people had cocaine, an antidepressant and alcohol in his system during the mass shooting, and was cut down by a barrage of at least two dozen police bullets that penetrated gaps in his body armor, a coroner said Thursday.

Montgomery County coroner Dr. Kent Harshbarger said authorities found a pipe device and a baggie of cocaine on 24-year-old Connor Betts. Harshbarger also reported in his preliminary autopsy findings that Betts had more than 50 entry and exit wounds.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The criminal history of a man suspected of barricading himself inside a Philadelphia rowhome should have prevented him from legally owning the firepower he used Wednesday to wound six police officers in a standoff that carried deep into the night, authorities said.

Maurice Hill, who authorities say had at least a semi-automatic rifle and a handgun when he opened fire on officers serving a drug warrant, has on his record multiple arrests in Philadelphia and adjacent Delaware County between 2001 and 2012, according to online records.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday sought to reassure his supporters about the state of the U.S. economy despite the stock market volatility and told rallygoers in New Hampshire, a state that he hopes to capture in 2020, that their financial security depends on his reelection.

“Whether you love me or hate me you have to vote for me,” Trump said.

SANTA ANA, California (AP) — This story is part of an ongoing joint investigation between The Associated Press and the PBS series FRONTLINE on the treatment of migrant children.

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After local Guatemalan officials burned down an environmental activist’s home, he decided to leave his village behind and flee to the United States, hoping he’d be granted asylum and his little boy, whose heart was failing, would receive lifesaving medical care.

United Nations Security Council is to discuss India’s decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.

Request was made by Pakistan and backed by China asking for the body to meet behind closed doors on Thursday or Friday, diplomats said.

France, however, proposed that the discussion should be in a less formal manner - known as “any other business”.