General news

• Wal-Mart aims to improve peak-hour staffing with new worker shift system

  04-08-2016 23:55 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Wal-Mart Stores Inc has implemented a new system for scheduling workers at 650 U.S. stores, company sources and store workers said, as it aims to improve staffing levels during peak shopping times and offer more certainty over hours for employees. The world's largest retailer has acknowledged in the past that customer service needed to improve as it was hurting sales growth. Wal-Mart is investing $2.7 billion on pay and benefits and has led major retailers in raising minimum wages to $10 per hou
  
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• Obama says US does not pay ransom, defends payment to Iran

  04-08-2016 23:53 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama expressed surprise Thursday at criticism of his administration's $400 million cash payment to Iran to settle a longstanding legal claim, adamantly rejecting claims that it was a ransom paid for the release of four Americans held in Iran.
  
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• Guess what happened next: Facebook battles 'clickbait'

  04-08-2016 23:53 via news.yahoo.com
  NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is taking another stab at ridding users' news feeds of "clickbait," the links and headlines that ask readers to "guess what happened next" but don't provide any useful information, tempting people to click if they want to find out.
  
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• Russia Olympic team nears completion as opening looms

  04-08-2016 23:52 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Doping-tainted Russia will send its smallest team to the Olympics in more than a century, officials said Thursday, as Brazil stumbled in their bid for a first ever football gold medal. With Friday's opening ceremony to the sporting spectacular just over 24 hours away, Russia awaited final confirmation of the make-up of its team from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). There has been weeks of intrigue since Russia was accused in a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report of running an state-
  
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• The Latest: IN's Pence now happy to talk social issues

  04-08-2016 23:51 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. presidential campaign (all times local):
  
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• Mets slugger Cespedes put on DL with quadriceps injury

  04-08-2016 23:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — Mets slugger Yoenis Cespedes has been put on the 15-day disabled list because of a sore right quadriceps, and a feisty manager Terry Collins has teed off on those wondering whether the outfielder aggravated his injury playing golf.
  
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• Amid campaign turmoil, Trump allies urge him to get back on track

  04-08-2016 23:46 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON/PORTLAND, Me. (Reuters) - Supporters of Republican Donald Trump urged him to get back on message on Thursday after a week of dropping opinion poll numbers and a war of words with ranking Republicans over his U.S. presidential campaign. In response to the criticism, Trump pledged to focus more on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who emerged from last week's Democratic National Convention with a lead in the polls and who has been consistently attacking him as temperamentally unfit
  
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• How Clinton and Trump supporters see the world differently

  04-08-2016 23:45 via cnn.com
  
  CNN's John King explains why Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump speak differently to their supporters.
  
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• Fired officer guilty of shoplifting suspect's manslaughter

  04-08-2016 23:41 via news.yahoo.com
  
  PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — A jury convicted a white former police officer of voluntary manslaughter on Thursday in the shooting death of an unarmed black man who had been accused of shoplifting.
  
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• Airstrikes pound Aleppo as civilians live under siege

  04-08-2016 23:41 via cnn.com
  
  Civilians live under siege inAleppo, as the Syrian regime respond to rebel groups with airstrikes. CNN's Arwa Damon reports.
  
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• Obama touts progress against Islamic State

  04-08-2016 23:40 via news.yahoo.com
  
  President Barack Obama on Thursday touted progress the United States and its allies have made in the military campaign against Islamic State, though he said the militant group still has the ability to direct and inspire attacks. While the U.S.-led air and ground campaign against the group's strongholds in Iraq and Syria have cost it territory, IS is adapting by reverting to high-profile attacks and by using the internet to recruit members, train them and encourage "lone wolf" attacks. Islamic St
  
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• Obama defends Iran payment, says was not 'some nefarious deal'

  04-08-2016 23:37 via news.yahoo.com
  
  President Barack Obama on Thursday strongly pushed back against criticism that the administration's payment of $400 million in cash to Iran amounted to ransom in exchange for the release of American prisoners. This wasn't some nefarious deal," Obama said at a press conference at the Pentagon. "The reason that we had to give cash is precisely because we are so strict in maintaining sanctions and we do not have a banking relationship with Iran," Obama said.
  
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• Feds, Pennsylvania settle Consol Energy water pollution suit

  04-08-2016 23:29 via news.yahoo.com
  PITTSBURGH (AP) — Consol Energy has agreed to pay $3 million to settle a claim that its Bailey coal mining complex in southwestern Pennsylvania repeatedly polluted nearby streams beyond what's permitted under federal and state law.
  
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• Bears put on a show by splashing around busy Lake Tahoe

  04-08-2016 23:29 via news.yahoo.com
  SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — Some unusual visitors joined the crowds of swimmers and kayakers trying to cool off on Lake Tahoe — a bear and a pair of cubs.
  
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• Obama denies $400M payment to Iran was ransom

  04-08-2016 23:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama vigorously denied that a $400 million cash payment to Iran was ransom to secure the release of four Americans jailed in Tehran. He defended the transaction as evidence that the nuclear accord with Iran has allowed for progress on other matters.
  
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• HOF 2016: Trailblazing success carries Dungy to Hall of Fame

  04-08-2016 23:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nine games into his bid to transform the bumbling Tampa Bay Buccaneers into championship contenders, the normally unflappable Tony Dungy reached a boiling point.
  
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• Ready or not, Pokemon Go comes to the Rio Olympics

  04-08-2016 23:23 via news.yahoo.com
  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — For some at the Rio Games, there's gold, silver and bronze.
  
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• Investigators of Ohio family attack suspect multiple killers

  04-08-2016 23:23 via news.yahoo.com
  PIKETON, Ohio (AP) — Investigators are operating under the theory that there were multiple attackers in the slayings of eight people from one Ohio family, authorities confirmed Thursday after months of noting that was a possibility.
  
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• President Obama says Donald Trump's claim that US elections will be rigged is 'ridiculous'

  04-08-2016 23:22 via news.yahoo.com
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama says Donald Trump's claim that US elections will be rigged is 'ridiculous'
  
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• Amtrak: New locomotives have cut delays nearly 25 percent

  04-08-2016 23:22 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The introduction of 70 new locomotives on Amtrak's most heavily traveled line three years ago has contributed to a reduction in engine-related delays of nearly 25 percent, the national passenger railroad said Thursday.
  
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• NBC says negative stories raise Rio awareness, help ad sales

  04-08-2016 23:20 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — Pre-Olympics media reports about the Zika virus, polluted water and political unrest in Brazil raised awareness about the Rio de Janeiro Games and thus helped NBC's advertising sales, network executives said Thursday.
  
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• Obama expresses concern about Russia's actions in Syria

  04-08-2016 23:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama expressed concern Thursday about Russia's military action in support of the Syrian regime, and urged Moscow to cooperate with Washington to find a way out of the crisis.
  
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• Obama: US doesn't pay ransom for hostages, $400 million sent to Iran wasn't secret

  04-08-2016 23:14 via news.yahoo.com
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama: US doesn't pay ransom for hostages, $400 million sent to Iran wasn't secret .
  
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• San Francisco Chinatown gang leader gets life in prison

  04-08-2016 23:07 via news.yahoo.com
  
  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a San Francisco Chinatown gang leader known as "Shrimp Boy" to two life sentences — one for killing a rival — in a wide-ranging organized crime investigation that also brought down a state senator.
  
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• American accuses Congo officials of unlawful arrest, torture

  04-08-2016 23:05 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — An American security contractor is accusing two top-ranking Congolese officials of ordering his detention and torture, declaring in a lawsuit that they demanded he confess falsely to being part of a plot to overthrow the country's government.
  
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• Boko Haram new leader is founder's son

  04-08-2016 23:02 via cnn.com
  
  The new leader of Boko Haram is the son of the group's founder, according to a Boko Haram insider.
  
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• Boko Haram appoints new leader

  04-08-2016 23:02 via cnn.com
  
  The new leader of Boko Haram is the son of the group's founder, according to a Boko Haram insider.
  
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• Protests darken mood for Rio Olympic opening ceremony

  04-08-2016 22:56 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Protesters will take to Rio's streets Friday during the Olympics opening ceremony and heckle Brazil's unpopular acting president in the stadium, setting an angry backdrop to South America's first Games. With the eyes of the world on Rio, Brazilians furious over the country's political crisis, crippling recession and what they see as an Olympics favoring the rich will seize the limelight. Protests are scheduled in the morning outside a luxury Copacabana hotel, then later near the Maracana stadium
  
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• Luis Severino to move back into Yankees' rotation

  04-08-2016 22:54 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — Luis Severino is rejoining the New York Yankees' rotation.
  
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• White officer guilty of manslaughter of unarmed black man

  04-08-2016 22:50 via news.yahoo.com
  PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — A jury convicted a white former police officer of voluntary manslaughter on Thursday in the shooting death of an unarmed black man who had been accused of shoplifting.
  
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• Icahn: Union got Taj Mahal casino workers to kill own jobs

  04-08-2016 22:50 via news.yahoo.com
  
  ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Billionaire investor Carl Icahn wrote a letter Thursday to the soon-to-be unemployed workers of the Trump Taj Mahal casino, accusing their union of inciting them to destroy their own jobs by participating in the longest strike by Atlantic City's main casino workers union.
  
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• Azhar in dreamland as 'petulant' Anderson apologises

  04-08-2016 22:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Azhar Ali said he had realised a "dream" in scoring his first Test century outside of Asia as England great James Anderson's frustration boiled over at Edgbaston. Together with Sami Aslam (82), he helped rescue Pakistan from the depths of none for one after Mohammad Hafeez's fourth-ball duck. Unfortunately for Pakistan, Ali was out to the very last ball of the day, caught at first slip by England captain Alastair Cook as Chris Woakes struck with the new ball on his Warwickshire home ground.
  
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• Two babies born in California with Zika-related defect

  04-08-2016 22:31 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Two babies have been born in California with the severe birth defect microcephaly after their mothers contracted the Zika virus, authorities said Thursday, in a first for the state. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) did not reveal where the mothers were from but said they were infected this year in a country where it is endemic. "While mosquitoes that can carry the virus have been found in 12 California counties, there is no evidence these mosquitoes are transmitting Zika in the
  
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• Russian's first win at Rio 2016?

  04-08-2016 22:24 via cnn.com
  
  The Russian Olympic Team believes between 265 and 270 of its athletes have been cleared to compete in the Rio Olympics, a team spokesperson says.
  
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• US poised to hit Obama's target of 10,000 Syrian refugees

  04-08-2016 22:20 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — After a slow start, it appears increasingly likely that the Obama administration will hit its goal of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States before the end of September.
  
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• Head of British child sexual abuse inquiry quits

  04-08-2016 22:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The head of a public inquiry into decades of child sex abuse in Britain resigned on Thursday, the investigation's third leader to quit in the last two years. The inquiry, which will last at least five years and is expected to cost about 18 million pounds, was set up in July 2014 after a series of child sex abuse scandals dating back to the 1970s, some involving celebrities and politicians. "Dame Lowell Goddard wrote to me today to offer her resignation as Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Ch
  
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• White officer guilty of manslaughter in black man's killing

  04-08-2016 22:12 via news.yahoo.com
  PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — A jury convicted a white former police officer of voluntary manslaughter on Thursday in the shooting death of an unarmed black man accused of shoplifting.
  
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• Koch group back into Wisconsin Senate race with $1M ad buy

  04-08-2016 22:12 via news.yahoo.com
  WASHINGTON (AP) — A group backed by the billionaire Koch Brothers announced Thursday it is getting back into the Wisconsin Senate race with an ad buy on behalf of GOP incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson, just two weeks after canceling ad reservations in the state.
  
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• Jeep hackers back at Black Hat with new and scarier method

  04-08-2016 22:09 via news.yahoo.com
  LAS VEGAS (AP) — A pair of well-known hackers has found another way to take control of a Jeep Cherokee — this time while it's moving at high speed.
  
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• FBI arrests more than 40 East Coast mobsters

  04-08-2016 22:07 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The FBI said it leapt from the pages of a mafia novel. The arrests spotlight an Italian mafia purportedly alive and kicking in 21st century America, not confined to Hollywood legend, and one which prosecutors said has diversified in keeping with the times. The defendants are accused of orchestrating a vast criminal enterprise that stretched from Massachusetts to Florida, engaging in extortion, arson, fraud, illegal gambling, firearms trafficking and assault.
  
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• Live concert of 'Game of Thrones' music set for Los Angeles

  04-08-2016 22:04 via news.yahoo.com
  
  For anyone who can't wait for the next season of "Game of Thrones," a live concert of the show's music in Los Angeles next week might make the loss a little less bitter.
  
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• Quarter-ton of cocaine seized in Philadelphia, 6 arrested

  04-08-2016 22:03 via news.yahoo.com
  PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Pennsylvania investigators said Thursday they charged six people after recovering more than a quarter ton of cocaine from a Philadelphia warehouse and two vehicles.
  
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• NBC says negative Olympic stories helped ad sales

  04-08-2016 22:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — NBC executives say that pre-Olympics media reports about the Zika virus, polluted water and political unrest in Brazil helped the network's advertising sales.
  
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• Moscow Olympic chief says 271 Russians get Rio spots

  04-08-2016 21:59 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Russian Olympic Committee chief Alexander Zhukov said Thursday that 271 athletes from his country would take part in the Rio Games after clearing doping investigations. "As of now 271 athletes have been admitted," Zhukov told a press conference in Rio. Russia entered 387 names for the Olympics but competitors implicated in a World Anti-Doping Agency report have been eliminated by sports federations.
  
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• Philadelphia tells residents: Don't swim in dumpster pools

  04-08-2016 21:58 via news.yahoo.com
  PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia is urging residents not to swim in dumpsters after a rented trash bin was filled with fire hydrant water and transformed into a pool.
  
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• The Latest: Bach says Rio preparations 'not always easy'

  04-08-2016 21:56 via news.yahoo.com
  
  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The Latest on the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (all times local):
  
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• 11-year-old puts Pence on the spot

  04-08-2016 21:50 via cnn.com
  
  Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Thursday fielded one of the toughest questions he's faced as Donald Trump's running mate - from 11-year-old Matthew Schricker.
  
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• Exclusive: U.N. report on Yemen says Houthis used human shields, Islamic State got cash

  04-08-2016 21:48 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Yemen's Houthi rebels used civilians as human shields, Islamic State militants in the country received an influx of cash and al Qaeda has improved its roadside bombs, according to a confidential report by United Nations experts monitoring sanctions on Yemen. The 105-page report to the U.N. Security Council, seen by Reuters on Thursday, also said a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia had violated international humanitarian law by bombing a civilia
  
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• Woman jailed for 22 years for trafficking Nigerian girls for sex trade

  04-08-2016 21:45 via news.yahoo.com
  By Alice Lupton LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A female trafficking boss was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Thursday for using the threat of witchcraft to exert control over almost 40 women and girls brought from Nigeria to Europe for sex work, a British court prosecutor said. Franca Asemota, 38, was found guilty of conspiracy to traffic persons for sexual exploitation, trafficking persons outside of the UK for sexual exploitation, and assisting unlawful migration. Isleworth Crown Cou
  
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• UN bungles response to Africa's yellow fever outbreak

  04-08-2016 21:45 via news.yahoo.com
  
  KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The World Health Organization and its partners shipped more than 6 million yellow fever vaccines to Angola in February to quash an emerging epidemic, yet when they asked country officials the following month what happened to the vaccines, they discovered that about 1 million doses had mysteriously disappeared.
  
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