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Under fire, Trump defends call
to soldier's grieving family
MIAMI (AP) -- President Donald Trump emphatically rejected claims Wednesday that he was disrespectful to the grieving family of a slain soldier, as the firestorm he ignited over his assertions of empathy for American service members spread into a third contentious day. "I have proof," he insisted.
The controversy over how Trump has conducted one of the most sacred of presidential tasks generated new turmoil in the White House. After one slain soldier's father accused the president of going back on a promise to send a check for $25,000, the White House said the money had been sent.
Chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine general whose son was killed in Afghanistan, was left angry and frustrated at the way the issue has become politicized. The dispute was fresh evidence of Trump's willingness to attack any critic and do battle over the most sensitive of matters -- and critics' readiness to find fault with his words.
The aunt of an Army sergeant killed in Niger, who raised the soldier as her son, said Wednesday that Trump had shown "disrespect" to the soldier's loved ones as he telephoned them to extend condolences as they drove to the Miami airport to receive his body. Sgt. La David Johnson was one of four American soldiers killed nearly two weeks ago; Trump called the families on Tuesday.
Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Florida Democrat who was in the car with Johnson's family, said in an interview that Trump had told the widow that "you know that this could happen when you signed up for it … but it still hurts." He also referred to Johnson as "your guy," Wilson said, which the congresswoman found insensitive.
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Suspect in Maryland office park shooting is apprehended
EDGEWOOD, Md. (AP) -- A man with a lengthy criminal past who showed up for work at a countertop company on Wednesday and shot five of his co-workers has been arrested, authorities said. Three of them were killed and two critically wounded.
Less than two hours later, Radee Labeeb Prince drove to a used car lot about 55 miles (90 kilometers) away in Wilmington, Delaware, and opened fire on a man with whom he had "beefs" in the past, wounding him, police said.
The shooting rampage set off a manhunt along the Interstate 95 Northeast corridor. Police cruisers were stationed in medians, and overhead highway signs displayed a description of Prince's sport utility vehicle and its Delaware license plate. The FBI assisted state and local authorities in the manhunt.
Prince was "apprehended a short time ago in Delaware by ATF and allied law enforcement agencies," the Harford County Sheriff's Office in Maryland tweeted Wednesday night.
"This is a person with no conscience," Wilmington Police Chief Robert Tracy said earlier. "He's desperate right now."
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GOP, Dem senators push health deal as Trump keeps distance
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The authors of a bipartisan plan to calm health insurance markets said Wednesday they'll push the proposal forward, even as President Donald Trump's stance ricocheted from supportive to disdainful to arm's-length and the plan's fate teetered.
"If something can happen, that's fine," Trump told reporters at the White House. "But I won't do anything to enrich the insurance companies because right now the insurance companies are being enriched. They've been enriched by Obamacare like nothing anybody has ever seen before."
The agreement by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., on a two-year extension of federal subsidies to insurers that Trump has blocked gained an important new foe. The anti-abortion National Right to Life said it opposed the measure because it lacked language barring people from using their federally subsidized coverage to buy policies covering abortion, said Jennifer Popik, the group's top lobbyist.
In another blow, Doug Andres, spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Ryan "does not see anything that changes his view that the Senate should keep its focus on repeal and replace of Obamacare." With hard-right conservatives wielding considerable influence and unwilling to prop up President Barack Obama's health care law, it was unclear if Ryan would be willing to even bring the measure to his chamber's floor.
Overall, it was a bad day for the bipartisan accord, with several Republicans conceding that it likely needed Trump's backing to survive.
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Are insurers 'enriched' by Obama health law, as Trump says?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump says health insurers have been "enriched" by President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. So why are companies pulling back from the law's insurance marketplaces?
TRUMP: "I won't do anything to enrich the insurance companies because right now the insurance companies are being enriched. They've been enriched by Obamacare like nothing anybody's ever seen before." -- Speaking to reporters at the White House Wednesday.
"I am supportive of Lamar as a person & also of the process, but I can never support bailing out ins co's who have made a fortune w/ O'Care." -- Wednesday morning Tweet.
THE FACTS: Health insurance is profitable, but the Affordable Care Act plays a small role -- if any -- for many insurers.
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Al-Qaida set to gain as Islamic State disintegrates
BEIRUT (AP) -- Over several nights in September, some 10,000 men, women and children fled areas under Islamic State control, hurrying through fields in northern Syria and risking fire from government troops to reach a province held by an al-Qaida-linked group.
For an untold number of battle-hardened jihadis fleeing with the civilians, the escape to Idlib province marked a homecoming of sorts, an opportunity to continue waging war alongside an extremist group that shares much of the Islamic State's ideology -- and has benefited from its prolonged downfall.
While the U.S.-led coalition and Russian-backed Syrian troops have been focused on driving IS from the country's east, an al-Qaida-linked insurgent coalition known as the Levant Liberation Committee has consolidated its control over Idlib, and may be looking to return to Osama bin Laden's strategy of attacking the West.
Syrian activists with contacts in the area say members of the Levant Liberation Committee vouched for fleeing IS fighters they had known before the two groups split four years ago and allowed them to join, while others were sent to jail. The activists spoke on condition of anonymity because they still visit the area and fear reprisals from the jihadis.
IS has lost nearly all the territory it once controlled in Syria and Iraq, including the northern Iraqi city of Mosul -- the largest it ever held -- and the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, which once served as its de facto capital. Tens of thousands of its fighters have been killed on the battlefield, but an untold number have escaped. As it gradually disintegrates, theological splits have also emerged within the organization, including the rise of a faction that blames its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, for the setbacks.
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Monument of love, the Taj Mahal, at heart of political storm
LUCKNOW, India (AP) -- India's famed monument of love, the white marble Taj Mahal, is finding itself at the heart of a political storm, with some members of the country's ruling Hindu right-wing party claiming that the mausoleum built by a Muslim emperor does not reflect Indian culture.
The most recent attack came this week when Sangeet Som, a lawmaker from the Bharatiya Janata Party, called the 17th century monument "a blot on Indian culture" that was built by "traitors."
But Som wasn't the first to attack the mausoleum that Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan built in the northern city of Agra in memory of his favorite wife.
Last month, Yogi Adityanath, the controversial head monk of a famed Hindu temple who is now the top elected official of Uttar Pradesh state, where the Taj Mahal is located, said foreign dignitaries visiting his state should be gifted a copy of the Hindu religious book "Bhagvad Gita" instead of replicas of the Taj Mahal.
This isn't the first time that India's Islamic past has come under attack by members of the BJP or smaller Hindu groups.
The federal government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has also been accused of attempting to rewrite history textbooks, especially where India's past Muslim medieval rulers are concerned.
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Gord Downie, lead singer of Canada group, has died
KINGSTON, Ontario (AP) -- Gord Downie, who made himself part of Canada's national identity with songs about hockey and small towns as lead singer and songwriter of iconic rock band The Tragically Hip, has died at age 53 after a battle with brain cancer.
A statement on the band's website said he died Tuesday night "with his beloved children and family close by." The statement did not give a cause of death, though he had been diagnosed earlier with brain cancer.
Since The Tragically Hip's first album in 1987, the band has provided a soundtrack for the lives of many Canadians. "Ahead by a Century" and "Bobcaygeon" are among the best known.
While Canadian musicians Drake, the Weeknd and Justin Bieber have made waves internationally, the Tragically Hip built a huge following of die-hard homegrown fans.
An emotional Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wept in Parliament while talking about Downie on national television in a statement to reporters.
"We are less as a country without Gord Downie in it. We all knew it was coming but we hoped it wasn't," said Trudeau, his voice breaking. "I thought I was going to make it through this but I'm not. It hurts. "
Trudeau also said in a written statement that "Downie uncovered and told the stories of Canada. He was the frontman of one of Canada's most iconic bands, a rock star, artist, and poet whose evocative lyrics came to define a country."
"He loved every hidden corner, every aspect of this country that he celebrated his whole life. And he wanted to make it better," Trudeau said in Ottawa.