All about Cosby accusers, Maryland woman, Rap mogul Marion

Judge bars parade of Cosby accusers at the sentencing hearing

A Pennsylvania judge on Thursday denied a request by prosecutors to allow additional women who have accused comedian Bill Cosby of sexual misconduct to tell their stories at his sentencing hearing on a sexual assault conviction. Cosby, 81, is due in Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas on Monday to be sentenced by Judge Steven O'Neill in the drugging and sexual assault of his one-time friend Andrea Constand, a former Temple University administrator, in 2004.

Maryland woman kills three people and herself in warehouse gun rampage

A 26-year-old woman armed with a handgun opened fire on Thursday at a Maryland distribution center for the Rite Aid drugstore chain, killing three people and wounding three others before taking her own life, the Harford County sheriff said. The shooting unfolded shortly after the suspect, a temporary employee there, reported for work around 9 a.m. EDT at the warehouse in Perryman, Maryland, about 34 miles (55 km) northeast of Baltimore, Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said at a news conference.

A year after deadly Maria, U.S. housing funds on way to Puerto Rico

A year after Hurricane Maria ripped through Puerto Rico with 150 mile-per-hour (241 kph) winds, government officials on Thursday announced that about $1.5 billion in federal funds aimed primarily at rebuilding housing will start flowing to the island. "One year (after the event) is quite good for what we generally do," U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson said. HUD allocated the funds in February.

Trump chips away at liberal U.S. appeals court majorities

Aided by fellow Republicans in the Senate, President Donald Trump is rapidly filling vacancies on U.S. appeals courts, moving some that had liberal majorities closer to conservative control in an ideological shift that could benefit his administration. These 13 courts wield considerable power, usually providing the last word on rulings appealed from lower courts on disputes involving federal law.

Accuser of Trump's court nominee sets conditions for testifying

A lawyer for the woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's U.S. Supreme Court nominee, of sexual assault, told a Senate panel on Thursday the professor will not testify on Monday as Republicans want but would be willing to appear sometime next week if certain terms are met. Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, has been given a Friday deadline by the Republican-led Judiciary Committee to decide whether to testify at a high-stakes hearing it has scheduled for Monday.

Rap mogul Marion 'Suge' Knight pleads to manslaughter days before the murder trial

Rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight pleaded no contest in Los Angeles on Thursday to a charge of manslaughter for a 2015 hit-and-run killing, accepting a 28-year prison sentence under a deal with prosecutors days before his murder trial was set to begin. In pleading no contest, equivalent to a guilty plea under California law, the 53-year-old co-founder of influential hip-hop label Death Row Records admitted using a "deadly and dangerous weapon" when he ran down two men with his pickup truck.

Flooding expected to worsen in Carolinas in Florence's aftermath

Flooding from rain-swollen rivers was expected to worsen across the Carolinas on Thursday and the next couple of days in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, which killed 36 people in three states, forecasters said. Twenty flood gauges showed some level of flooding in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, where some major waterways, well above their flood stages, were expected to rise through the weekend before they crest, the National Weather Service said.

Arizona head-on crash kills eight, including four illegal immigrants

A sports utility vehicle carrying seven suspected illegal immigrants was hit head-on by another car on an Arizona highway, killing eight people, state police said on Thursday. Three other people were seriously injured in the collision on Wednesday when a Chevrolet Suburban, containing seven immigrants and two U.S. citizens, was hit by a Buick passenger vehicle near Florence, Arizona, about 125 miles (200 km) from the border, a police spokesman said.

Ex-prosecutor to examine New York archdiocese sex abuse policies

New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan named a former federal judge and prosecutor on Thursday to independently review how the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has handled allegations of sexual abuse, after what Dolan said was the "Summer of Hell." Barbara Jones, who retired as a U.S. district judge in 2013, said she and a team of lawyers would have unfettered access to all materials as they reviewed sex abuse claim policies and procedures in the country's second-largest archdiocese.

Trump releases the first two names of U.S. war dead handed over by North Korea

U.S. President Donald Trump released the names on Thursday of two Army soldiers killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War whose remains were handed over by North Korea this year in a goodwill gesture. Trump said the first remains identified by the U.S. military belonged to Army Master Sergeant Charles H. McDaniel, 32, of Vernon, Indiana, and Army Private First Class William H. Jones, 19, of Nash County, North Carolina.

(With inputs from Reuters)