AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Freed detainees head home for big welcome, featuring Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — Freed after more than a year in prison, three Americans flew homeward from North Korea late Tuesday toward a big middle-of-the-night celebration featuring President Donald Trump — the latest sign of improving relations between longtime adversaries in the buildup to a historic summit between Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

Trump promised “quite a scene” at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington for the detainees, who were released as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited North Korea on Wednesday to finalize plans for the summit. Singapore was the likely site, late this month or in early June, for Trump’s most ambitious foreign policy effort yet.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska — for a refuelling stop Wednesday afternoon— the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

“We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home,” they said. “We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.”

The men had boarded Pompeo’s plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to a separate aircraft with more extensive medical facilities. They are expected to arrive at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington in the wee hours of Thursday morning.

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Israel accuses Iranian forces of rocket attack on Golan

JERUSALEM (AP) — Iranian forces based in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights early Thursday, the Israeli military said, triggering a heavy Israeli reprisal and escalating already heightened tensions in what appeared to be the most serious violence in years.

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome rocket defence system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage. There were no Israeli casualties.

Syria’s capital of Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defences over the city was heard throughout the night. An Israeli official said Israel was targeting Iranian positions inside Syria. Syria’s state news agency SANA quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israeli missiles hit air defence positions, radar stations and a weapons warehouse, but claiming most incoming rockets were intercepted.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted an unidentified security official as saying Israel’s attacks inside Syria were the most extensive since the two nations signed a disengagement agreement after the October war of 1973.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said earlier that Iran’s Al Quds force fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though he would not say how Israel determined the Iranian involvement. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan, which was captured from Syria in the 1967 war.

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10 Things to Know for Thursday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Thursday:

1. HOW HIGH-STAKES DIPLOMACY PLAYED OUT

After months of anticipation, the release of three American detainees by North Korea is sealed only about an hour before the U.S. secretary of state is wheels-up from Pyongyang.

2. MICHAEL COHEN’S WOES DEEPEN

Already under investigation for a hush payment to a porn star, Trump’s longtime personal attorney is under legal and ethical scrutiny for apparently selling his expertise to companies seeking insight and access to the new president.

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Scientists: Kilauea volcano may have explosive eruption

PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) — Geologists warned Wednesday that Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano could erupt explosively and send boulders, rocks and ash into the air around its summit in the coming weeks.

The risk will rise as lava drains from the summit crater down the flank of the volcano, and explosions could occur if the lava drops below the groundwater level, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

There’s also potential for ash, steam and sulfur dioxide emissions.

Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes.

It has destroyed 36 structures since it began releasing lava from fissures that opened in a Big Island neighbourhood about 25 miles (40.2 kilometres) east of the summit crater. There are now 15 of the vents spread through Leilani Estates and neighbouring Lanipuna Gardens.

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Trump lawyer sold ‘insight’ into his high-powered client

WASHINGTON (AP) — Already under investigation for a payment to a porn star, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney is facing intensifying legal and ethical scrutiny for selling his Trump World experience and views at a hefty price to companies that sought “insight” into the new president.

One company, pharmaceutical giant Novartis, acknowledged Wednesday it paid Michael Cohen $1.2 million for services, though they ended after a single meeting. Others, including some with major regulatory matters before the new administration, acknowledged payments totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars over at least several months.

The corporate ties could suggest Cohen was peddling his influence and profiting from his relationship with the president. They also raise questions about whether Trump knew about the arrangement.

Cohen’s corporate ties were first revealed in a detailed report released by an attorney for pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels. The report alleged that Cohen used a company he established weeks before the 2016 election to receive the payments from a variety of businesses — including $500,000 from one associated with a Russian billionaire. Financial documents reviewed by the Associated Press appear to back up much of attorney Michael Avenatti’s report.

Cohen’s lawyers said late Wednesday that much of the information released by Avenatti was “completely inaccurate.” They told a New York judge that Avenatti made statements “in an apparent attempt to prejudice and discredit Mr. Cohen” as he seeks to intervene in a civil case Cohen brought stemming from April 9 raids on his home and office. The raids were carried out by federal agents looking for evidence in a criminal probe.

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CIA nominee says torture doesn’t work as interrogation tool

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s CIA nominee said Wednesday at her confirmation hearing that she doesn’t believe torture works as an interrogation technique and that her “strong moral compass” would prevent her from carrying out any presidential order she found objectionable.

Under questioning by members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, acting CIA Director Gina Haspel said she would not permit the spy agency to restart the kind of harsh detention and interrogation program it ran at black sites after Sept. 11. It was one of the darkest chapters of the CIA’s history and tainted America’s image worldwide.

Senators asked how she would respond if Trump — who has said he supports harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding and “a hell of a lot worse” — ordered her to do something she found morally objectionable.

“I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if it was technically legal,” said Haspel, a 33-year veteran of the agency. “I would absolutely not permit it.”

When asked if she agrees with the president’s assertion that torture works, Haspel said: “I don’t believe that torture works.” She added that she doesn’t think Trump would ask the CIA to resume waterboarding, which simulates drowning.

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‘Defective at its core’: How Trump opted to scrap Iran deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was all there on paper in black and white, down to the precise number of centrifuges: the terms of a potential “fix” that President Donald Trump had demanded for the United States to stay in the Iran nuclear deal.

Dragged kicking and screaming into five months of negotiations, America’s closest allies in Europe had finally agreed in principle to the toughest of Trump’s demands. They conceded that some expectation could be put into place in perpetuity that Iran should never get closer than one year from building a bomb. All that was left was to figure out creative language for how that constraint would be phrased that everyone could support.

Trump walked away from the deal anyway. Announcing the U.S. was out, he called the 2015 pact his predecessor brokered “defective at its core” and said the U.S. would immediately re-impose sanctions lifted under the deal.

“We can’t allow a deal to hurt the world,” Trump added Wednesday, as the world scrambled to figure out what comes next.

Behind the scenes, though, the Trump administration had been actively preparing for a pullout since January, when Trump declared that he would withdraw if an “add-on” deal wasn’t reached. To many U.S. officials, it was as clear then as now that the president would not be swayed to accept even a toughened-up version of the accord.

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Texas biker accused of killing man who was shot by police

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — One of three bikers indicted on murder charges Wednesday stemming from a chaotic 2015 shooting outside a Texas restaurant is accused of killing a man who was also shot twice by police, according to ballistics evidence reviewed by The Associated Press.

The indictments against Glenn Walker and two fellow members of the Bandidos motorcycle club mark the first murder charges filed in connection to the melee that left nine bikers dead, 20 wounded and nearly 200 arrested outside a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco.

Investigators say the shooting was sparked by rivalries between the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs ahead of a biker meeting. Waco police monitoring the gathering said officers opened fire after fights and gunfire broke out in the parking lot.

Walker is accused of fatally shooting Richard Kirschner, a Cossacks member. An autopsy report shows Kirschner was shot three times: once in the buttocks with a pistol and twice with a rifle in the right thigh and left knee.

A pistol registered to Walker and a bullet it fired were recovered from the back of a police vehicle at the scene, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Kirschner’s rifle wounds were traced to a Waco SWAT officer’s .223-calibre rifle during a forensic firearms analysis conducted for police, according to police records previously reviewed by the AP.

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California, Florida stem cell clinics target of US lawsuit

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal prosecutors in California and Florida sued on Wednesday to stop two companies from providing stem cell treatments, alleging the clinics marketed their procedures as remedies for ailments including cancer and heart disease without proof of safety and efficacy.

The firms put consumers at risk by promising benefits from treatments and products never approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the Justice Department alleged in court filings in both states.

The complaints involve cells taken from patients’ own fat tissue. It’s a growing practice where practitioners collect the fluid from patients via liposuction, treat it with chemicals and then inject it back into the body to treat various conditions.

The lawsuits target Stem Cell Treatment Center, with two locations in Southern California, and U.S. Stem Cell Clinic of Sunrise, Florida.

Mark Berman, co-director of the California clinics, said he stands by his treatments and looks forward to fighting the lawsuit. He said the government had outdated views of stem cell research.

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Could disgraced attorney general be charged with a crime?

NEW YORK (AP) — Detailed accusations that state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman abused women were enough to force him to resign, but are they enough to charge him with a crime?

Investigators say they are just beginning to look into the allegations made by four women who told The New Yorker magazine they were slapped, choked and verbally abused by the Schneiderman, often during sexual intercourse. The women strongly rejected the Democratic politician’s explanation that any abuse was the result of consensual, intimate “role-playing.”

One of the women told the magazine Schneiderman hit her so hard her ear bled, and another said he left on her face a mark that was still visible the next day. At least one said she took a photo of her injury.

The chief of detectives for the New York Police Department, Dermot Shea, said investigators would interview the women in detail, but he couldn’t say whether any charges would result.

Legal experts say that based on the stories, the most likely charge would be a lower-level assault. And since Schneiderman was accused of choking at least one woman, he could potentially be prosecuted under a 2010 law he helped pass, which made choking a misdemeanour. The statute of limitations is two years to bring charges for such crimes.