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A Thai lawyer has dropped a criminal defamation suit against a BBC journalist over his investigation into foreigners being scammed out of retirement homes in the country, the broadcaster said Thursday. Jonathan Head, the BBC's Southeast Asia correspondent, faced up to five years in jail after his report exposed how two foreign retirees had properties on Phuket island stolen from them by a network of criminals and corrupt officials.

The death toll from Severe Typhoon Hato rose to at least 16 Thursday after the storm left a trail of destruction across southern China, blacking out Macau's mega-casinos and battering Hong Kong's skyscrapers. Eight died in the gambling hub of Macau, where local media showed cars underwater and people swimming along what are normally streets. The Macau government said two bodies were found in a flooded carpark early Thursday, but details on the remaining victims were not immediately available.

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) — A California man who killed his ex-wife and fled with his 9-year-old son had battled with her over money and their former home, according to court documents.

NEW YORK (AP) — Faced with an angry backlash for defending white supremacists' right to march in Charlottesville, the American Civil Liberties Union is confronting a feeling among some of its members that was once considered heresy: Maybe some speech isn't worth defending.

By Laura Zuckerman SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - U.S. wildlife managers erred when they declined to list as endangered a small population of grizzly bears in the remote reaches of Idaho and northwest Montana, a federal judge has ruled in what conservationists on Wednesday hailed as a huge victory. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2014 determined the fewer than 50 grizzlies that roam the Cabinet Mountains and Yaak River drainage in the Northern Rockies were not in danger of extinction and did not warrant re-classifying as endangered or threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

SpaceX has unveiled a sleek white spacesuit for astronauts on its crewed flights coming up next year. Chief executive Elon Musk made the big reveal via Instagram on Wednesday. He says it’s not him in the new suit, rather a SpaceX engineer. SpaceX is developing a crew version of its Dragon cargo capsule for NASA astronauts. Boeing is also working to get U.S. astronauts flying again from home soil. Boeing is going blue for spacesuits for its Starliner capsules. First picture of SpaceX spacesuit. More in days to follow. Worth noting that this actually works (not a mockup). Already tested to double vacuum pressure. Was incredibly hard to balance esthetics and function. Easy to do either separately. A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Aug 23, 2017 at 12:59am PDT U.S. astronauts last rocketed away from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2011. They’ve since been riding Russian rockets to get to the International Space Station. Musk says the new SpaceX suit has been tested on Earth - and works. He says it was incredibly hard to balance aesthetics and function.  

By Ethan Lou CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - The review of TransCanada Corp's proposed Energy East pipeline will consider its indirect greenhouse gas contributions, Canada's National Energy Board (NEB) regulator said on Wednesday, expanding the scope of the assessment. In determining whether the pipeline is in the public's interest, the NEB will weigh the emissions from extracting and refining the oil shipped on the pipeline, the regulator said. Energy East, which would take crude from Alberta to the Atlantic coast, would attain higher prices for Canadian producers whose landlocked product trades at a discount to the West Texas Intermediate benchmark.

The fire department apologized and took down the offending sausage images.

By Prak Chan Thul PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia ordered the U.S.-funded National Democratic Institute to stop activities and remove foreign staff on Wednesday in the latest move by Prime Minister Hun Sen's government against American interests ahead of elections next year. The U.S. State Department said it was "deeply concerned" by the deterioration in Cambodia's democratic climate in recent weeks, including the order against the pro-democracy group and a threat to close a newspaper founded by an American journalist. Growing anti-Western sentiment from Hun Sen comes amid increasing tension ahead of next year's elections, in which he is expected to try to extend his more than three decades in power.

A federal court on Wednesday struck down a new Texas voter ID law that was meant to fix a previous law that was determined to be intentionally discriminatory.

These facts aren't so sweet.

Qatar said on Wednesday it decided to return its ambassador to Tehran, more than 20 months after he was recalled in protest over the ransacking of Saudi Arabia's missions in Iran by demonstrators angry at Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric. The Qatari decision comes amidst a row between Doha and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council members Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, which together with Egypt accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism, a charge it denies.

Seeking to prevent a pair of right-wing weekend rallies from spiralling into violence, Bay Area authorities are vowing a bolstered police presence and urging counter-protestors to stay away as federal officials rebuffed a high-profile attempt to halt a San Francisco rally. While organisers of the events in Berkeley and San Francisco have disavowed racism and violence, elected officials and police officers are on high alert after a car rammed into a a crowd of counter-protesters against a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia two weekends ago. Ahead of a scheduled “No Marxism in America”, rally in Berkeley, posters announcing “Nazis are coming” have appeared around town, a message promoted by the Berkeley branch of an anti-fascist group - called Antifa for short - that has battled with white supremacists in the past.

NASA offered extensive coverage of the August 21 total solar eclipse and the space agency isn't done sharing.

An 800-year-old coffin was smashed to the floor of a U.K. museum last week after someone reportedly tried to put a child inside it for a photo.

New Hampshire Democrats are suing the state to block a new law tightening residency requirements for those who register to vote on election day, saying that it will cause confusion and will make it more difficult for young, poor and minority residents to vote. The measure, signed into law in July, requires people to prove they intend to make a permanent residency in the state, but outlines different registration procedures for people who register on election day. Before the new law, called SB3, people who registered to vote could sign an affidavit swearing under penalty of perjury, that they had a residency in New Hampshire.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal authorities on Wednesday issued a permit to a politically conservative group for a Saturday afternoon rally in San Francisco that local officials fear could turn violent.

Paula White, a televangelist and spiritual adviser to Donald Trump, appeared on television Tuesday to defend the president amid recent controversy using an unlikely Biblical comparison.

The city council voted to shroud the Lee statue

Typhoon Hato, a maximum category 10 storm, slammed into Hong Kong, Macau and China's Guangdong province. Thousands of residents along the Chinese coast were evacuated.