The Latest: London Ambulance: 11 injured in museum car crash

LONDON (AP) - The Latest on a car that hit pedestrians outside of London's Natural History Museum (all times local):

5:55 p.m.

The London Ambulance Service says 11 people have been injured when a car crashed into pedestrians outside the Natural History Museum.


Deputy Director of Operations Peter McKenna said Saturday that nine of the injured were taken to the hospital for treatment, most with leg and head injuries.

The incident caused panic on the crowded street outside the museum on Saturday afternoon. Police have not said if it was related to terrorism. One man was detained at the scene.

McKenna said the service sent multiple resources including its hazardous response team to London's museum district.

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5:40 p.m.

Workers in a cafe near London's Natural History Museum say they fled the scene in panic after a car hit pedestrians in the street outside.

Marilin Mueller, 20, said she thought at first it was a traffic accident Saturday but that "loads of police cars" arrived shortly after. She says "all of these police came marching down saying, 'Move, move.' They said, 'you need to evacuate.'"

Dieon Rurora said people were running down the street to get away and some fell over. He says "It was quite scary."

Many shops in the museum district were evacuated and the museum was shut down as police tried to determine if there was a threat to the public. Police have not said if the car crash is related to terrorism.

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5:30 p.m.

A police forensics officer in blue coveralls is outside the Natural History Museum in London, taking photographs of the scene where a car hit pedestrians, injuring some people.

One woman was led away by a paramedic after Saturday's crash, draped in a red blanket. She did not appear to be seriously injured.

One man has been detained in the crash. Officials have not released details about the severity and the number of the injuries. London police have also not said if this incident is related to terrorism.

The Victoria and Albert Museum next to the history museum remained opened Saturday afternoon despite the car crash.

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5:10 p.m.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has tweeted that "a number of people" have been injured in an incident involving a car in the city's museum area.

He said "details are still emerging" about the incident Saturday and that he is in close contact with Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley, who plays a lead role in the police's counter-terrorism operation.

Officials have not released details about the severity and the number of the injuries.

London police have not said if this incident is related to terrorism.

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3:30 p.m.

British emergency services raced to London's Natural History Museum after a car struck pedestrians Saturday outside the building. Police said a number of people were injured and one person was detained at the scene.

The crash happened at 2:20 p.m. on a day when the central London museum is usually teeming with pedestrians, including international tourists.

Photographs showed a dented silver car and a man being pinned to the ground outside the museum. Witness Katie Craine said she was coming out of the museum when she saw a man in handcuffs pinned down by police near a damaged car.

She says "he looked really proud of himself ... he was laughing."

British officials, however, have not classified the incident as a terrorist act.

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3:15 p.m

The London Ambulance Service was tending to the injured outside the Natural History Museum after a car hit pedestrians on the busy street in front of the museum. There was no immediate statement on the number or severity of the injuries.

Shopkeepers in the immediate area were told to evacuate and police established a large security cordon around the area minutes after the incident, closing some roads. Police helicopters circled the scene overhead.

Police said they are working to establish the circumstances of the crash and more information will be provided once details are clear.

The Natural History Museum tweeted that there had been a "serious incident" outside the museum, which is located near the world famous Victoria and Albert Museum and other attractions.

Downing Street said British Prime Minister Theresa May was being briefed on the incident.

Ports from Louisiana to Florida close ahead of Hurricane Nate

HOUSTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Major shipping ports across the central U.S. Gulf Coast were closed to inbound and outbound traffic on Saturday as Hurricane Nate intensified and storm surges of up to 11 feet (3.74 meters) were expected.

The U.S. Coast Guard on Saturday ordered port condition Zulu, a halt to all traffic, beginning at 8 a.m. local time for New Orleans; Gulfport and Pascagoula, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; and Pensacola and Panama City, Florida.

New Orleans, which sits near the mouth of the Mississippi River, is an important transit point for energy, metals and agricultural commodities moving to overseas and domestic markets.

Nate is expected to strike the U.S. coast on Saturday night as a Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, the National Hurricane Center said on Saturday. At that intensity, it would have destructive winds of 96 to 110 miles (154 to 177 km) per hour.

Restrictions on New Orleans inbound and outbound traffic span the lower Mississippi River from the Huey P. Long Bridge above Head of Passes to the Southwest Pass entrance at mile marker 20 below the head of passes, the Coast Guard said.

Gary LaGrange, executive director of trade group Ports Association of Louisiana, said he expected traffic restrictions to be lifted quickly once the fast-moving storm passes overnight.

"It'll be short-lived based on the projected path and movement of the storm unless an unlikely event happens - such as two vessels colliding," he said.

Vessels were still moving to secure berths at the ports on Saturday morning, he said.

The storm already has caused oil companies to evacuate workers at 66 production platforms and five rigs in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, according to the U.S. government. As of Friday, operators had shut output equal to 1.24 million barrels per day of oil and 1.7 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico due the storm, it said.

Phillips 66 also halted operations at its Alliance, Louisiana, oil refinery on Saturday. The refinery is south of New Orleans along the banks of the Mississippi River.

U.S. lifts sanctions on Sudan: official

WASHINGTON Oct. 6  (Reuters) - The United States lifted 20-year-old economic sanctions against Sudan on Friday, a U.S. official said, citing progress on counter-terrorism and improvement on human rights.

In a move that completes a process begun by former President Barack Obama at the end of his tenure and which was opposed by human rights groups, President Donald Trump removed a U.S. trade embargo and other penalties that had effectively cut Sudan off from much of the global financial system.

The U.S. official who disclosed the decision spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement on Friday.

Catalan parliament defies Madrid pressure, works on independence declaration

BARCELONA/MADRID Oct. 6 (Reuters) - Catalan secessionists were working on Friday towards a unilateral declaration of independence from Spain that could be adopted next week in defiance of a court order and increased economic pressure from Madrid.

After Spain’s Constitutional Court suspended a session of the Catalan regional parliament set for Monday, which had been expected to endorse an independence declaration, the parliament said the region’s pro-independence leader Carles Puigdemont had asked to address the assembly on Tuesday.

Madrid apologized for the first time on Friday for police use of violence in trying to hinder a weekend referendum it had declared illegal. That crackdown raised the temperature of a confrontation that has grown into the worst political crisis for decades in Spain.

A Catalan legislator was quoted by El Mundo newspaper as saying secessionist parties in the Catalan parliament were discussing an independence declaration to be submitted to the assembly next Tuesday.

“We are in talks about a text, with paper and pencil, on the declaration that we want the regional parliament to accept on Tuesday,” Carles Riera, a lawmaker from the pro-independence CUP (Popular Unity Candidacy), was quoted as saying.

“Nobody has put forward any scenario of delay, ambiguity or confusion. We are not working on that scenario,” he said.

The Catalan parliament announced Puigdemont would speak at a plenary session beginning at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

The stakes are high for the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy. Catalonia is the source of a huge chunk of its tax revenue and hosts multinationals from carmaker Volkswagen to drugs firm AstraZeneca (AZN.L).

The Catalan region’s head of foreign affairs, Raul Romeva, told the BBC earlier that the Catalan parliament intended to make a decision on independence, without specifying when.

“Parliament will discuss, parliament will meet. It will be a debate and this is important,” Romeva said.

The Spanish government stepped up economic pressure on the Catalan government on Friday by passing a law to make it easier for companies to move their operations around the country, potentially dealing a blow to the region’s finances.

RELOCATIONS

Several of the region’s biggest companies, including Sabadell (SABE.MC), Spain’s fifth-largest lender, have already announced plans to move their registered offices elsewhere in Spain.

Catalonia-based utility Gas Natural (GAS.MC) said its board decided on Friday to move its registered office to Madrid for as long as the legal uncertainty in Catalonia continued. The board of Caixabank (CABK.MC), Catalonia’s biggest company, was due to meet on Friday to study a possible transfer of its legal base, a source familiar with the situation said.

Spain made a conciliatory gesture in apologizing for Sunday’s referendum violence, where Spanish police used batons and rubber bullets to stop people voting. The scenes brought worldwide condemnation and fanned separatist feeling but failed to prevent what the Catalan government described as an overwhelming yes vote.

“When I see these images, and more so when I know people have been hit, pushed and even one person who was hospitalized, I can’t help but regret it and apologize on behalf of the officers that intervened,” Enric Millo, the Spanish government’s representative in Catalonia, said in a television interview.

The apology came after the Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia quoted sources in Puigdemont’s party as saying a unilateral declaration of independence could be delayed if Madrid made a “gesture”, such as withdrawing some Spanish police reinforcements from the region.

CALLS FOR MEDIATION

Amid calls from many groups, including Barcelona soccer club, for a mediated solution to the standoff, Swiss state broadcaster RTS said neutral Switzerland was ready to provide a platform for dialogue between the Spanish government and Catalonia.

The foreign ministry in Bern said Switzerland was in touch with Spain and Catalonia but conditions for talks were not yet ripe.

Puigdemont has called for international mediation to find a way out of the impasse. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has offered all-party political talks to find a solution, opening the door to a deal giving Catalonia more autonomy, but only if the Catalan government gives up any independence ambitions.

“You can’t hold talks if people are outside the law,” Spanish government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo told reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting.

Secession could fuel separatist-nationalist divisions across the rest of Spain, which only this year saw ETA guerrillas in the northern Basque region lay down their arms after a campaign lasting almost half a century.

Spanish ruling-party lawmakers say Rajoy is considering invoking the constitution to dissolve the regional parliament and force fresh Catalan elections if the region’s government goes ahead with an independence declaration.

Romeva’s remarks about the Catalan parliament pressing ahead with an independence debate hit Spanish stocks and bonds, including shares in the region’s two largest banks, Caixabank and Sabadell.

In a separate development that could raise tensions, Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero appeared in Spain’s High Court on Friday to answer accusations he committed sedition by failing to enforce a court ban on holding the referendum.

Unlike national police, Catalonia’s force, the Mossos d‘Esquadra, did not use force to prevent people voting. Trapero has emerged as a hero for the pro-independence movement.

Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told Reuters in an interview on Thursday the turmoil was damaging Catalonia, an industrial and tourism powerhouse.

Opinion polls conducted before the vote suggest a minority of around 40 percent of residents in Catalonia back independence. But a majority wanted a referendum to be held, and the violent police crackdown angered Catalans across the divide.

Catalan officials released preliminary referendum results showing 90 percent support in favor of breaking away. But turnout was only about 43 percent as Catalans who favor remaining part of Spain mainly boycotted the ballot.

Costco steps up grocery battle with new delivery services

Costco Wholesale Corp has rolled out two new grocery delivery services this week, a new step in its efforts to fight growing competition from Amazon.com and Wal-Mart Stores Inc .

Costco Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said in the company's post-results call that the membership-based chain had started offering two-day delivery of dry groceries as well as a same-day delivery service for groceries including fresh foods.

The two-day delivery service would be free for online orders over $75 across the United States, while the same-day service - offered through its partner Instacart - is available at 376 U.S. stores.

Competition among U.S. grocery retailers has been tightening, particularly since Amazon bought Whole Foods and reduced prices at the upmarket grocer in August.

Wal-Mart and Kroger Co , the leading U.S. grocery retailers, have lost the most customers to Whole Foods due to the price cuts, a study conducted by a data analytics firm showed this week.

Galanti said that Costco had not seen any impact from Whole Foods' price cuts.

"(Costco's) new online delivery initiatives improve its competitive offering and could drive increased engagement with millennials," Jefferies analyst Daniel Binder wrote in a note.

"Provided they don't simply cannibalize store sales, the stronger omni-channel effort could prove accretive to sales and EBIT dollars," he added.

Costco shares were down 2.7 percent at $162.55 in premarket trading on Friday, as a fall in its fourth-quarter gross margins fueled concerns of an intensifying grocery price war. (Reuters)

Chinese state media report bloated battery in Apple's iPhone 8

A fresh case of Apple Inc's new iPhone popping open due to a swollen battery has been reported in state media in China, the world's biggest smartphone market where the U.S. firm is seeking to revive faltering sales.

The incident comes as Apple investigates similar cases reported in Taiwan and Japan of batteries in its latest iPhone 8 Plus becoming bloated, causing the device's casing to open.

On its website on Thursday, China's state-backed ThePaper.cn cited an iPhone buyer surnamed Liu as saying his newly purchased iPhone 8 Plus arrived cracked open on Oct. 5. There was no sign of scorching or an explosion.

Liu told ThePaper he bought the handset through online marketplace of JD.com Inc. He said he did not charge the new device and returned it to the seller.

Pictures taken by Liu and displayed on ThePaper's website showed an iPhone 8 plus split open along the side featuring the sim card holding, with the phone's internal parts visible.

An Apple spokesperson said the company is looking into the matter and declined to comment further.

The incident comes as indifferent reviews of the iPhone 8, which comes 10 years after Apple released the first version of the revolutionary phone, drove down shares of the company since the handset's launch.

Some investors worry whether pre-orders for the device were well below previous launches, although some Apple fans are waiting for the premium iPhone X due out in early November.

Apple competes in China with local makers, including Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and Oppo which sell phones with high-end features at lower prices. (Reuters)

Social media executives to testify Nov. 1 about Russia and U.S. election

WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Executives from Facebook Inc , Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google have been asked to testify about Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election before a House of Representatives panel on Nov. 1, a congressional aide said on Thursday.

Executives from the companies were already due to appear the same day before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is also investigating Moscow's alleged role in the election. .

But the aide said they had also been asked to offer testimony at a public hearing of the House Intelligence Committee.

Aides to the committee's leaders declined comment. It is House Intelligence policy not to discuss the interview schedule.

Some U.S. lawmakers, increasingly alarmed about evidence that hackers used the internet to spread fake news and otherwise influence last year's election, have been pushing for more information about social networks in particular.

The Senate and House intelligence committees are two of the main congressional panels probing allegations that Russia sought to interfere in the U.S. election to boost Republican President Donald Trump's chances at winning the White House, and possible collusion between Trump associates and Russia.

Moscow denies any such activity, and Trump has repeatedly dismissed allegations of collusion.

Facebook confirmed that company officials would testify. Google and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.