AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EST

Rivals take pre-debate shots as Bloomberg faces major test

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Hours before taking the stage, Mike Bloomberg came under attack from his Democratic rivals in a likely preview of his Wednesday night debate debut when the billionaire businessman meets his rivals onstage for the first time.

Both Bernie Sanders’ and Joe Biden’s campaigns took aimat the 78-year-old former Republican, the former raising questions aboutBloomberg's health and the latter pointing out reversals on key issues.

The attacks underscore how seriously Democrats are taking the former New York mayor’s campaign, now that he’s rocketed to double-digit support in national polls and qualified to appear in debates. Bloomberg was a lifelong Democrat before winning the New York mayor's race as a Republican in 2002. He later switched to independent and formally registered as a Democrat last year.

He has faced relatively little national scrutiny in his surprisingly swift rise from nonpartisan megadonor to top-tier presidential contender.

But Wednesday night's debate in Las Vegas, where Bloomberg faces five hungry opponents in the first major unscripted moment of his 2020 campaign, poses the greatest test yet of his unorthodox campaign.

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Finally let off cruise, passengers desperate for flight home

BANGKOK (AP) — The cheers of celebration have faded. The waving of roses has ceased. Having finally reached a friendly port in Cambodia willing to accept them after nearly two weeks of uncertainty at sea, hundreds of cruise ship passengers eyed warily over fears of a new virus are now simply trying to find a way home.

“We’re in this sort of surreal world,” said Lydia Miller, 55, of Orcas Island, Washington, who is camped out at a hotel in the capital, Phnom Penh, waiting for word on how she and her husband might be able to return to the U.S. “It’s a weird feeling to travel and go on a trip and you don’t know when you can come home.”

The MS Westerdam arrived Feb. 13 in Cambodia after repeatedly being denied entry to other ports. The thrill of the moment, complete with a visit from the country’s prime minister greeting passengers with hugs and flowers, has now evaporated for those still facing a logistical nightmare to get home.

Travel options already limited by the number of airlines serving Cambodia have been narrowed by a growing list of countries denying entry to passengers who were aboard the Westerdam.

A diplomat working with the passengers in Phnom Penh said getting people home remains complicated by individual countries’ travel restrictions and a dearth of available flights. That was echoed by Holland America Line, which operates the Westerdam and which has been coordinating passengers’ flights.

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Lawyer: Assange was offered US pardon if he cleared Russia

LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to claim during an extradition hearing that the Trump administration offered him a pardon if he agreed to say Russia was not involved in leaking Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, a lawyer for Assange said Wednesday.

Assange is being held at a British prison while fighting extradition to the United States on spying charges. His full court hearing is due to begin next week.

At a preliminary hearing held Wednesday in London, lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said that now-former Republican congressman, Dana Rohrabacher, visited Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in August 2017.

Fitzgerald said a statement from another Assange lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, recounted "Mr. Rohrabacher going to see Mr. Assange and saying, on instructions from the president, he was offering a pardon or some other way out, if Mr. Assange ... said Russia had nothing to do with the DNC leaks.”

Responding to the the lawyer's claims, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said, "This is absolutely and completely false."

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Plaintiffs' attorneys take aim at Boy Scouts' `dark history'

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Like millions of other Americans in the 1950s and '60s, Duane Ruth-Heffelbower spent his formative years learning to tie knots, build campfires and pitch tents with the Boy Scouts, whose wholesome, God-fearing reputation was burnished by Normal Rockwell's magazine-cover paintings of fresh-faced Scouts, brave, courteous and cheerful.

Though he's no longer involved in Scouting, the 70-year-old Mennonite minister from Fresno, California, has followed the slow deterioration of the Boy Scouts of America from afar and cringes to think what this week's bankruptcy filing over a blizzard of sex-abuse lawsuits might mean for an organization already grappling with a steep decline in membership.

“It's really sad. I'm afraid that people are going to be more skeptical than they were once about the organization and will be more inclined to look for other alternatives to Scouting,” said Ruth-Heffelbower, who grew up in Kansas. “Theses days there are so many things pulling at kids.”

With its finances and its vaunted reputation for moral rectitude damaged by scandal, the Scouts resorted to Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday in hopes of pulling through the crisis by setting up a victims' compensation fund for thousands of men who were molested as boys by Scout leaders over the decades.

The fund could top $1 billion, but to raise the money, the national organization could be forced to sell some of its real estate holdings, which include its headquarters in Irving, Texas, and a huge campground in New Mexico.

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UN: Thousands fleeing Syrian offensive, kids dying in cold

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing a Russian-backed Syrian offensive are being squeezed into ever smaller areas near Turkey’s border “under horrendous conditions” in freezing temperatures that are killing babies and young children, the U.N. humanitarian chief said Wednesday.

Mark Lowcock told the U.N. Security Council that “the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe” in northwest Idlib province, which is the last major rebel stronghold, has “overwhelmed” efforts to provide aid.

He said nearly 900,000 people have been displaced since Dec. 1 when the government offensive began, more than 500,000 of them children.

“Many are on foot or on the backs of trucks in below-freezing temperatures, in the rain and snow,” Lowcock said. “They are moving into increasingly crowded areas they think will be safer. But in Idlib, nowhere is safe.”

Lowock, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said almost 50,000 people have taken shelter under trees and in open spaces. “I am getting daily reports of babies and other young children dying in the cold,” he added.

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Police report several people shot to death in German city

BERLIN (AP) — German police say several people were shot to death in the city of Hanau on Wednesday evening.

The dpa news agency reported that police said people were killed but it was not clear exactly what was behind the incident. It also was not immediately clear how many people were dead.

Hanau is near Frankfurt.

Regional public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk reported, without citing sources, that an attack took place in a hookah lounge in the center of the city. It said witnesses reported hearing eight or nine shots and seeing at least one person lying on the ground.

The perpetrator or perpetrators then apparently went to another part of the city, where shots were fired in another hookah lounge, the broadcaster said.

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Trump clemency recipient links her case to Kardashian West

HIALEAH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman who got clemency from President Donald Trump while serving prison time for a $205 million Medicare fraud scam said Wednesday her case was brought to Trump's attention by a woman who herself got clemency at the urging of reality TV star Kim Kardashian West.

Judith Negron was eight years into a 35-year prison sentence that the FBI called one of the longest sentences ever imposed in a Medicare Fraud Strike Force case when Trump commuted her sentence Tuesday.

“I had some guardian angels as I call them, such as Alice Johnson, who had been advocating for me behind the scenes," Negron told The Associated Press in an interview at her home shortly after her release.

Johnson was serving life without parole for drug offenses when Trump granted her clemency in June 2018. She had been convicted in 1996 on eight criminal accounts related to a Memphis based cocaine trafficking operation. Johnson was featured in one of Trump's campaign ads during this year's Super Bowl. She told the AP that the president had been looking specifically for female candidates, and had asked her for a list of other women who deserved clemency.

Negron, who turns 50 next week, was among the 11 federal inmates around the nation who received clemency actions thanks to the president. The Hispanic woman was convicted as a first-time offender in 2011 in a case that made national headlines.

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80 is not the new 70: Age may bias heart care, study finds

People are more likely to buy things when prices end in 99 cents rather than rounded up to the next dollar, or cars with mileage under 1,000 instead of past that mark. Now researchers say something similar might be happening with age perception and heart surgery.

A U.S. study out Wednesday finds that heart attack patients who turned 80 within the previous two weeks were less likely to get bypass surgery than those who were two weeks shy of that birthday, even though the age difference is less than a month.

Guidelines do not limit the operation after a certain age, but doctors may be mentally classifying people as being "in their 80s" and suddenly much riskier than those "in their 70s," said the study leader, Dr. Anupam Jena of Harvard Medical School.

The reason may be "left-digit bias," or the tendency to focus on the first number.

"When you go to a store and the item is $4.99 you're more likely to buy it than if it's $5," but there's no similar effect when prices are $4.50 versus $4.51, Jena said.

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Label: Rapper Pop Smoke slain in Hollywood Hills shooting

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An up-and-coming rapper known as Pop Smoke was fatally shot during a break-in early Wednesday at a Hollywood Hills home, his label said.

“We are devastated by the unexpected and tragic loss of Pop Smoke,” Republic Records said in a statement. “Our prayers and thoughts go out to his family, friends and fans, as we mourn this loss together.”

Los Angeles police did not immediately confirm the identification,and have not announced any arrests.

Police officers found a victim shortly before 5 a.m. after responding to a 911 call from someone who reported intruders including one armed with a handgun were breaking in, said Capt. Steve Lurie.

Public listings show that the home is owned by Edwin Arroyave and his wife Teddi Mellencamp, daughter of singer John Mellencamp and star of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

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Newman released from hospital; Chastain to race Las Vegas

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Ryan Newman was released from a Florida hospital on Wednesday, about 42 hours after his frightening crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500.

Roush Fenway Racing released a photo of Newman leaving a Daytona Beach hospital holding the hands of his two young daughters. The announcement came just a few hours after the team said he was fully alert and walking around the hospital.

The 42-year-old Indiana native was taken by ambulance directly from the track in serious condition following the crash Monday night. Doctors said two hours after the accident that Newman's injuries were not life-threatening, but no details have been released.

His release from the hospital was rapid. Roush Fenway said earlier Wednesday that Newman “continues to show great improvement.” The team added that “true to his jovial nature, he has also been joking around with staff, friends and family while playing with his two daughters” and included a photo of Newman standing in a hospital gown, smiling with his arms around the girls.

Two hours later, he was leaving the hospital in jeans, a T-shirt and socks, holding hands with his girls. The team released a third photo of Newman and his daughters with the staff that treated him following his crash.