Author: No Author

NEW YORK — The woman who accused members of a Cornell University fraternity of gang rape was “failed” by people obligated to protect her, including campus police and the county prosecutor, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday.

Hochul said at a news conference that she decided to appoint Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor to take over the case after learning “troubling details” about how authorities have handled the woman’s claims thus far, including that the district attorney closed the case without having anyone interview the accuser or anyone else involved in the alleged attack.

“In what world does the district attorney not even interview her, or anyone else involved, or even request the full transcript?” Hochul said. “This woman, this young woman, had already endured something that is utterly unspeakable. And then at every turn, she was failed by people and institutions with an obligation to protect her.”

She also assailed the Cornell University Police Department for not fully conveying the woman’s story to prosecutors.

“After this young woman came forward, she spoke to the police. She sat for hours and told them exactly what happened to her. And according to new reports, she could not have been clearer that she was 100% confident that she had been raped,” the Democratic governor said. ”Yet, shockingly, those words never made it into the account that the Cornell police sent to prosecutors.”

James is brought in

Hochul said Thursday that she appointed James to oversee the case because she had lost faith in the local district attorney’s ability to handle it.

James didn’t say how long her investigation might take, but she said it would take some time and wouldn’t be rushed, as every New Yorker “deserves to know that when they report a crime, it will be investigated fully and fairly, that they will be seen and heard.”

“We will review the facts, gather evidence, interview witnesses and, if warranted, pursue prosecutions,” James said. “I know that you want answers. I do too. A comprehensive investigation of this nature takes time, but my office is committed to seeing it through.”

The investigation initially was closed without charges in 2024.

Last month, the woman filed a lawsuit and Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten reopened the investigation. He has since been bombarded by criticism that he abandoned the original investigation too quickly.

Van Houten has defended his decision not to prosecute, maintaining that a sworn statement by the woman prepared by police didn’t include the woman’s allegations that she was drugged against her will, incapacitated beyond the ability to consent and forced into sex.

He didn’t respond Thursday or Friday to messages seeking comment.

The attorney general will determine whether there is enough evidence to press charges, Hochul said.

“The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued,” she said in a statement Thursday.

The case’s impact extends beyond Cornell

The case has roiled the Ivy League school and raised questions about its response and the larger issue of how sexual assaults are handled on college campuses.

The woman, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, told campus police in November of 2024 that she was sexually assaulted, then discussed it with the university’s internal investigators as part of Cornell’s disciplinary process.

The lawsuit against seven fraternity brothers, the university, the Chi Phi fraternity and others alleges that she was plied with drugs and alcohol, then subjected to sexual acts by a group of men while she was partially or entirely incapacitated. One of the men sent a social media message to other fraternity members alerting them to what was happening and inviting people to take part, according to the lawsuit.

Lawyers for two of the men she is suing have denied they participated in a sexual assault. One said his client didn’t touch the woman. Attempts to reach the other men or their representatives for comment have been unsuccessful.

Officials say New York’s sexual assault laws need updating

Hochul also threw her support behind proposals to change an element of New York law that has long made it more difficult to prosecute people who have engaged in sex with someone who voluntarily became intoxicated to the point where their ability to consent was compromised.

Under the law, rape charges generally need to involve force or a clear refusal of sex, unless the victim is physically helpless due to being unconscious, or mentally incapacitated due to being drugged without their consent. New York is one of 19 states with such laws.

“If someone is too intoxicated to consent, it should not matter whether they chose to use drugs or alcohol. Voluntary intoxication is not a license for sexual assault or gang rape, period,” the governor said.

New York governors have turned to attorneys general to oversee important cases in the past.

In 2018, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo appointed then-Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas as a special prosecutor to investigate Eric Schneiderman, who resigned as New York attorney general after women accused him of violent slapping, choking and other abuse.

In 2021, James oversaw a non-criminal investigation into sexual harassment allegations against then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, leading to his resignation. Cuomo initially tried to choose who would lead the investigation into the allegations. He then allowed James to choose two independent attorneys to lead it instead.

James’ office also handles other criminal work and has the power under state law to investigate every death involving law enforcement in the state. But, typically, she can’t initiate criminal investigations without a referral from a local district attorney, the governor or a state agency, or an appointment like the one Hochul made Thursday.

BUNIA, Congo — Congo’s Ebola outbreak has killed more than 4,000 people, authorities said, as they struggle to contain what has become the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history.

The latest figures released by the Health Ministry on Thursday showed that 4,018 people have died among 8,300 cases recorded since the outbreak was declared in eastern Congo on May 15.

Some health workers, meanwhile, gathered at the epicenter in Ituri Province to demand payment for wages owed them. The protesters, who included surveillance team members, waved placards saying, “No money, no data!” and “No payment for months.”

Some of the workers haven’t been paid for August and September, said Biongi Beiza, one of the protesters in Bunia, Ituri’s capital. “There is no explanation from the administration,” he said.

Congolese authorities did not immediately address the issue. Front-line workers have gone on strike several times since the outbreak began, further hampering efforts to contain the disease.

A senior U.N. official said an Ebola-hit displacement camp housing a transit center for infected patients was burned by soldiers earlier this week as they were looking for weapons in Kigonze, on the outskirts of Bunia, forcing 19,000 people in the camp to flee.

Creating such transit and treatment centers has been a struggle, requiring money and staff, all of which are in short supply, said Julien Harneis, the U.N. senior Ebola coordinator. “When we lose a center, that means we lose capacity, we lose investment, and we have to start again. And above all, it means that people do not get access to the care that they really need,” Harneis said.

Infected aid worker evacuated to the Netherlands

An aid worker with Médecins Sans Frontières, known in English as Doctors Without Borders, was infected with Ebola while working in Congo, the group said in a statement.

The worker arrived in the Netherlands late Thursday on a special medical flight and was transferred to a high-level isolation unit, the Leiden University Medical Center said in a statement.

“The human cost of this crisis is unprecedented in the DRC, with communities facing the largest Ebola disease outbreak ever recorded in the country,” MSF said.

At least 50 health workers have died after contracting the virus.

Mobile labs are helping detect cases quickly

One way local authorities have tried to contain the outbreak is through mobile laboratories. In Butembo, an Associated Press journalist watched a medical team operating one such lab near an Ebola treatment center on Thursday.

Test results that used to take 72 hours can now be obtained in six hours with the mobile labs, said Lota Kalubi, a doctor at the treatment center.

The labs have also made it easier to get to locations usually difficult to reach, said Michel Ngimba with the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Butembo. “So we can go, if today we have an emergency, for example, in Katwa, we can start up the vehicle, and we can move the lab to Katwa,” said Ngimba.

Insecurity and community resistance are hampering containment efforts

The World Health Organization has recently raised the alarm about the virus’ rapid spread into new health zones, stretching limited resources. The current outbreak is on track to exceed the deadliest on record, West Africa’s regional outbreak between 2014 and 2016, which killed 11,000 people, WHO has said.

The number of newly confirmed cases is falling, but that could be attributed to insecurity and challenges in getting communities to cooperate in some of the hot spots, Africa CDC said on Thursday. While the spread of the disease has slowed in some areas, it has accelerated in others.

Confirmed cases fell from around 850 cases and 470 deaths a week in mid-July to an average of 490 cases and 230 deaths in September.

A Congolese politician was beaten to death earlier this week in one of the emerging hot spots after defending government measures to deal with the outbreak, highlighting tensions and mistrust in communities.

Authorities last month launched a village-centered approach that involved working with local leaders to educate people about the virus, but those efforts face resistance from residents who dismiss Ebola as a hoax. There is also deep distrust in the country’s government for reasons including how it’s managed past Ebola outbreaks and chronic corruption.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — After a summer spent packing away sockeye salmon, Alaska’s heftiest brown bears are ready to throw their weight around.

Online voting began Tuesday for Fat Bear Week, the annual contest that pits the rotund residents of Katmai National Park and Preserve against each other for the title of most oversized ursine.

Last year’s winner, Chunk — known officially as Bear 32 — is hungry for a repeat. Chunk’s weight in 2025 was estimated at 1,200 pounds, which gave him a narrow victory. This year he’s back and facing corpulent competition like Gully — aka Bear 903 — the offspring of two-time champion Grazer.

The contest, which is in its 12th year, celebrates the resilience of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands. The animals gorge on the abundant salmon that return to the Brooks River, sometimes chomping the fish in midair as they make their way upstream to spawn.

The event this year features 16 bears facing off in a single-elimination, bracket-style tournament. All voting is done online at www.fatbearweek.org, with the winner declared Sept. 29. The public can watch the bears on explore.org’s livestream cameras before deciding on their favorite.

“Fat bears are successful bears,” the nonprofit’s website says. They gorge on salmon starting in late June in order to accumulate fat reserves to prepare for winter hibernation, when they do not eat or drink and lose one-third of their body weight.

Adult male brown bears typically weigh 600 to 900 pounds (about 270 to 410 kilograms) in midsummer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon — each eats as many as 30 fish per day — large males can weigh well over 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms). Females are about one-third smaller.

Voters in the online contest can review before-and-after photos of the bears, lean at the start of summer and fattened at the end. The bears are not actually weighed — imagine that process — and some fans choose their favorite based on their looks or backstory.

To be featured in the contest, the bears must frequent the area around the river.

The live cameras at Brooks Falls captured the moments in 2024 when mother bear 128 Grazer ‘s cub slipped over the waterfall and floated into the fishing spot occupied by Chunk, who attacked and injured the cub. Grazer fought Chunk, but the cub ultimately died. After the dramatic fight, voting fans handed Grazer a victory over Chunk. Then Chunk returned in 2025 to take the title.

Fat Bear Week was started in 2014 as an interactive way to inform the public about brown bears, the coastal cousins of grizzlies.