Migrants on a Turkish beach scuffled over places on one inflatable dinghy and frantically bailed out another to keep it from sinking during a dramatic night that highlighted their desperation to reach the Greek island of Kos — and the safety of Europe.
The scenes of human trafficking, captured early Saturday by Associated Press journalists on a moonless night, came as Turkish authorities reported that 2,791 migrants have been caught in the Aegean Sea in the past 5 days alone, most of them Syrians.

Air pollution is killing about 4,000 people in China a day, accounting for 1 in 6 premature deaths in the world's most populous country, a new study finds.
Physicists at the University of California, Berkeley, calculated that about 1.6 million people in China die each year from heart, lung and stroke problems because of incredibly polluted air, especially small particles of haze. Earlier studies put the annual Chinese air pollution death toll at 1 to 2 million, but this is the first to use newly released Chinese air monitoring figures.

A couple who took their nearly 5-foot boa constrictor for a swim in a Pennsylvania river say the pet slipped away and they're concerned about its welfare.
The Bloomsburg Press Enterprise reported Thursday (http://bit.ly/1JfL8XN ) that Kolby and Zachary Latranyi had been swimming with the snake named Leyla last weekend in the Susquehanna (suhs-kwuh-HAN'-uh) River. The Latranyis say the red-tailed boa was shedding, so the swim was designed to help it remove material from its scales.

Authorities want to talk to a man who donned a fairly realistic bear costume — head and all — and wore it when harassing a bear and two sows trying to feed on pink salmon in an Alaska river.
The incident happened Monday on the Chilkoot River near Haines, said Alaska Fish and Game Assistant Area Management Biologist Mark Sogge.

Estonian authorities say they will cull about 3,700 pigs to prevent the spread of African swine fever.
Agriculture ministry spokeswoman Karin Volmer says two more cases of the disease have been found in domestic pigs in southern Estonia, the northernmost of the three Baltic countries.

Michael Jordan's lawyer told jurors Wednesday at a civil trial over the unauthorized use of the star's name in a steak ad that the market value of Jordan's moniker to the Nike sportswear company was at least $480 million. Each commercial use of Jordan's name is worth more than $10 million, he estimated.
The price tag on Jordan's name is the central issue for jurors who will decide how much Dominick's Finer Foods should pay in damages for a 2009 Sports Illustrated ad that congratulated the basketball legend by name on his Hall of Fame induction. The ad also included a $2-off coupon above a photograph of a sizzling steak.

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian is no stranger to criticism, having spent the better part of the last decade in the public eye. But she's probably never faced negative publicity like this before: The Food and Drug Administration says Kardashian's social media posts violate federal drug-promotion rules.
Kardashian recently began promoting a prescription pill to treat morning sickness through her social media accounts. Such endorsement deals are relatively common for celebrities. In posts to Instagram and Facebook earlier this month Kardashian talks about her struggles with nausea due to pregnancy.

Want an Elvis Presley "Starburst" jumpsuit he wore during concerts in Las Vegas in 1973? Or how about a diamond and gold pendant the King of Rock 'n' Roll gave Sammy Davis Jr.?
They're among 174 authenticated artifacts up for auction Thursday evening at Graceland, Presley's longtime Memphis, Tennessee, home.

A couple in Seattle whose 8-year-old daughter feeds crows and pigeons is being sued by neighbors who say the birds have damaged their property.
Seattlepi.com ( http://bit.ly/1DJ5iHi ) reports the lawsuit filed Monday in King County Superior Court seeks more than $200,000 for damages as well as a court order limiting Lisa and Gary Mann and their daughter to setting out at most one-quarter pound of animal food each day.

Los Angeles has been blackballed.
The city has completed a program of covering open-air reservoirs with floating "shade balls" to protect water quality.
