By MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up an appeal from tech giant Cisco seeking to shut down a lawsuit claiming that the company’s technology was used to persecute members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in China.

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The justices, who will hear arguments in the spring, will review an appellate ruling that would allow the lawsuit against Cisco to go forward in U.S. courts.

The court acted after the Trump administration weighed in on Cisco’s behalf to urge the justices to hear the case.

An Associated Press investigation last year showed that American tech companies, to a large degree, designed and built China’s surveillance state, encouraged by Republican and Democratic administrations, even as activists warned such tools were being used to quash dissent, persecute religious groups and target minorities.

In 2008, documents leaked to the press showed Cisco saw the “Golden Shield,” China’s internet censorship effort, as a sales opportunity. The company quoted a Chinese official calling the Falun Gong an “evil cult.” A Cisco presentation reviewed by AP from the same year said its products could identify over 90% of Falun Gong material on the web.

Other presentations reviewed by AP show that Cisco represented Falun Gong material as a “threat” and built out a national information system to track Falun Gong believers. In 2011, Falun Gong members sued Cisco, alleging the company tailored technology for Beijing that it knew would be used to track, detain and torture believers.

The issue before the Supreme Court is whether an American company can be held liable under two separate laws for aiding and abetting human rights violations. Cisco argues it isn’t liable under those laws, the 18th-century Alien Tort Statute (ATS) or the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), first enacted in 1991.

In recent years, the Supreme Court and presidential administrations of both parties have been skeptical of lawsuits seeking to use U.S. courts as a venue to seek justice over the acts of foreign governments, especially those that took place abroad. To try to overcome that skepticism, Falun Gong members have argued that a substantial portion of Cisco’s activities involving China took place in the United States.

A decision is expected by early summer.

By ANSELM GIBBS

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — A shark attacked and killed an American woman along a beach in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, officials said Friday.

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Police identified the victim as 56-year-old Arlene Lillis of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.

Authorities said the attack occurred close to shore on western St. Croix on Thursday afternoon.

Police and other emergency crews responded to the beach, where crews worked “swiftly and professionally under very extreme and difficult circumstances” to treat Lillis, said Daryl Jaschen, director of the Virgin Islands’ emergency management agency.

Lillis, who was a frequent visitor to the U.S. territory, was taken to a local hospital for further treatment but died from her injuries, according to Lt. Gov. Tregenza A. Roach.

Police said they were initially told there may have been a second victim, but a perimeter search by authorities did not discover any other victims.

Officials said they have not yet confirmed what type of shark was involved in the attack. They said that while shark sightings are common, attacks in the U.S. Virgin Islands are unusual.

“Encounters that result in a bite are very rare,” said Nicole Angeli of the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources at Friday’s news conference.

She said Thursday’s attack was the second such incident in a decade, and that there are plans to put up more signs and share more information at hotels and beaches on how to be safe around wildlife.

Jaschen, of the emergency management agency, said the investigation into the attack is ongoing, and that he could not immediately say what may have caused the shark to come so close to the shore.

Overall, at least 79 unprovoked shark attacks have been reported in the Caribbean since 1749, including four in the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the Florida-based International Shark Attack File.

Students at Minneapolis Public Schools can return to in-person classes on Monday or take part in remote learning through Feb. 12, district officials announced Friday, after federal immigration officers were reported on school property earlier in the week.

Minneapolis Public Schools was closed Thursday and Friday and activities were canceled after a report of armed U.S. Border Patrol officers at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. The officers entered school property during Wednesday’s dismissal period, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

St. Paul district officials have not announced any plans to cancel classes or move to remote learning.

The officers tackled people, handcuffed two staff members and released chemical irritants on bystanders, an official from the Minneapolis school told MPR.

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Online learning is an optional opportunity for families who may need it and additional information has been shared with staff and families, Minneapolis Public Schools officials said in a release.

St. Paul Public Schools officials canceled field trips and sports-related events in Minneapolis for Thursday following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

By MIKE CATALINI

A huge black bear that made its den in the crawl space under a Los Angeles area man’s house for more than a month has finally been evicted.

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Altadena resident Ken Johnson said the animal began denning beneath his home around Thanksgiving, twisting gas lines and toppling bricks as he came and went. Surveillance video showed the bear easily tearing away screening and other obstacles and squeezing through a small opening.

Johnson said in a phone interview Friday that he first asked state wildlife officials for help, but the air horns and paintball guns they deployed didn’t work. So he turned to BEAR League, a California-based nonprofit that bills itself as specializing in “living in harmony with bears.”

The bear was out within about 20 minutes after members from the group arrived, Johnson said.

In a social media post on Thursday, the group said that one of its most experienced responders crawled beneath the home and got behind the bear — which it estimated weighs more than 500 pounds — to encourage the animal to leave.

“There’s the relief — it feels like, you know, you had a bunch of dinner guests over and now the party’s over — well it wasn’t a party — but you know they’re gone and now you’ve got a bunch of dirty dishes and empty glasses to deal with,” Johnson said.

FILE – Homeowner Ken Johnson stands outside his house with trash scattered across the driveway after a bear took refuge in a crawl space at his property in Altadena, Calif., Dec. 1, 2025, as a reporter surveying the scene casts a shadow on a wall. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

The group placed an “unwelcome” mat, which delivers an electric shock, at the opening. Video footage showed the bear returning to the house, stepping on the mat and then running away.

Dave Fleishman, a BEAR League spokesperson who helped evict the animal, said it was one of the largest black bears he has seen.

“He’s in my top three,” Fleishman said.

“He’s an old soul … I think he just wanted a quiet place for the winter,” he added. “But he’d done a tremendous amount of damage to Ken’s house. And so, you don’t want Ken’s house to burn down or the rest of Altadena to burn down because of a ruptured gas line.”

FILE – A bear warning sign is posted at the Basher trailhead in Anchorage, Alaska, on July 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)

Fleishman said the team was able to move the bear quickly because the house has two crawl spaces, making access easier. He called it a “standard eviction” the group regularly handles, particularly in the Lake Tahoe area.

Johnson described having the bear around as “unsettling.” Since the eviction, the bear came back at least once before moving on, he said. “It’s just the constant tension of if he if he decides to come out I have to be ready,” he said.

Johnson said the animal caused thousands of dollars in damage, which has been particularly tough to deal with because he lost his job after last year’s Eaton wildfire. The bear shredded ductwork under the house and twisted natural gas piping, Johnson said. He’s set up a GoFundMe page seeking to repair the damage and make his house livable again.