The Japanese city of Hiroshima will early Thursday (7 p.m. ET Wednesday) mark 70 years since the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city, killing at least 60,000 people. Three days later, the second bomb killed around 40,000 others in Nagasaki.

The bombings are credited with ending World War II but they left two cities in ruins and generations suffering the effects of radiation poisoning. 

Dr. James Yamazaki, a medical researcher with U.S. Atomic Bomb Medical Team in Nagasaki, witnessed first-hand the devastation the bomb left and horrific effects of radiation sickness. Yamazaki, 99, never wants to see such horrors again. Though he will not say the decision to drop the bombs was wrong, Yamazaki continues to lecture and warn against nuclear warfare. 

"All humans should make every effort that this should never be used again," he said. 

Head of the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe has has joined in the chorus of condemnation over the killing of Cecil the lion, telling NBC News the animal's killing was far from sport.

"We believe that the people who are the culprits lured Cecil outside the national park by…dragging that bait to an area where he was then murdered," Emmanuel Fundira said Tuesday.

"And I say 'murdered' because that was not hunting," Fundira added.

Zimbabwe said it is seeking the extradition of Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who killed the lion.

Meanwhile, Theo Bronkhorst, the hunting guide charged over the lion's killing told NBC News Wednesday he had never heard of the animal before the incident, and that there would have been no outrage had it been "any other lion." Bronkhorst has pleaded not guilty. 

A newborn still attached to his umbilical cord was left alone in a stroller near a church in South Los Angeles for more than a day before he was discovered by a homeless man, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

A homeless man walking near the intersection of Vermont Avenue and Dana Street thought the stroller was empty when he first noticed it Monday night at about 10:30 p.m. He walked by the stroller again at noon on Tuesday and decided to lift a blanket that was covering part of it. To his amazement, there was a newborn inside the stroller.

"Something in me told me to check in it. I moved the blanket and there he was, a newborn baby boy," Alex Diaz said. "He seemed weak, like he couldn't even move no more."

Father David Matz, of St. Agnes Church, said Diaz is a parent himself and plans to visit the newborn later in the hospital.

Authorities are asking for the public's help to identify the mother of the boy, who may be just days old. They are also actively searching within the community for anyone who might have seen something that could lead to the child's identification. 

Capt. Sean Parker said the LAPD is "looking at surveillance and we are knocking on doors to see if someone might have seen something."

Parker also said he wanted the mother to come forward so authorities can "see if she's OK."

The boy is expected to survive, according to authorities.

Additional information was not immediately available.

A white Alabama police officer was caught on a secret recording discussing ways to kill a black man and cover it up, it was revealed Tuesday.

The 2013 incident was quietly settled out of court and ended with the officer keeping his job, according to legal documents and interviews with lawyers and officials involved in the case.

The recording, first reported by the Guardian and obtained by NBC News, captures Alexander City Officer Troy Middlebrooks during a May 2013 visit to a home where the suspect, Vincent Bias, was visiting relatives.

At one point, the officer pulls Bias' brother-in-law — who is white — aside and tells him he doesn't trust Bias. Middlebrooks had arrested Bias on drug charges weeks earlier, and seemed to be frustrated that he had made bail.

Middlebrooks tells Bias' brother-in-law, that if he were the suspect's relative, he would "f---ing kill that motherf------" and then arrange the crime scene to "make it look like he was trying to f---ing kill me."

A man has pleaded guilty in British court to charges connected to a bomb threat, as well as harassing calls and emails, made to La Jolla Country Day School.

William John Cooper, 39, admitted to three counts of harassment and one count of violating a restraining order, according to the San Diego County District Attorney’s office.

His sentencing in the United Kingdom is scheduled for Sept. 1.

Prosecutors say Cooper is responsible for shutting down the La Jolla school’s campus in February when he phoned in the bomb threat.

Officials say Cooper also sent a series of harassing emails and calls to the school, though details about their content have not been released.

Because the suspect was living in England when the bomb threat occurred, the San Diego DA and school police had to work with U.K. agencies to investigate the case.

San Diego law enforcement issued an arrest warrant for Cooper in May, and the U.K.’s Hampshire Constabulary took him into custody on June 26 at his Hampshire home. During the arrest, officials seized his computers and his phone.

Although he has pleaded guilty in the U.K., Cooper could still face charges in San Diego County if he ever returns. However, the DA does not plan to extradite him unless he is already on U.S. soil.

La Jolla Country Day is a private, college preparatory school with about 1,200 students, ages 3 through grade 12.
 

The City of San Diego will pay close to $1 million in damages to two women abused by a former San Diego Police Department officer who served five months behind bars.

Former San Diego Police Officer Christopher Hays pleaded guilty to felony false imprisonment as well as misdemeanor counts of assault and battery under the color of authority by a peace officer in 2014. He was released in early March 2015.

On Monday, the San Diego City Council approved a settlement to two women who were victims of Hays.

Attorney Dan Gilleon, who represents the fifth woman to accuse Hays of sexually abusing her while on duty, said his client will receive $400,000 of the combined $950,000 settlement.

"She's had a tough life," said Gilleon about his client. "She's been abused by men her whole life, physically, sexually. So she's kind of day to day as it is."

He said the settlement is a sort of vindication for her.

In 2014, at least five women came forward accusing Hays of allegedly inappropriately touching and groping them during pat-downs while he was on duty.

A settlement of $1.3 million involving two of the victims was approved in April.

The oldest actively breeding female panda in captivity will not be giving birth this year, San Diego Zoo Global scientists confirmed Monday.

Bai Yun has given birth to six giant panda cubs: Hua Mei, Mei Sheng, Su Lin, Zhen Zhen, Yun Zi and Xiao Liwu. 

An attempt to artificially inseminate the 23-year-old panda in April has not been successful.

Zookeepers resorted to the procedure when breeding sessions between Bai Yun and the zoo's male panda, Gao Gao, were unsuccessful.

As many San Diegans are aware, pandas can get pregnant for just 48 to 72 hours each year. 

If Bai Yun had been pregnant, she would have been one of the oldest giant pandas to give birth, the zoo said in a written release. She comes from good genes since her mother is the current record holder.

The San Diego Zoo’s giant pandas are on a research loan from the Chinese government, which can recall the pandas to their native land after they turn 3 years old. 

Teenagers working in the sex trade industry in border cities are three times more likely to become infected with HIV than adult sex workers, according to new research from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

The UC San Diego School of Medicine published a study Tuesday in the “Journal of the American Medical Association” about minors working in the sex trade industry in two Mexican cities located on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The study focuses on 603 female sex workers 18 years old and younger recruited from Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez between March 2013 and January 2014. The participants were asked about their age when they joined the sex trade, their experiences with violence when forced into commercial sex, client volume and condom use.

They also provided blood samples for HIV testing.

Researchers found that six percent of those who reported entering the sex trade as teenagers tested positive for HIV. The study says this is compared to slightly less than two percent among those who started sex work as adults – or three times as high.

Researchers say poor condom use and effects of injection drug use contribute to the high rates of HIV infection among those entering the sex trade industry compared to those who enter as adults.

“The far higher rates of HIV infection among those women reporting being a minor in the sex trade is likely, at least in part, due to the combination of being violently compelled to have sex with male clients, being exposed to significantly more male sex clients each day and the lack of any condom use during their initiation to the sex industry,” said the study’s first author Jay Silverman, PhD, director of research for the Center on Gender Equity and Health and professor of medicine in the Division of Global Public Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

The study says more than 25 percent of sex workers in these two cities reported entering the sex trade before the age of 18. Nearly 12 percent – or one in eight – said they joined the sex trade before their 16th birthday.

The research also found that, compared with adult sex workers, those who started in the sex trade as adolescents were three times more likely to be violently coerced into sex with male clients.

Many of these young women reported having more than 10 male clients per day. They were also seven times less likely to use a condom during their first 30 days in the sex trade industry, the study says.

“Our study highlights the importance of social and structural factors, especially high levels of violence encountered by adolescents in the sex trade, in understanding vulnerability to HIV,” said senior author Kimberly Brouwer, PhD, director of the Prevention Scientific Working Group of the UC San Diego Center for AIDS Research and associate professor of medicine in the UC San Diego School of Medicine Division of Global Public Health.

The research was funded, in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health. The study was also co-authored by Carlos Magis-Rodriguez, MD, Phd, Argentina Servin Julie Ritter and Anita Raj, all of UC San Diego, and Shira M. Goldenberg of University of British Columbia.

With the final lineup set for the first Republican presidential debate, the lowest polling candidates are reacting, some angrily, to being left out of the main event, NBC News reported.

"The idea that they have left out the runner-up for the 2012 nomination, the former four-term governor of Texas, the governor of Louisiana, the first female Fortune 50 CEO, and the 3-term Senator from South Carolina due to polling seven months before a single vote is cast is preposterous," Rick Santorum's communications manager Matt Beynon said in a statement Tuesday.

Debate host Fox News announced that Santorum, who won 11 states in the 2012 GOP primary, along with Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Jim Gilmore and George Pataki, will square off ahead of the prime-time event Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio. The crowded field of 17 candidates prompted Fox to limit the main debate to the top ten highest polling candidates, as judged by five recent national polls.

Perry, Fiorina and Graham, however, had a more positive reaction than Santorum. The former Texas governor and Fiorina both said they were looking forward to the 5 p.m. debate while Graham tweeted an "Emoji Guide to Pregaming for the Trump Debacle."

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A suspect has died following a deputy-involved shooting on the Las Pulgas Road off ramp by Camp Pendleton Tuesday, the Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD) officials confirmed.

The incident happened at 12:09 p.m. off southbound Interstate 5 when an OCSD deputy found a man in distress, acting strangely in a car pulled over on Las Pulgas Road, according to San Diego County Sheriff's Lt. John Maryon.

When the deputy approached the 55-year-old suspect, he started aggressively pointing at the deputy and yelling.

"At some point, [he] said, 'I have a weapon. I'm going to kill you and I'm going to kill myself,'" said Maryon.

The deputy immediately retreated back to his patrol vehicle and called in backup from fellow deputies and Border Patrol agents.

An hourlong standoff ensued, as the man said he had a gun pointed at the deputy's stomach and threatened to kill him, according to the lieutenant.

Finally, when the suspect emerged from his car, he "had his right arm extended with something black — some sort of black material — wrapped around his hand, extending it as if it was a weapon," said Maryon.

A deputy shot a bean bag round at the suspect's stomach, but the man continued to point his arm in their direction.

Three OCSD deputies and two Border Patrol agents then fired their guns, killing the man. No weapon has been found on him, according to Maryon.

The lieutenant said the suspect was a resident of Vista who claimed to suffer from PTSD related to his time in the military. Officials have not released his identity.

During the standoff, Maryon said the man made statements that he is being accused of killing his parents. However, investigators confirmed that both of his parents are alive. 

The off ramp at Las Pulgas Road just west of I-5 was closed as officials investigated. 

California Highway Patrol officials closed two lanes of the SB I-5 as well for a brief period of time. Traffic slowed from Basilone Road to Las Pulgas Road. For a current look at the traffic map, click here. 

A Camp Pendleton Marine and his wife were among five people injured in a three-vehicle crash on Oceanside Boulevard, friends told NBC 7 Tuesday.

Marine Nate Shiel and his wife Peri were rushed to Scripps La Jolla Hospital Monday evening, where Nate is still in critical condition.

Peri is conscious and seems to be improving, according to her classmates who have been at the hospital all day.

“She knows that [Nate is] not awake yet, and she knows what’s going on, and she’s just like devastated,” said friend JJ Santiago.

Oceanside police said Nate was driving a Mazda east on Oceanside Boulevard when a driver in a Chevy Impala traveling west veered into the median and hit the Mazda head-on.

A third vehicle, traveling behind the Mazda, was also struck by the Impala. That driver was taken to Palomar Medical Center for a cut to her face and chest pain.

The Impala’s driver, who police say caused the crash, has been identified as Eric Haulcy. He too is in critical condition at Scripps La Jolla.

In the meantime, friends of Peri and Nate said they're staying hopeful.

"I know she doesn't fully remember like what happened, so just waking up to knowing her husband isn't doing good is... I can only imagine how horrible that is,” said Santiago.

She said the couple is from the East Coast, so their family is on their way to San Diego County.

Peri has enrolled at Paul Mitchell Beauty School in Temecula while Nate is stationed at Camp Pendleton, according to Santiago.

“He's just awesome,” she said. “He's just a really, really good guy and he serves our country and he didn't deserve this at all."

Oceanside police are still investigating if alcohol or drugs were factors in the crash, though they say Haulcy smelled of alcohol when he was in the operating room.
 

A woman's body found near a freeway fence has prompted a homicide investigation in Egger Highlands Tuesday afternoon, San Diego Police officials say.

The 61-year-old woman, who police say may be a transient, had blunt force visible on her chest and stomach.

Police say they got an anonymous call asking them to do a welfare check on the woman.

At about 3:10 p.m., officers discovered her body lying in grass and shrubs near the fence between the Southland Plaza Shopping Center and the Palm Avenue offramp from southbound Interstate 5.

Personal belongings were next to the woman.

Investigators have cordoned off about 400 square feet of space as they investigate her death.

They say the medical examiner will perform an autopsy in the next few days to determine the woman's cause of death.

Her identity is not known at this time.

Fallen trees have sparked news reports and claims linking tree collapse to the current drought. But does the data support that claim?

In Pasadena, a 75-year-old pine tree collapsed outside a children’s museum last week, injuring eight children and hospitalizing two.

In La Mesa, a massive tree branch broke off and fell in the courtyard of an apartment complex on King Street. No one was injured in this incident but the reports of tree collapses have some fearing the statewide drought could be to blame.

Factors leading to a tree collapse take time, so despite cutbacks in water usage statewide, it’s unlikely that recent collapses are due to thirsty trees, experts say.

“It’s very hard to attribute a broad spectrum of tree deaths to one drought,” said Robert Booty, a consulting arborist with the San Jose-based Arborist OnSite. “California has had many [droughts], and trees live for a long time.”

Larry Costello with the University of California’s Tree Failure Report Program agrees.

He’s worked to collect reports of tree failure from independent reporters across the state since the mid-1980’s.

“We’re talking about structural failure of trees, not trees dying or declining,” he said. “We’re talking about branch breaks, trunk breaks, and uprooting.”

Recent news reports have incorrectly linked data from the Tree Failure Report Program to an uptick in tree collapses, Costello said, drawing a correlation between an increase in reports and the current drought.

“The data does not say that, and you can’t pull that out of the data,” he said.

In fact, there’s barely been an increase in tree failures at all, he said.

There were nearly 4,900 tree failures in California in 2010, according to Tree Failure Report Program statistics. But that figure is cumulative, and dates back to the start of Costello’s program.

By 2015, the number of reports was up to 5,700 tree failures. An increase, to be sure, but broken down that is only an average of 200 tree failures per year.

That figure is not very telling, Costello says.

Recent events have reinforced the fact that drought conditions can make trees more susceptible to harm, but in the long run, Costello said.

“You might see an impact from the drought five years from now, or ten years from now,” he said. “But this year or next year? Probably not.”

Environmental factors during drought periods reduce the health of the tree, according to Robert Booty who adds that this damage isn’t likely to be seen in just a few years.

It takes time to lead to a collapse, he added.

“Different diseases and fungi attack the root system of the tree, and these pathogens have the ability to decompose the cellular content of the wood,” he said. “It reduces the wood to zero strength at times, and the tree fails.”

Arborists like Booty say that governments, schools, and homeowners should take note and inspect their trees regularly.

“Some trees will defoliate” he said. “You’ll see that the leaves will begin to dry up. These are things that even the common homeowner can recognize.”

A wrong-way driver collided with two other vehicles in Lemon Grove Wednesday, San Diego County Sheriff's Deputies said.

San Diego Police and deputies responded to the call at College Avenue and Federal Boulevard near State Route 94 after 7 a.m.

Someone in a pickup truck was traveling westbound on Broadway when the driver crossed over the center median and struck three cars traveling south on College.

Some of the vehicles were stopped at a light at the time of the crash.

The wrong-way driver then continued northbound in southbound lanes, crossed back over the center median and struck two more cars. One of those cars was on Livingston.

One woman was taken to a nearby ambulance by private vehicle.

Sheriff's deputies say they have the driver in custody. Officials say the cause of the crash is likely driving under the influence.

Check back for updates on this developing story.
 

A Navy SEAL faces a criminal charge after he was accused of assaulting a minor last month.

Kyle Blackwell, 26, has pleaded not guilty to one felony count of assault likely to cause great bodily injury, according to District Attorney spokesman Steve Walker.

He is free on a $200,000 bond until his readiness hearing, scheduled for Thursday.

The charge against Blackwell stems from an incident on July 18, though a felony complaint, filed July 27, does not detail what happened. The document just orders him to stay away from the alleged victim, keeping a distance of at least 100 yards and cutting off any type of communication.

NBC 7’s calls to Blackwell’s attorney have not been returned.

Blackwell is also the target of a lawsuit, filed by a taxi driver who said the SEAL beat him up.

The driver, who asked NBC 7 to keep his identity concealed for fear of retaliation, told NBC 7 in January that he picked up a Blackwell and his fiancée from a bar in the Gaslamp and took them to the Hilton Bayfront. He said they paid their fare but as they were getting out of the car, the SEAL punched him.

The driver said Blackwell, who told police he was a part of SEAL Team 5, punched the driver’s door window, hitting him in the head. As he tried to talk to Blackwell about paying to repair the damage, the driver said the SEAL punched him again.

According to the police report, Blackwell said the window broke as he was closing the door. He told police in was “in fear of his life” because the cab driver “looked Middle Eastern, possibly from Iraq or Afghanistan. He also told police he thought the driver, who is Sikh, was “possibly a Muslim extremist.”

According the report by San Diego Harbor Police, officers on the scene said it looked like the crack in the window was pushed in an outward direction and appeared as if the impact occurred from inside the driver’s seat. The report says Blackwell offered to pay to repair the window but the driver refused and insisted on a citizen’s arrest.

The City Attorney’s office initially filed charges against Blackwell, but they were later dismissed. A restitution check of $140 was eventually sent to the driver from the city attorney's office.

The civil case between the driver and Blackwell is still pending. The driver's attorney was scheduled to do a deposition with the SEAL the day he was arrested.

There’s one year left until the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, but fans of Team USA can already start getting some unique gear under their belts: Team USA underwear.

For a limited time, the Team USA Shop is offering special edition men’s Team USA boxer briefs and women’s panties. The underwear are red and feature an elastic band that reads “Team USA” on the front and “Made in the USA” on the back.

The “Special Event” items cost $24.50 and $19.50 per pair, respectively. The apparel website says orders placed now will be shipped no later than Aug. 31.

The Olympic swag got some play Wednesday on the “Today Show” when Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford welcomed some underwear models to the show sporting the boxer briefs in honor of National Underwear Day.

On social media, the apparel has taken over the fitting hashtag, #TeamUSABriefs.
 

A group of airline employees who felt that fallen heroes and veterans deserved special care when being transported to their final resting place launched a special program that’s now in place at San Diego International Airport.

The Alaska Airlines Fallen Soldier Program has added a customized patriotic cart to be used at Lindbergh Field.

The Honor Cart arrived Tuesday after traveling 1,200 miles from Seattle under escort by Patriot Guard Riders with new riders joining the ride all along the way.

“People would be honking, showing flags,” said program volunteer Jim Rea. “It was a very humbling experience.”

With plaques representing each branch of the armed service inside and out, the cart is painted blue with red carpet and American flag curtains.

Volunteers make sure a certain protocol is followed every time a fallen member of the U.S. military travels on Alaska Airlines.

They are from employees in every department.

“You don't have to be a veteran you don't have to have served your country you just need to care for the men and women who make our lives possible every day,” said program volunteer Brett Magran.

San Diego is the fifth city to receive an Alaska Airlines Honor cart. They are also in place at Los Angeles, Portland, Anchorage and Seattle airports.

Even though it’s managed by Alaska Airlines it will be available for any airline to use.
 

President Obama is set to deliver remarks at American University on the Iran nuclear agreement.

A high-flying drone dropped a drug-filled delivery into an Ohio prison yard, sparking a brawl among several inmates, NBC News reported.

At least nine prisoners at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, a men's facility southwest of Cleveland, were involved in the fight on July 27 and placed in solitary confinement, according to an incident report.

"Upon reviewing the cameras, it was determined that a drone passed over the recreation yards immediately before the fight began," the report said.

The delivery included almost a quarter of an ounce of heroin, more than 2 ounces of marijuana and more than 5 ounces of tobacco, prison officials said. Prison officials are investigating the incident.

Construction has begun on a new 100,000-square-foot building off Interstate 15, where healthcare services provider Sharp Rees-Stealy will be relocating its Rancho Bernardo branch operations.

The project on West Bernardo Drive is being developed by locally based Lankford & Associates Inc. and HP Investors LLC, with a targeted completion in early 2017, according to commercial brokerage company Colliers International, which brokered the lease.

A Colliers statement said U.S. Bank provided a $31.7 million construction loan for the office, which is being built by Hensel Phelps Construction Co. and McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. Davis Davis Architects is the core and shell architect, with design work by HKS Architects and Cuningham Group.

Colliers’ Tom Mercer and Kevin Craven brokered Sharp Rees-Stealy’s 20-year lease of the building on behalf of the developers and Drake Real Estate Partners. The lessee, San Diego-based Sharp Healthcare, was represented by Mike Labelle and Bridget Barwitz of Savills Studley.

Financial terms of the lease were not disclosed. Sharp Rees-Stealy will be relocating from its current office at 16950 Via Tazon in Rancho Bernardo.

The location of the new building is the former site of a Hooters restaurant and a Rodeway Inn hotel, which have been demolished.