China urged people in the United States to take a rational and objective view of the relationship between the two countries as Republican front-runner Donald Trump all but clinched the party's presidential nomination on Tuesday, NBC News reported.

Over the course of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly attacked China, saying its trade policies are "killing" America, its currency devaluations will "suck the blood out" of the U.S. and accusing the country of "raping" the States.

Though China's state media has largely avoided responding to Trump's attacks, it seems the rest of the country may have missed the memo. The South China Morning Post referred to Trump Wednesday as a "brash man with no political experience" while the Global Times called him a "rich narcissist" and a "racist."

The criticism is unlikely to dent Trump's celebrity status in China or deter the legions of fans on social media.

Using some sort of tool, two unknown men cut through cables and stole jewelry from a Bloomingdale's store in San Diego Tuesday night, according to police.

The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) said two suspects entered the Bloomingdale's at Fashion Valley mall on Friars Road at around 6:30 p.m. and snipped cables from undisclosed jewelry, making off with various pieces.

The men fled the scene. When officers arrived, they were unable to locate the suspects. A description of the shoplifters was not immediately released.

Police did not say how much the stolen items were worth.

No one was injured in the incident.

A conservative website is calling on Republicans to confirm President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nomination Merrick Garland, NBC News reports.

"Republicans must know that there is absolutely no chance that we will win the White House in 2016 now. They must also know that we are likely to lose the Senate as well. So the choices, essentially, are to confirm Garland and have another bite at the apple in a decade, or watch as President Clinton nominates someone who is radically more leftist and 10-15 years younger, and we are in no position to stop it," Leon Wolf wrote on RedState hours after Donald Trump became the GOP’s likely nominee. 

But not all conservatives agree. Erick Erickson, the former editor of RedState, who is against Trump, doesn’t support the immediate confirmation of Garland, saying Republicans risk taking away "arguments that can persuade independent voters to go with a Republican Senate."

Republican leaders in the Senate, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, vow to block Garland’s confirmation, saying the next president should be the one to make the nomination.

Facebook has given a $10,000 reward to a 10-year-old Finnish boy for finding a glitch in its photo-sharing app, Instagram, according to Reuters. 

"I wanted to see if Instagram's comment field could stand malicious code. Turns out it couldn't," Jani, whose last name was not released for privacy reasons, told Finland's Iltalehti newspaper. 

The boy is the youngest ever recipient of Facebook’s “bug bounty,” which is paid to users who find bugs or weaknesses in its platforms. 

"I could have deleted anyone's comments from there. Even Justin Bieber's," he told Iltalehti. 

Facebook said the glitch was fixed in February and the reward paid in March.

A federal judge said it "may be necessary" to depose Hillary Clinton about her personal e-mail server, in a freedom-of-information lawsuit over the employment of aide Huma Abedin, NBC News reported. 

Federal District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan made the observation about the arrangement that allowed Abedin to do outside work while she was working for Clinton at the State Department. 

The question in the lawsuit is a narrow one: did the State Department do everything legally required when it searched for documents, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, about the Abedin employment arrangement?

Sullivan said, "questions surrounding the creation, purpose, and use of the clintonemail.com server must be explored through limited discovery," the legal term for gathering evidence in a civil lawsuit. 

State Department lawyers said when the existence of the private email account was revealed, they conducted a new search for relevant documents among the thousands of pages turned over by Clinton.

A homeless man was beaten and killed in Santee, California following a dispute over a paintball gun, his wife told NBC 7 San Diego.

Penny Lowery said her husband was killed because he tried to protect another homeless man a week before his death.

"They were shooting him with a paintball gun. My husband took the paintball gun from him,” Penny Lowery said in an interview with NBC 7 the day her husband was taken off life support.

Two Santee brothers face charges or murder, robbery, kidnapping and torture in the death of George Lowery.

Lowery, 50, was beaten with "fists and feet" in an assault that homicide investigators describe as "a very horrific event." He was hospitalized with head injuries after his wife found him unconscious April 24 near Chubb Lane and N. Magnolia Avenue. Lowery died five days later.

Penny Lowery said her husband was hogtied and covered up by a piece of plywood.

“I seen a piece of plywood that goes to where we stay,” Lowery said. “I heard gurgling. When I picked it up he was gurgling for his life.”

Preston Mostrong, 19, and his brother Austin Mostrong, 20, have pleaded not guilty to charges in the case. Prosecutors told a judge Monday that the defendants gave statements to San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputies putting them at the scene of the assault.

Investigators have not released information on a motive and would not confirm the details surrounding a previous altercation between the defendants and the victim. 

A closer look at the criminal records of the Mostrong brothers reveals both were on probation for prior misdemeanor offenses.

A 2014 criminal complaint shows Preston Mostrong pleaded guilty to petty theft. He was fined and given three years of probation.

His older brother, Austin, was charged with two counts of battery and resisting an officer just four days before the alleged riverbed attack. He pleaded guilty to the misdemeanors and given probation.

"This was a brutal, heinous, just cold-hearted case, and as the evidence comes out, I’d say the murder charges and the torture charges are very much warranted in this case," said Deputy District Attorney George Modlin.

In a post on an online fundraising site, family described George Lowery as someone who didn't have much but still managed to help others.

"If someone was in need he would do what he could to help, no matter how hard the task. If he came across good fortune, he shared it," they wrote.

Anyone with information about the incident can call the homicide detail at 858-974-2321 or after hours at 858-565-5200.

Two medical experts said Wednesday that medical mistakes — from surgical disasters to accidental drug overdoses — are the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S., NBC News reported.

Dr. Martin Makary and Michael Daniel from Johns Hopkins University said a count of all preventable deaths reveals that between 200,000 and 400,000 people a year die from these mistakes. 

Many health policy experts have been trying to call attention to the problem of medical errors for more than a decade. One problem is that mistakes are not usually put on death certificates. 

Cancer and heart disease are neck and neck as the top cause of death in the United States. In 2012, 24 percent of all deaths were from heart disease — 599,711 to be precise. And 582,623 deaths, or 23 percent, were from cancer.

Donald Trump says he will go by the playbook when choosing a running mate, which is an unconventional move that’s unexpected for him, NBC News reports. 

There is a range of criteria — and names — that Trump must consider in filling the position, according to observers. 

Certain names, including John Kasich, Marco Rubio and Rick Perry may help Trump with with particular states, while others like Chris Christie and Keith Kellogg may give the real estate mogul an edge over a perceived weakness. 

Trump may consider tea party darlings like Sarah Palin, who has already been tested on the campaign trail during her time with presidential hopeful John McCain. Palin has also stumped for Trump during the primaries. 

Check out some of the other criteria Trump may need to consider to fill the position.

Hometown Buffet, which abruptly closed six of its San Diego restaurants earlier this year, has been cleared in a state investigation, officials confirmed Wednesday.

According to the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), an investigation by the Labor Commissioner revealed the closures of the local eateries did not fall under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), which offers protection to workers by requiring employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of mass layoffs.

The law applies to businesses with 75 or more employees.

“No location met the 75-worker threshold,” DIR public information officer Paola Laverde told NBC 7. “The WARN Act applies to larger facilities of at least 75 or more workers in order to qualify as a covered establishment under the Cal WARN Act.”

Hometown Buffet suddenly closed down eateries in Santee, El Cajon, San Marcos, Oceanside and San Diego in early February, saying the company was shuttering locations that were "underperforming."

"We know that these decisions are not easy," Hometown Buffet said in a letter announcing the closures.

Many upset employees and customers complained on Hometown Buffet’s Facebook page, saying the company had not sufficiently warned employees of the closures.

The chain’s locations in Chula Vista, National City and south San Diego remain open. The company said employees of the locations that shuttered would be able to apply for positions at the restaurants that remained open.

A Camp Pendleton Marine who pleaded guilty to fatally beating his 7-month-old son, leaving him with broken ribs and a skull fracture, will serve 15 years to life for the crime. 

Stanford Morocho was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to a second degree murder charge last March. 

Deputy District Attorney Ryan Saunders said between Dec. 2 and Dec. 12, Morocho had custody of his infant son.

According to the prosecutor, the Marine abused his child at various times over those ten days.

“The defendant used various forms of physical abuse on his 7-month-old child that resulted in a fractured skull, fractured ribs on both sides of the child’s body, bruising all over his body and his face,” Saunders said in court in 2014.

Early Friday morning, the baby was brought to the Naval Hospital at Camp Pendleton for those injuries, as well as internal bleeding.

When doctors started examining the child, they thought the injuries were suspicious and notified Oceanside police, who opened up an investigation. Morocho was arrested later that day.

The child was transferred to Rady Children’s Hospital, where he ultimately died.

Saunders said the motive for the alleged crime is not known at this time.

A man accused of kidnapping and killing an 11-year-old girl from Navajo Nation land in New Mexico on Monday intended to sexually assault her, according to court documents, NBC News reported.

Tom Begaye, 27, of Waterflow, New Mexico, was arrested Tuesday and faces federal charges including murder and kidnapping. He pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.

Begaye allegedly told investigators that he drove the girl and her 9-year-old brother to a dirt road and took the girl away from the van. He said he struck her with a tire iron because she was crying, the criminal complaint said. The boy was told to get out, and was later taken to police by a passing motorist.

The man said little as he appeared before a judge in Farmington Wednesday, according to station KOB. Begaye is being held in federal custody pending a preliminary hearing.

A San Diego-area student is accused of spraying mace at classmates after an argument, Helix High School Executive Director Mike Lewis confirmed to NBC 7 San Diego. 

Lewis said the incident happened at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday when several students in the library got into an argument about someone on social media. He could not say which site specifically. 

One of the students walked out then came back and sprayed the other with mace. 

Other students in the area were hit by the spray as well, Lewis said. 

No one was hospitalized. The student directly hit by the mace washed their eyes. The student who used the spray will face disciplinary action from La Mesa Police (LMPD) and the school, Lewis said. It is unclear what action the student will face, other than school officials will follow code. 

La Mesa Police are investigating. 

No other information was immediately available.

A Flint municipal official struck a deal with prosecutors Wednesday, pledging cooperation in exchange for reduced charges as authorities continue investigating lead contamination of the impoverished Michigan city's drinking water supply.

Utilities administrator Mike Glasgow entered a plea to one count of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor, in exchange for dismissal of a felony charge of tampering with evidence. The state attorney general's office said the deal will take effect in one year. 

The neglect of duty count is punishable by up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. But the attorney general's office said both charges will be dropped if Glasgow keeps his promise to assist and testify during future court proceedings.

Reached at his home, Glasgow declined to comment on the case but said he might make some public statements in the next few weeks. 

Two officials with the state Department of Environmental Quality also have been charged. 

Meanwhile, Michigan senators voted to spend $128 million more this fiscal year in Flint, where the lead pollution has led residents to use faucet filters or bottled water. 

The emergency aid bill, passed 34-3, was sent to the House for consideration. A Senate committee also approved a fund transfer to expand government-provided health insurance coverage to 15,000 children and pregnant women in the Flint area starting next week.

Glasgow, 40, is one of three officials charged with criminal offenses in connection with the disaster. He oversaw day-to-day operations of the water plant when the city changed its water source from Detroit, which draws from Lake Huron, to the Flint River in April 2014. At the time, government operations in the city of nearly 100,000 were controlled by a state-appointed emergency manager. 

Shortly before the switchover, Glasgow complained in an email to a state official that things were moving too quickly and the water plant staff was not ready. Still, prosecutors said he failed to perform duties required of a certified water plant operator. 

Also facing charges of evidence tampering, misconduct in office and safe drinking water violations are Michael Prysby, a former district engineer with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and Stephen Busch, a supervisor in the department's drinking water office. Both pleaded guilty last month. A probable cause hearing scheduled for Wednesday in their cases was delayed. 

Glasgow has said Prysby instructed him not to add anti-corrosive chemicals to the water in what the state department later acknowledged was a misreading of federal regulations. The omission enabled the corrosive river water to scrape lead from aging pipes and reach some homes and schools. 

The funding under consideration by the Legislature would be the fourth round since the health disaster was confirmed seven months ago. Gov. Rick Snyder and legislators previously authorized $67 million for the emergency. 

The latest bill includes $25 million to replace lead pipes that connect water mains to customers and more than $48 million to create a reserve fund for future costs. 

Unlike when the Republican-led Legislature unanimously approved the earlier three aid requests from the GOP governor — who has apologized for regulatory and other failures that created and prolonged the crisis — three Republican senators voted against the new funding. 

"There's a lot of other communities that have similar infrastructure issues that we have with Flint," said Republican Sen. Patrick Colbeck, who contended that the $67 million already allocated is enough to address the actual emergency response and has not been fully spent. "You're setting up community-specific bailouts when a lot of other communities would benefit from that same sort of treatment as well." 

Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof said legislators fatigued with Flint budget bills should keep in mind that the spending would help residents. 

The state Senate also approved a spending bill that includes about $39 million for the Flint emergency in the budget year that begins in October. 

Associated Press writer Ed White reported from Otisville. Flesher reported from Traverse City.

A Ukrainian national living in San Diego has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for sex trafficking two women in 2014.

Sergeyi Bazar, 37, was found guilty after jury trial in November 2014 for two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and one count of coercion and enticement.

Both victims had been living in the United States illegally after their visas had expired.

The women testified they had responded to an advertisement Bazar had posted on VKontakte (VK), a Russian social media site. The advertisement was for work in the San Diego area as a masseuse.

One woman came from Miami, Florida and the other lived in San Diego.

When the women met Bazar, he told them they had to perform certain sex acts with customers.

The women said they were confined to their hotel rooms by Bazar. Eventually, one victim escaped from a hotel in Mission Valley and called 911.

Detectives found a second victim after responding to a body-rub ad online.

Bazar was sentenced Tuesday in federal court.

If you believe you are a victim of sex trafficking or may have information about a potential trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking Rescue Center (NHTRC) at 1-888-373-7888.

A giant “Trump 2016” signs stands prominently above a quiet café in the Midway District.

Inside, the mementos paying homage to the presumptive GOP presidential candidate abound. Trump pictures. Trump stickers. Trump banners. Even a Trump piñata.

The Hancock Street Café is as much an expression as it is a business in the 3300 block of Hancock Street, sandwiched between a strip club and a marijuana dispensary.

Owner Mario Waclawski put the giant Trump sign above his café last year, making no mistake which candidate he’s voting for, even though it could be polarizing for his business.

“This is not easy to do this,” Waclawski said. “He’s got everything. He’s got money, friends, everything. Now he’s risking life for me, so I said, ‘Wait a minute. Let me risk my life too and now we’re even.’”

From the piñata to the countless pictures of the man trying to become America’s 45th president, Waclawski will talk politics and he really loves it when people disagree.

Do all his decorations hurt business? It’s tough to tell.

One customer, Robert Witcher, hangs out there often and, without divulging his vote, said he’d like to see a woman as president.

“I’m a bigger fan of the owner than I am of Trump,” he said.

Unfortunately, not all patrons are as diplomatic.

“We’ve had people come by and yell ‘FU,’” Waclawski said.

The café owner said he welcomes the difference in opinion.

“Meeting people is the best thing you can have in your life. Our difference brings us together,” he said.

The truth is Waclawski would rather tell you about this three kids, the artwork on his floor retracing the time he walked across America to raise money for cancer - or his wife who died of it -- prompting him to move to San Diego 14 years ago to start a business.

"Those people, they want you to fight back," he said. "I said, 'No. Forgiveness and love is the power.'"

Infecting mosquitoes with a strain of bacteria reduced their ability to transmit the Zika virus, according to Brazilian researchers, NBC News reported.

Mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia bacteria have been released in several countries including Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam to help control dengue — and new findings are showing success with Zika. This raises hopes that it might block transmission of the virus.

The new study, by researchers at Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation and published in Cell Host & Microbe, takes advantage of the naturally occurring strain of Wolbachia, which live in insect cells and are found in 60 percent of common insects. The method involves inserting the bacteria into mosquito eggs, which pass the bacteria along to their offspring. 

After two weeks in the Zika study, mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia had fewer particles of the virus in their bodies and saliva - making them less able to infect humans with the virus. 

Researchers caution this strategy isn’t 100 percent effective and will not eliminate the virus. But it can be used as part of a control strategy.

Students and civil rights activists at San Diego State University are calling for President Elliot Hirshman's resignation over student safety concerns.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations and other groups held a news conference Wednesday to outline why they want President Hirshman to step down.

Last week, students gathered on campus to protest after they claim administrators did not openly condemn hate speech posters. The posters allegedly named specific SDSU students as being terrorists.

Students swarmed a car carrying President Hirshman and demanded that he address their concerns.

Monday, students from SDSU's Justice in Palestine and Muslim Student Association met with Hirshman. They gave him two days to condemn the acts.

"It is the job of the President of any body of people to make sure that those people feel safe and secure but in this case Elliot Hirshman didn’t do that. Even after we gave him 48 hours to condemn the hate speech on those flyers, he didn’t do that, which is why he must go," said Reverend Shane Harris, President of National Action Network.

NBC 7 San Diego reached out to President Hirshman for a response Wednesday.

Spokesperson Jill Esterbrooks says President Hirshman’s office is standing by a joint statement that was released on Monday to SDSU students, faculty and staff.

The statement in part, read, “We concluded by agreeing that in cases where racism, islamophobia, misogyny, homophobia and all forms of bigotry result, we abhor the content of such expressions, even as we recognize the protected status of these expressions."

A person pinned under a car was safely extricated and taken to a local hospital, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) Capt. Amador said. 

The incident happened Wednesday evening at approximately 5:50 p.m. on the 700 block of 11th Street in Imperial Beach, Amador said. 

A person was found pinned from the waist up by a Black Cadillac Sedan, Amador said. 

About ten minutes later, the patient was rescued and taken to a local hospital. The victim's condition is unknown. 

No other information was immediately available.

Check back for updates on this breaking news story. 

A new type of robot can perform tricky surgery as well as — and in some cases better than — human surgeons, NBC News reported. 

Researchers with Children’s National Medical Center in Washington said the new robot — called Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot, or STAR — could be operated with minimal human supervision. That means it frees up surgeons for work that requires more thought. 

The team, led by Dr. Peter Kim of Children's National Medical Center in Washington, compared the robot to some existing systems and to human surgeons. It was reported to be slow, but accurate, and managed to sew together two ends of a tiny pig intestine.

A jury found Steven Briel guilty of first-degree murder, strangulation and abduction in the death of a University of Mary Washington student last year.

Grace Mann, 20, was killed April 17, 2015, at the Fredericksburg, Virginia, home she shared with Briel and two other roommates.

The jury has recommended Briel be sentenced to life in prison with an additional 11 years.

Much of the courtroom was in tears during the verdict and jurors passed tissues to one another.

"All I ever wanted to do was be Grace's dad," Mann's father, Thomas Mann, said in a statement. "I want my daughter back."

"How do I explain to you what we've lost? How do I explan the hole in my arms and the hole in my heart," Melissa Mann, the victim's mother said.

The defense spent the first three days of his murder trial trying to show Briel was insane at the time.

"It's clear something is deeply and disturbingly wrong," defense attorney Mark Gardner said in his closing argument. "How could he be afraid of these young women? It's what most of us would say sounds insane. He's lost his damn mind."

In her closing argument, prosecutor La Bravia Jenkins urged jurors to reject the insanity defense, saying, "To make an excuse is inexcusable ... For a jury to accept that excuse would be dangerous for all of us."

Deliberations began shortly after 5 p.m. and lasted about three hours.

Dueling Diagnoses From Forensic Scientists

Forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Eileen Ryan, testified Wednesday that Briel did not understand the nature, character and consequent of his actions - the definition of insanity.

Ryan said Briel believed Mann had been tasked with killing him and was pumping poisonous gas into his bedroom.

When Mann returned home the day of her death and walked closely by Briel, he believed she was moving in to kill him, so he pushed her away, she fought back, he put his hand over her mouth, she bit him and he strangled her.

"He believed he was incapacitating Grace in self-defense," Ryan said. "He believed in his delusional mind he was about to be killed." 

The prosecution called its own forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Avram Mack, who testified he believes Briel was sane at the time of the attack and does not exhibit signs of schizophrenia.

The most powerful prosecution evidence came at the very end: A jailhouse phone call from Briel to his parents, recorded two weeks after Mann's death. Jurors heard a completely normal-sounding young man chatting and joking with his parents about books and jail food.

Briel's Mother Takes the Stand

Briel's mother, Mary Briel, took the stand for the defense Tuesday to explain her text messages with her son the day Mann was killed.

Mary Briel testified she began to worry about her son in the weeks before Mann’s death. When he sent his parents a rambling, troubling email, Mary Briel testified she thought he might kill himself. He also expressed concerns about his roommates.

His mother recalled a visit home five days before Mann’s death.

"He did mention he felt the girls were going to kill him and make it look like a suicide," she testified.

Steven Briel’s parents urged him to give his roommates notice and move out. The morning of Mann’s death, he confirmed plans with his mother to take the train home, she testified.

That afternoon, he sent a text message saying he was cleaning the house. During the following 30 minutes, Mann was strangled.

Steven Briel then sent another message to his mother, writing, “Hey, made a mess. Someone's at the door knocking. What should I do? Run?" 

She wrote back, "Are you serious? Don't answer.”

A few minutes later she wrote, “What the hell are you on? This is not funny.”

“I know. I'm scared,” he replied.

“Pack your clothes and get to a coffee place until the next train comes. Stat!!!!” Mary Briel texted back. 

She testified Tuesday she did not know what he was scared about at that moment.

He would send her another text, writing, “Hey, I'm in the woods. What should I do?”

“Get to the bus. You still have time,” she wrote back.

When she got home a short time later, she got a message from Fredericksburg police and learned her son was accused of murder.

Grace Mann’s Best Friend Testifies About Confronting Accused Killer 

Before the defense began its case Tuesday, Mann’s roommate Kathryn Erwin testified for the prosecution about confronting Steven Briel, introducing herself as Mann’s best friend.

She testified she received puzzling text messages from Briel as she and another roommate walked home that afternoon.

"I made a mess in Holly's room," texted Briel, referring to roommate Holly Aleksonis. Once the roommates were in the house, Briel emerged from a room.

"He'd sweated through his shirt. He seemed confused,” Erwin testified.

Briel then asked what she would you do if Mann wasn't there anymore.

Erwin testified she demanded to know what was going on, and Briel answered, “Grace came home and was a b---- to me. I slapped her. She bit me. So I strangled her.”

Erwin said she ordered Briel to go upstairs to his room, then she spotted Mann, whose skin was blue. 

Mann’s parents broke into tears as prosecutors played Erwin’s 911 call. She can be heard counting out her CPR compressions -- the number rising higher and higher -- with no response from Mann.

Grace Mann's Roommate Testifies on First Day of Murder Trial 

Aleksonis testified Monday about returning to the home and finding Briel drenched with sweat and speaking very quickly. She testified he stood before a closed bedroom door and said, "Grace and I got in an altercation. She hit me so I had to defend myself ... She bit me. What would you do if she weren't here anymore?'"

Aleksonis opened the door and saw her purple comforter on the floor.

"I pulled the comforter off," Aleksonis testified, "and Grace was there with a plastic bag over her head. I pulled it off and screamed and ran from the room."

As many in the courtroom sobbed, prosecutors played the 911 call from Aleksonis that day. She was so distraught, the dispatcher had trouble getting information until Aleksonis finally shouted, "My roommate strangled her!"