18 June 2013

Chalmers breaks out of slump sparks Heat in Game 6

Miami Heat shooting guard Dwyane Wade (3) grimaces after landing badly on his right knee during the first half of Game 6 of the NBA Finals basketball game, Tuesday, June 18, 2013 in Miami. San Antonio Spurs power forward Tim Duncan looks on (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)MIAMI (AP) — Mario Chalmers broke out of a shooting slump to score 10 points, lifting the Miami Heat to a 27-25 lead over the San Antonio Spurs after one quarter of Game 6 in the NBA Finals on Tuesday night.


18 June 2013

CBO: Senate Immigration bill would help economy

People shout out against the Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act in the hall outside the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The committee in the Republican-led House is preparing to cast its first votes on immigration this year, on a tough enforcement-focused measure that Democrats and immigrant groups are protesting loudly. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)WASHINGTON (AP) — Sweeping immigration legislation moving toward a vote in the Senate would boost the economy and reduce federal deficits, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday, at the same time it would bestow legal status on an estimated 8 million immigrants living in the United States unlawfully.


18 June 2013

Airborne laser reveals hidden city in Cambodia

In this photo taken on June 28, 2012, Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temples complex stands in Siem Reap province, some 230 kilometers (143 miles) northwest Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Airborne laser technology has uncovered a network of roadways and canals, illustrating a bustling ancient city linking Cambodia's Angkor Wat temples complex. The discovery was announced late Monday, June 17, 2013, in a peer-reviewed paper released early by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)SYDNEY (AP) — Airborne laser technology has uncovered a network of roadways and canals, illustrating a bustling ancient city linking Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple complex.


18 June 2013

House passes far-reaching anti-abortion bill

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2013, at House Judiciary Committee hearing to discuss the Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act. Republicans in the House of Representatives on Tuesday make their most concerted effort of the year to change U.S. abortion law with legislation that would ban almost all abortions after a fetus reaches the age of 20 weeks. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-led House on Tuesday passed a far-reaching anti-abortion bill that conservatives saw as a milestone in their 40-year campaign against legalized abortion and Democrats characterized as yet another example of a GOP war on women.


18 June 2013

Journalist Michael Hastings dead at 33

BuzzFeed Journalist Michael Hastings Dead at 33Michael Hastings, the award-winning journalist whose explosive 2010 Rolling Stone profile of U.S. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal ("The Runaway General") led to McChrystal's resignation, died in an early morning car accident in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the magazine said. He was 33. "Hard-charging, unabashedly opinionated, Hastings was original and at times abrasive," Rolling Stone, where [...]


18 June 2013

US, Taliban to start talks on ending Afghan war

Muhammad Naeem a representative of the Taliban speaks during a press conference at the official opening of their office in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday, June 18, 2013. In a major breakthrough, the Taliban and the U.S. announced Tuesday that they will hold talks on finding a political solution to ending nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan as the Islamic militant movement opened an office in Qatar. American officials with the Obama administration said the office in the Qatari capital of Doha was the first step toward the ultimate U.S.-Afghan goal of a full Taliban renouncement of links with al-Qaida. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban and the U.S. said Tuesday they will hold talks on finding a political solution to ending nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan, as the international coalition formally handed over control of the country's security to the Afghan army and police.


18 June 2013

CBO: 8 million to gain legal status in Senate bill

People shout out against the Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act in the hall outside the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The committee in the Republican-led House is preparing to cast its first votes on immigration this year, on a tough enforcement-focused measure that Democrats and immigrant groups are protesting loudly. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)WASHINGTON (AP) — About 8 million immigrants living unlawfully in the United States would gain legal status under sweeping legislation moving toward a vote in the Senate, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday, adding the bill would push federal deficits lower in each of the next two decades.


18 June 2013

Military plans would put women in most combat jobs

FILE - In this Sept. 18, 2012 file photo, female soldiers from 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division train on a firing range while testing new body armor in Fort Campbell, Ky., in preparation for their deployment to Afghanistan. Women may be able to begin training as Army Rangers by mid-2015, and as Navy SEALs a year later under broad plans Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is approving that would slowly bring women into thousands of combat jobs, including those in the country’s elite special operations forces, according to details of the plans submitted to Hagel that were obtained by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)WASHINGTON (AP) — Declaring "the days of Rambo are over," a top general said Tuesday that cultural, social and behavioral concerns may be bigger hurdles than tough physical fitness requirements for women looking to join the military's special operations units.


18 June 2013

Doctors: Aid Guantanamo hunger strikers

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA - MARCH 30: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been reviewed by the U.S. Military prior to transmission.) U.S. military guards watch detainees in a cell block at Camp 6 in the Guantanamo Bay detention center on March 30, 2010 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to close the prison by early 2010 but has struggled to transfer, try or release the remaining detainees from the facility, located on the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)"It is clear that they do not trust their military doctors," the physicians said.


18 June 2013

18 mayors: Limit use of food stamps to buy soda

FILE - In this March 12, 2013 file photo, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg looks at a 64-ounce cup, as Lucky's Cafe owner Greg Anagnostopoulos, left, stands behind him, during a news conference at the cafe in New York. The mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and 15 other cities are reviving a push against letting government food vouchers be used to buy soda and other sugary drinks. In a letter to congressional leaders Tuesday, the mayors say it’s “time to test and evaluate approaches limiting” the use of the subsidies’ for sugar-laden beverages. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)NEW YORK (AP) — The mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and 15 other cities are reviving a push against letting food stamps be used to buy soda and other sugary drinks.


18 June 2013

Hoffa mystery still fascinates after 4 decades

Law enforcement officials from the Michigan State Police help search the area in Oakland Township, Mich., Tuesday, June 18, 2013 where officials continue the search for the remains of Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa who disappeared from a Detroit-area restaurant in 1975. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The latest possible resting place of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa is an overgrown farm field where the normal calm of chirping crickets is being drowned out by a beeping backhoe, the chop of an overhead news helicopter and the bustle of reporters and onlookers.


18 June 2013

NSA director says plot against Wall Street foiled

From left, Deputy Attorney General James Cole; National Security Agency (NSA) Deputy Director Chris Inglis; NSA Director Gen. Keith B. Alexander; Deputy FBI Director Sean Joyce; and Robert Litt, general counsel to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; prepares to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2013, before the House Intelligence Committee hearing regarding NSA surveillance. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. foiled a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange because of the sweeping surveillance programs at the heart of a debate over national security and personal privacy, officials said Tuesday at a rare open hearing on intelligence led by lawmakers sympathetic to the spying.


18 June 2013

AP EXCLUSIVE: US war games send signal to Assad

U.S. Navy sailors stand in formation aboard the USS Stockdale before maneuvers with the Jordanian Navy in the Gulf of Aqaba, Jordan as part of Eager Lion, a multinational military exercise, Tuesday, June 18, 2013. Under the watchful eye of stern-faced American advisers, hundreds of U.S.-trained Jordanian soldiers are holding war games that could eventually form the basis of an assault in Syria. There is fear of spillover from the Syrian war in this U.S.-allied kingdom, and the potential for a Jordanian role in securing Syria's chemical stockpiles should Bashar Assad's regime lose control. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)ZARQA, Jordan (AP) — Under the watchful eye of stern-faced American advisers, hundreds of U.S.-trained Jordanian commandos fanned across this dusty desert plain, holding war games that could eventually form the basis of an assault in Syria.


18 June 2013

Turkey's 'standing man' launches new protest wave

Erdem Gunduz, centre, stands silently on Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, early Tuesday, June 18, 2013. After weeks of confrontation with police, sometimes violent, Turkish protesters are using a new form of resistance: standing silently. The development started late Monday when a solitary man began standing in passive defiance against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's authority at Istanbul's central Taksim Square. The square has been sealed off from mass protests since police cleared it over the weekend. The man has identified himself as Erdem Gunduz, a performance artist. His act has sparked imitation by others in Istanbul and other cities. It has provoked widespread comment on social media. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)ISTANBUL (AP) — After weeks of sometimes violent confrontation with police, protesters in Turkey have found what could be a more potent form of resistance: standing still.


18 June 2013

Obama welcomes talks with Taliban

Obama: US will meet Taliban ahead of Afghan-led peace processOn the agenda could be the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.