Today is Wednesday, May 22, the 142nd day of 2013. There are 223 days left in the year.
By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Senate panel voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to send weapons to rebels fighting Syria's government, but it was not clear who would get the arms even if the bill succeeds, as Washington struggles to deal with its response to the conflict. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 15-3 for legislation that would send arms to "vetted" moderate members of the Syrian opposition, the first time U.S. lawmakers have approved such military action in the two-year-old civil war. ...
PM says growing expenses scandal a distraction OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday dismissed a mushrooming expenses scandal as a distraction, but also said he was "very upset" that members of his Conservative Party had apparently tapped the public purse for personal gain. Harper, facing the biggest crisis since he won power in early 2006 with promises to clean up government, urged legislators to focus on the economy, which the Conservatives see as their strongest suit. ...
By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Senate panel voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to send weapons to rebels fighting Syria's government, but it was not clear who would get the arms even if the bill succeeds, as Washington struggles to deal with its response to the conflict. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 15-3 for legislation that would send arms to "vetted" moderate members of the Syrian opposition, the first time U.S. lawmakers have approved such military action in the two-year-old civil war. ...
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Lawyers in the court-martial of an Army private who sent more than 700,000 classified U.S. documents to WikiLeaks said Tuesday they have reached a deal that may eliminate the need for testimony from a member of the military team that killed Osama bin Laden. Prosecutors also agreed to accept Pfc. Bradley Manning's guilty plea to a lesser version of one of the 22 counts he faces.
NEW YORK, May 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The war on violence in America's communities just got a bit more winnable. A brave group of American veteran leaders have banded together to join the campaign to save America's youth from tragic gun violence. A battle they would rather not have to fight, but these veterans are perhaps the best suited force in America with the credibility, experience and commitment to win. ...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate panel voted on Tuesday to provide weapons to rebels battling the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the first time lawmakers have endorsed the aggressive U.S. military step of arming the opposition in the 2-year-old civil war.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army says the commanding general of Fort Jackson, S.C., has been suspended in connection with charges of adultery and involvement in a physical altercation.
By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - A series of bomb and gun attacks across Iraq killed more than 40 people on Tuesday, a day after over 70 died in violence targeting majority Shi'ites that has stoked fears of all-out sectarian war with minority Sunnis. Nearly 300 people have been killed in the past week as sectarian tensions, fuelled by the civil war in neighboring Syria, threaten to plunge Iraq back into communal bloodletting. Ten years after the U.S. ...
BAGHDAD (AP) — Here is a look at the deadliest attacks in Iraq since the withdrawal of U.S. troops on Dec. 18, 2011:
BAGHDAD (AP) — A car bomb exploded as Sunni worshippers were leaving a mosque after evening prayers Tuesday in Baghdad, the deadliest in a string of attacks that killed at least 20 people nationwide in a week of the most sustained sectarian violence in the country since U.S. troops withdrew more than a year ago.
The eight candidates approved Tuesday for Iran's June 14 presidential election to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who cannot run again because of term limits.
Iran’s smiling but immovable top nuclear negotiator, a revolutionary and wounded war veteran with a decades-old suspicion of the United States, has become a frontrunner in Iran’s presidential race.
By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Bank plans substantial new funds to help Jordan cope with the influx of refugees from the civil war in Syria, and hopes new funds for central Africa will cement a peace deal there, the bank's President Jim Yong Kim said on Tuesday. "There will be significant amounts of new funding going to Jordan in the very near future to deal with this crisis," he said in an interview, after a speech at the U.N. World Health Assembly in Geneva. ...
BAGHDAD (AP) — New attacks in Iraq killed 13 people and wounded dozens on Tuesday, officials said, after a bloody day that claimed more than 100 lives across the country.
Supreme Court Should Strike Down DOMA; Ensure Equal Treatment for All Service Members and their FamiliesWASHINGTON, May 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, May 22, in advance of Memorial Day, the Respect for Marriage Coalition will hold a conference call with Former Congressman, Army Captain and Iraq War Veteran Patrick Murphy, Outserve-SLDN Executive Director Allyson Robinson, American Military Partner Association Director of Family Affairs Ashley Broadway and military widow Karen Morgan to highlight the harms of Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on the nation's military. ...
The government will accept an Army private's guilty plea to a lesser version of one of the 22 counts he faces for sending more than 700,000 classified U.S. documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, ...
In early January 2006, less than a month after I arrived in Iraq as a young U.S. Army lieutenant, I witnessed my first act of violence committed against Iraqi civilians. While on a patrol on a highway 20 km south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting my platoon exploded a second too late–or perhaps a second too early–in front of my vehicle and behind my wingman, tearing instead into a tiny pickup truck traveling in the right hand lane. When I ran up to the truck, I found the driver dead, his head nearly decapitated.
KABUL, Afghanistan — None of President Hamid Karzai's top advisers knew that he had been receiving tens of millions of dollars in secret cash from the CIA, Afghanistan's senior anticorruption official said, and he added that he did not believe the Afghan leader's claim that he had been giving the agency regular receipts for the money.
At least four of the top staffers from the Democrat's last presidential campaign won't re-up in 2016
BAGHDAD (AP) — New attacks in Iraq killed seven people and wounded dozens on Tuesday, officials said, after a bloody day that claimed more than 100 lives across the country.
KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Several bomb blasts killed at least 12 people in Iraq on Tuesday, police said, a day after more than 70 died in attacks on majority Shi'ites, stoking fears of all-out sectarian war with minority Sunnis. More than 200 people have been killed in the past week as Sunni-Shi'ite tensions, fuelled by the civil war in neighboring Syria, threaten to plunge Iraq back into communal bloodletting. ...
BAGHDAD (AP) — Officials say new attacks in Iraq have killed seven people and wounded dozens.
A two-mile-wide tornado kills dozens in Oklahoma, Senators say Apple avoided billions in taxes, and more
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Two FBI agents who died while training off the Virginia Beach coast fell to their deaths when a helicopter had trouble during a "maritime counterterrorism exercise," an agency spokeswoman said Monday night.
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The two FBI agents who died while training off the Virginia Beach coast were part of the agency's elite hostage rescue team, a group known most recently for rescuing an Alabama boy from an underground bunker.
By Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration has decided to give the Pentagon control of some drone operations against terrorism suspects overseas that are currently run by the CIA, several U.S. government sources said on Monday. Obama has pledged more transparency on controversial counterterrorism programs, and giving the Pentagon the responsibility for part of the drone program could open it to greater congressional oversight. ...
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Tuesday:
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Dominic Evans AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas have fought their biggest battle yet for Syria's beleaguered president, prompting international alarm that the civil war may spread and an urgent call for restraint from the United States. About 30 Hezbollah fighters were killed on Sunday, Syrian activists said, along with 20 Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad during the fiercest fighting this year in the rebel stronghold of Qusair, near the Lebanon border. ...
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's wave of bloodshed sharply escalated Monday with more than a dozen car bombings across the country, part of attacks that killed at least 95 people and brought echoes of past sectarian carnage and fears of a dangerous spillover from Syria's civil war next door.
After the death of more than 60 people in a series of car bombs today targeting Iraq's majority Shiite community and weeks of escalating sectarian attacks, many are wondering if the country's simmering sectarian tensions will tumble once again into all-out civil war.
BAGHDAD (AP) — A wave of attacks killed at least 95 people in Shiite and Sunni areas of Iraq on Monday, officials said, pushing the death toll over the past week to more than 240 and extending one of the most sustained bouts of sectarian violence the country has seen in years.
By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 70 people were killed in a series of car bombings and suicide attacks targeting Shi'ite Muslims across Iraq on Monday, police and medics said, extending the worst sectarian violence since U.S. troops withdrew in December 2011. The attacks increased the number killed in sectarian clashes in the past week to more than 200. Tensions between Shi'ites, who now lead Iraq, and minority Sunni Muslims have reached a point where some fear a return to all-out civil conflict. No group claimed responsibility for the bombings. ...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry challenged Congress on Monday to go beyond its investigations of embassy security and help ensure that U.S. embassies and consulates abroad have the resources they need for appropriate security. His comments come as the Republicans continue to press for answers about the Obama administration's handling of last year's deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.
BAGHDAD (AP) — A wave of attacks killed at least 86 people in Shiite and Sunni areas of Iraq on Monday, officials said, pushing the death toll over the past week to more than 230 and extending one of the most sustained bouts of sectarian violence the country has seen in years.
BAGHDAD (AP) — A wave of attacks killed at least 79 people in Shiite and Sunni areas of Iraq on Monday, officials said, pushing the death toll over the past week to more than 200 and extending one of the most sustained bouts of sectarian violence the country has seen in years.
BAGHDAD (AP) — A wave of car bombs and shootings killed at least 70 people in Shiite and Sunni areas of Iraq on Monday, officials said, escalating fears of a return to widespread sectarian bloodletting in the country.
"We will not stop until we've seen this scourge, from what is the greatest military in the world, eliminated."