national news

U.S. soldiers from the NATO-led coalition force relax beside a basketball court as night falls at the Kandahar Air Field, AfghanistanBy David Alexander and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. military official declared "the days of Rambo are over" as the Pentagon unveiled its plans on Tuesday for integrating women into combat infantry positions following 12 years of war in which they fought and died in Iraq and Afghanistan while barred from front-line fighting jobs. The plans, which call for gender-neutral job requirements like scaling walls and lifting 55-pound (25-kg) tank ammunition, will require more years of study, education and training before some services open combat jobs to women. ...


2013-06-18 19:08:19 -0500

A street sign for Wall Street hangs in front of the New York Stock ExchangeBy John Shiffman and Mark Hosenball (Reuters) WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday identified two of the more than 50 classified cases in which they say National Security Agency eavesdropping helped thwart terrorist plots including a planned attack on the New York Stock Exchange. The other, a San Diego money laundering investigation tied to financing for a Somali militia, is among the 27 cases cited in a Reuters report Tuesday in which the U.S. government filed public notice that it used a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant. ...


2013-06-18 17:21:15 -0500
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Oklahoma executed on Tuesday a man who was convicted of stabbing an elderly couple to death during a robbery at their home that netted $73, some of which he and convicted accomplices used to buy tacos. James Lewis DeRosa, 36, was pronounced dead at 6:07 p.m. CDT (1907 ET) after a lethal injection at a state prison, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said. DeRosa was convicted of killing Poteau couple Curtis Plummer, 73, and Gloria Plummer, 70, during a robbery in 2000. (Reporting by Heide Brandes)
2013-06-18 18:40:21 -0500
Larry Swilling has been on a months-long quest: He's  searching for a kidney for his wife. The 78-year-old, who has been looking for a compatible kidney donor for 76-year-old Jimmie Sue since last September, has caught the attention of the Web. But almost a year later, and despite lots of good will and plenty of [...]
2013-06-18 17:38:04 -0500