• 
  Fed suggests it's closer to slowing bond purchases

  WASHINGTON (AP) — In a move that could send interest rates higher, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke ended weeks of speculation Wednesday by saying the Federal Reserve will likely slow its bond-buying program this year and end it next year because the economy is strengthening.

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  Actor James Gandolfini dies in Italy at age 51

  LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Gandolfini, whose portrayal of a brutal, emotionally delicate mob boss in HBO's "The Sopranos" was the brilliant core of one of TV's greatest drama series and turned the mobster stereotype on its head, died Wednesday in Italy. He was 51.

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  10 Things to Know for Thursday

  Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Thursday:

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  Obama making plans to tackle global warming

  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is planning a major push using executive powers to tackle the pollution blamed for global warming in an effort to make good on promises he made at the start of his second term. "We know we have to do more — and we will do more," Obama said Wednesday in Berli.

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  US tries saving Taliban talks after Karzai objects

  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Hopes dimmed for talks aimed at ending the Afghan war when an angry President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday suspended security negotiations with the U.S. and scuttled a peace delegation to the Taliban, sending American officials scrambling to preserve the possibility of dialoge with the militants.

• Bipartisan proposal on student loans circulating

  WASHINGTON (AP) — Students applying for financial aid for the coming school year could find some comfort in a bipartisan student loan compromise taking shape in the Senate that would prevent interest rates from doubling and set a single rate each year for undergraduate students, rich or poor.

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  Compromise among senators eyed on border security

  WASHINGTON (AP) — After secretive talks, key senators expressed optimism Wednesday night that they were closing in on a bipartisan agreement to toughen the border security requirements in immigration legislation that also offers a path to citizenship to millions living in the country illegally.

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  Few options for Brazil leader in face of protests

  SAO PAULO (AP) — With massive protests by middle-class Brazilians demanding wholesale government reforms, people all over this continent-sized country have reached a verdict on the streets and online: "The giant has awakened."

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  FBI ends Michigan search for Hoffa's remains

  OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Beneath a swimming pool, under a horse farm and now a weed-grown field north of Detroit. For at least the third time in a decade, FBI agents grabbed shovels and combed through dirt and mud in the search for Jimmy Hoffa's remains or clues to the disappearance of the fomer Teamsters boss.

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  Stars share reaction to James Gandolfini's death

  LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Gandolfini's fans and colleagues shared reaction to his death Wednesday:

More

• New Colo. wildfire prompts evacuations of homes

  EVERGREEN, Colo. (AP) — A new wildfire in the foothills southwest of Denver forced the evacuation of dozens of homes Wednesday as hot and windy conditions in much of Colorado and elsewhere in the West made it easy for fires to start and spread.

• 
  Obama making plans to tackle global warming

  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is planning a major push using executive powers to tackle the pollution blamed for global warming in an effort to make good on promises he made at the start of his second term. "We know we have to do more — and we will do more," Obama said Wednesday in Berli.

• 
  Men's Wearhouse ousts founder, pitchman Zimmer

  NEW YORK (AP) — Men's Wearhouse doesn't like the way its founder looks anymore.

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  As fires rage, feds cut funding on prevention

  COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — As the West battles one catastrophic wildfire after another, the federal government is spending less and less on its main program for preventing blazes in the first place.

• 
  Compromise among senators eyed on border security

  WASHINGTON (AP) — After secretive talks, key senators expressed optimism Wednesday night that they were closing in on a bipartisan agreement to toughen the border security requirements in immigration legislation that also offers a path to citizenship to millions living in the country illegally.

• 
  Russia could stand in way of Obama's nuke cuts

  WASHINGTON (AP) — By saying he intends to bargain with Russia over new reductions in nuclear weapons, rather than make cuts on his own, President Barack Obama is asking for cooperation from a former Cold War foe in no mood to agree.

• 
  FBI ends Michigan search for Hoffa's remains

  OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Beneath a swimming pool, under a horse farm and now a weed-grown field north of Detroit. For at least the third time in a decade, FBI agents grabbed shovels and combed through dirt and mud in the search for Jimmy Hoffa's remains or clues to the disappearance of the fomer Teamsters boss.

• 
  Former TWA Flight 800 investigators want new probe

  MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — Former investigators are pushing to reopen the probe into the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, saying new evidence points to the often-discounted theory that a missile strike may have downed the jumbo jet.

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  Wooden beam could be detached part of shipwreck

  FAIRPORT, Mich. (AP) — A wooden beam that has long been the focus of the search for a 17th century shipwreck in northern Lake Michigan was not attached to a buried vessel as searchers had suspected, but still may have come from the elusive Griffin or some other ship, archaeologists said Wednesday.

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  Mueller: FBI uses drones for surveillance

  WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI uses drones for surveillance of stationary subjects, and the privacy implications of such operations are "worthy of debate," FBI Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday.

More

• 
  US tries saving Taliban talks after Karzai objects

  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Hopes dimmed for talks aimed at ending the Afghan war when an angry President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday suspended security negotiations with the U.S. and scuttled a peace delegation to the Taliban, sending American officials scrambling to preserve the possibility of dialoge with the militants.

• 
  Militants storm UN compound in Somalia; 20 killed

  MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Seven al-Qaida-linked militants on a suicide mission attacked the U.N. compound Wednesday with a truck bomb and then poured inside, killing at least 13 people before dying in the assault.

• 
  Obama urges 'bold' nuclear cuts in Berlin speech

  BERLIN (AP) — Summoning the harsh history of this once-divided city, President Barack Obama on Wednesday cautioned the U.S. and Europe against "complacency" brought on by peace, pledging to cut America's deployed nuclear weapons by one-third if Cold War foe Russia does the same.

• China's Xi harks back to Mao in party 'cleanup'

  BEIJING (AP) — China's new leader Xi Jinping is commanding wayward Communist Party cadres to purify themselves of corruption, and he's summed it up in a pithy slogan as Mao Zedong might have done: Look in the mirror, take a bath.

• New MERS virus spreads easily, deadlier than SARS

  LONDON (AP) — A mysterious new respiratory virus that originated in the Middle East spreads easily between people and appears more deadly than SARS, doctors reported Wednesday after investigating the biggest outbreak in Saudi Arabia.

More

• 
  Obama making plans to tackle global warming

  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is planning a major push using executive powers to tackle the pollution blamed for global warming in an effort to make good on promises he made at the start of his second term. "We know we have to do more — and we will do more," Obama said Wednesday in Berli.

• 
  Compromise among senators eyed on border security

  WASHINGTON (AP) — After secretive talks, key senators expressed optimism Wednesday night that they were closing in on a bipartisan agreement to toughen the border security requirements in immigration legislation that also offers a path to citizenship to millions living in the country illegally.

• Dem senator presses Pentagon on Guantanamo feeding

  WASHINGTON (AP) — The force-feeding of terror suspects at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, runs counter to international standards, medical ethics and the practices at American prisons, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday in pressing the Pentagon to estalish a more humane treatment.

• 
  Russia could stand in way of Obama's nuke cuts

  WASHINGTON (AP) — By saying he intends to bargain with Russia over new reductions in nuclear weapons, rather than make cuts on his own, President Barack Obama is asking for cooperation from a former Cold War foe in no mood to agree.

• 
  Mueller: FBI uses drones for surveillance

  WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI uses drones for surveillance of stationary subjects, and the privacy implications of such operations are "worthy of debate," FBI Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday.

• House votes to cut food stamps by $2 billion

  WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted on Wednesday to cut food stamps by $2 billion a year as part of a wide-ranging farm bill.

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  IRS draws new criticism over $70M employee bonuses

  WASHINGTON (AP) — Already reeling from a pair of scandals, the Internal Revenue Service is drawing new criticism over plans to hand out millions of dollars in employee bonuses.

• Senate backs Froman as next trade representative

  WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael Froman, a senior White House economic adviser and classmate of President Barack Obama at Harvard Law School, on Wednesday won Senate confirmation to be the next U.S. trade representative.

• 
  Oversight board concerned about NSA surveillance

  WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the federal oversight board that President Barack Obama said will meet with him to discuss the National Security Agency's secret surveillance program said Wednesday that the group has numerous concerns about the operation and plans to publish a report after a full nquiry.

• Bipartisan proposal on student loans circulating

  WASHINGTON (AP) — Students applying for financial aid for the coming school year could find some comfort in a bipartisan student loan compromise taking shape in the Senate that would prevent interest rates from doubling and set a single rate each year for undergraduate students, rich or poor.

More

• Pa. girl who fought for lung transplant improving

  PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The mother of a 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl whose efforts to qualify for an organ donation led to debate over how organs are allocated says she's improving after her double-lung transplant.

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  Cancer Society hits 100 as US cancer rate falls

  NEW YORK (AP) — The American Cancer Society — one of the nation's best known and influential health advocacy groups — is 100 years old this week.

• 
  Sunscreen slows skin aging, if used often enough

  WASHINGTON (AP) — If worry about skin cancer doesn't make you slather on sunscreen, maybe vanity will: New research provides some of the strongest evidence to date that near-daily sunscreen use can slow the aging of your skin.

• 
  NY judge: Fed plan for morning-after pill sales OK

  NEW YORK (AP) — President Barack Obama's administration can go forward with its new plan to make the morning-after pill available to buyers of any age without prescriptions, but it needs to do it promptly or face potential sanctions in the long-running dispute over access to the emergency contracepives, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

• Study: Wiser medication use could cut health costs

  TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — If doctors and patients used prescription drugs more wisely, they could save the U.S. health care system at least $213 billion a year, a study concludes.

• Teen birth rates decline in most US states

  The U.S. teen birth rate fell 25 percent over five years to a record low of 31 births per 1,000 teens ages 15 to 19, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• 
  UK to start regulating e-cigarettes as medicines

  LONDON (AP) — Britain will start regulating electronic cigarettes and other products containing nicotine as medicines, according to the country's top regulator.

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  Vinegar cancer test saves lives, India study finds

  MUMBAI, India (AP) — A study of women in India has found that a simple test using vinegar could save thousands of lives a year by spotting early signs of cervical cancer.

• Gender report of Shah Rukh Khan baby investigated

  NEW DELHI (AP) — Health officials in Mumbai are investigating reports that Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and his wife know the sex of a baby they are having through a surrogate mother.

• Nevada ACLU backing suit against 'patient dumping'

  LAS VEGAS (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada is joining a federal civil rights lawsuit challenging what it calls Nevada's policy of sending state psychiatric hospital patients to cities outside the state.

More

• Wilson, Nobel winner for physics, dies in Maine

  PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Physicist Kenneth Wilson, who earned a Nobel prize for pioneering work that changed the way physicists think about phase transitions, has died in Maine, where he retired to enjoy kayaking with his wife. He was 77.

• 
  Airborne laser reveals hidden city in Cambodia

  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.

• 
  Official: Solar plane to help energy use on ground

  CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) — The plane parked outside the airport looks more like a giant exotic insect or maybe an outsized balsa wood toy airplane.

• 'Dead zones' predicted for Gulf, Chesapeake Bay

  NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Scientists in Michigan and Louisiana are predicting a big summer "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico unless a tropical storm hits the area shortly before or during the annual measurement. In the Chesapeake Bay, scientists expect a smaller-than-average area where there's too little xygen to support fish, shellfish and other aquatic life.

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  NASA picks 8 new astronauts, 4 of them women

  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has eight new astronauts — its first new batch in four years.

More

• NJ cease and desist order brings scathing rebuttal

  NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Rare is the legal rebuttal that calls a cease and desist order a "literary gag gift" and uses the phrase "big meanie."

• 
  Cat nurses orphaned pit bull puppy in Ohio

  CLEVELAND (AP) — A cat caring for four newborn kittens is nursing an orphaned week-old pit bull puppy in Cleveland.

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  Fluffy cows: Old beauty practice gains attention

  ADEL, Iowa (AP) — Grooming cows so they look like unusually large poodles is a well-known beautification practice in the show cattle industry.

• Ed Koch's tombstone engraved with wrong birth date

  NEW YORK (AP) — Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch meticulously planned his own funeral, but his tombstone has the wrong birth date.

• Minn. mother, son accused of stealing gopher feet

  PRESTON, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota mother and her 18-year-old son are accused of stealing nearly $5,000 in frozen gopher feet and selling them for a bounty.

• Hitchhiking cat 'Mata Hairi' headed home to Oregon

  HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A well-traveled cat named "Mata Hairi" will soon be reunited with her owner after spending nearly 10 months traveling thousands of miles with a hitchhiker who rescued her from the rain.

• 
  US Marshals auction scammer's diamond, other loot

  LAS VEGAS (AP) — Want to own a 5-carat diamond from a Texas scammer?

• Danish supermarket got drugs instead of bananas

  COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Drug traffickers back in Colombia must be going bananas over how their shipment ended up at Danish supermarkets and not on the streets.

• 'Happy Birthday to You' copyright suit filed in NY

  NEW YORK (AP) — A production company making a documentary about the song "Happy Birthday to You" is challenging the copyright to the famous jingle.

• 
  Charlie Trotter accused of selling bogus $46K wine

  CHICAGO (AP) — Award-winning chef Charlie Trotter is being sued by two New York wine collectors who say he sold them a bottle of wine for more than $46,000 that wasn't what it said on the label.

More

• 
  Review: Google Reader's end hatches better service

  NEW YORK (AP) — On July 1, we say goodbye to Google Reader, a handy tool for bringing headlines and articles from your favorite websites into a single place.

• LA to give every student an iPad; $30M order

  NEW YORK (AP) — Los Angeles' school system, the second largest in the United States, is ordering iPads for all its students, handing Apple a major success in its quest to make the tablet computer a replacement for textbooks.

• Leading 3-D printer firms to merge in $403M deal

  MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Stratasys, a leading maker of 3-D printers, is buying another 3-D printer manufacturer, MakerBot, for $403 million in stock.

• 
  Dotcom 'in tears' after Megaupload files deleted

  WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom said Thursday he was "in tears" after a European company deleted all the data it was hosting from his shuttered file-sharing site.

• Microsoft changes Xbox One policies after outcry

  NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft rolled back a much-criticized requirement that its upcoming Xbox One gaming console be regularly connected to the Internet and made clear that there will be no limitations on sharing games.

• Red Hat's 1Q net up on higher subscription revenue

  RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Red Hat Inc., the company behind the Linux open-source operating system, said Wednesday that net income in its fiscal first-quarter grew 8 percent as subscription revenue increased.

• DreamWorks says TV revenue to hit $200M by 2015

  LOS ANGELES (AP) — DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., the studio behind "Shrek" and "Kung Fu Panda," said Tuesday that a new deal to provide original TV shows to Netflix will help it double the revenue it gets from TV shows to $200 million by 2015.

• Icahn changes tack, seeks $16B Dell stock buyback

  NEW YORK (AP) — Activist investor Carl Icahn on Tuesday proposed a $16 billion share buyback in his latest effort to thwart Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell's effort to take the struggling computer maker private.

• 
  Award-winning journalist Michael Hastings dies

  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Hastings, the war correspondent whose unflinching reporting from Afghanistan led to the resignation of a top U.S. army general, has died in a car accident in Los Angeles, according to his employer and family.

• 
  Social network gaffes plague Japanese politicians

  TOKYO (AP) — On the Internet, no one can save you from yourself. That is a lesson many Japanese politicians have learned recently in painful, awkward and at times costly fashion.

More