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  Boy Scouts approve plan to accept openly gay boys

  GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — After lengthy and wrenching debate, local leaders of the Boy Scouts of America have voted to open their ranks to openly gay boys for the first time, but heated reactions from the left and right made clear that the BSA's controversies are far from over.

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  Wash. I-5 bridge collapse caused by oversize load

  MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — A truck carrying an oversize load struck a bridge on the major thoroughfare between Seattle and Canada, sending a section of the span and two vehicles into the Skagit River below, though all three occupants suffered only minor injuries.

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  Obama balances threats against Americans' rights

  WASHINGTON (AP) — Forecasting the changing nature of threats against the U.S. for years to come, President Barack Obama says "America is at a crossroads." And so, too, is his presidency's counterterrorism policy, which has long struggled to balance protecting the nation from terror attacks while upolding Americans' rights.

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  IRS replaces official who revealed targeting

  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service official who led the unit that targeted tea party groups and publicly disclosed the activity has been replaced, making her the third top IRS official moved aside since the episode was revealed two weeks ago.

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  Summer travel forecast: Better, but no blowout

  NEW YORK (AP) — The forecast for summer travel, 2013: Partly sunny.

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  Russia: Syrian regime may take part in peace talks

  BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government has agreed "in principle" to attend a conference proposed by Russia and the United States on ending the Arab country's conflict, Russia's foreign ministry said Friday.

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  Attack casts spotlight on radical preachers

  LONDON (AP) — The slaying of a British soldier in southeast London cast a spotlight on radical preachers that influenced Michael Adebolajo, the attacker seen in videos with bloody hands holding a butcher knife. It also raised questions about the reach of the terrorist group al-Shabab, after a British government official said one of the two men tried to go to Somalia to train or fight with the gro...

• Uganda president ousts army boss amid dispute

  KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda's president fired his top military commander Friday, the ouster apparently linked to turmoil over President Yoweri Museveni's alleged plan to have his son succeed him as head of state.

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  Foreign preacher takes rare turn on Vietnam stage

  HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The 25,000 people at the soccer stadium and the millions more watching at home waited 90 minutes before the Australian evangelical preacher got to the message he had come to Communist-ruled Vietnam to deliver.

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  Jury foreman says Arias testimony didn't help her

  PHOENIX (AP) — As jurors in Jodi Arias' murder trial filed one by one from the courtroom after a dramatic five months of gut-wrenching testimony and gruesome photographs, three women on the panel cried and one looked to the victim's family, mouthing the word, "Sorry."

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  Safe room mandates remain rare in tornado states

  MOORE, Okla. (AP) — After living nearly 20 years in their one-story brick home, Sherry and Larry Wells finally won the lottery — for a state rebate on a home storm shelter, that is. A contractor finished installing the concrete bunker beneath the slab of their garage in early May. About three weeks later, the shelter saved their lives when a tornado that killed 24 people tore through their neighb...

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  Wash. I-5 bridge collapse caused by oversize load

  MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — A truck carrying an oversize load struck a bridge on the major thoroughfare between Seattle and Canada, sending a section of the span and two vehicles into the Skagit River below, though all three occupants suffered only minor injuries.

• Swim coach sentenced to 7 years for sex abuse

  ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — A once-prominent swimming coach who trained thousands of children was sentenced to seven years in prison Thursday for sexually abusing one of the girls he instructed.

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  Boy Scouts approve plan to accept openly gay boys

  GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — After lengthy and wrenching debate, local leaders of the Boy Scouts of America have voted to open their ranks to openly gay boys for the first time, but heated reactions from the left and right made clear that the BSA's controversies are far from over.

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  Plastic ocean debris the target of new Calif. bill

  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — It's a common sight on the nation's beaches: among the sand, sea foam and gnarled kelp lay plastic bottles, bags and other garbage.

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  Distraught mom becomes face of Oklahoma storm

  MOORE, Okla. (AP) — A massive tornado was carving its way through town. There was no time to hesitate. LaTisha Garcia had to get to her children.

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  Kid Rock, Rolling Stones on scalping, summer tours

  NEW YORK (AP) — Kid Rock is a scalper.

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  Hurricane center: Beware of the storm surge

  MIAMI (AP) — During a hurricane, storm surge is one of the greatest threats to life and land, yet many people don't understand the dire warnings from forecasters to get out of its way. So this season, they hope to offer easy-to-understand, color-coded maps and change the way they talk to the public.

• 5.7-magnitude quake widely felt across N. Calif.

  GREENVILLE, Calif. (AP) — An earthquake in far northeastern California was felt by thousands of people as far away as San Francisco and in two other states, but there have been no reports of injury or serious damage.

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  Jury foreman says Arias testimony didn't help her

  PHOENIX (AP) — As jurors in Jodi Arias' murder trial filed one by one from the courtroom after a dramatic five months of gut-wrenching testimony and gruesome photographs, three women on the panel cried and one looked to the victim's family, mouthing the word, "Sorry."

More

• Uganda president ousts army boss amid dispute

  KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda's president fired his top military commander Friday, the ouster apparently linked to turmoil over President Yoweri Museveni's alleged plan to have his son succeed him as head of state.

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  Kerry's focus on peace talks, not settlements

  TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israel's government on Friday to prevent further settlement construction where possible to help revitalize Middle East peace hopes, but stressed that the Jewish state and Palestinians alike should remain focused on the larger goal of estarting direct negotiations.

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  Russia: Syrian regime may take part in peace talks

  BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government has agreed "in principle" to attend a conference proposed by Russia and the United States on ending the Arab country's conflict, Russia's foreign ministry said Friday.

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  NKorean envoy delivers letter to China's Xi

  BEIJING (AP) — A top North Korean envoy delivered a letter from leader Kim Jong Un to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday and told him Pyongyang would take steps to rejoin stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, in an apparent victory for Beijing's efforts to coax its unruly ally into loweing tensions.

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  WHO: Scientific red tape mars efforts vs. virus

  GENEVA (AP) — International efforts to combat a new pneumonia-like virus that has now killed 22 people are being slowed by unclear rules and competition for the potentially profitable rights to disease samples, the head of the World Health Organization warned Thursday.

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  Liberia denies resource deals violated laws

  The Liberian government denied on Friday it had violated its own laws in awarding resource contracts and pledged to implement the recommendations of an independent audit into the deals.

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  Government support dips as Spaniards tire of crisis, corruption

  Public support for Spain's ruling center-right party has slipped following a high-level corruption scandal and ongoing recession, and Spaniards remain pessimistic about the political and economic outlook, a poll showed on Friday.

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  Somalia's security forces hamstrung by corruption, infiltrators

  Somalia's security forces need rebuilding to cement gains made by foreign troops against Islamist militants, but how to pay and arm recruits, tackle corruption and prevent rebels infiltrating their ranks remain hurdles for the cash-strapped government.

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  FBI releases photos of three men from Benghazi attack site

  The FBI on Thursday released the photographs of three men it said were at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, when it was attacked last September.

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  Anti-EU party shakes British PM's Conservatives in local vote

  The anti-European Union UK Independence Party made sweeping gains in local elections, siphoning support from British Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives in a vote that exposed a threat to his re-election chances in 2015.

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  Obama balances threats against Americans' rights

  WASHINGTON (AP) — Forecasting the changing nature of threats against the U.S. for years to come, President Barack Obama says "America is at a crossroads." And so, too, is his presidency's counterterrorism policy, which has long struggled to balance protecting the nation from terror attacks while upolding Americans' rights.

• 
  IRS replaces official who revealed targeting

  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service official who led the unit that targeted tea party groups and publicly disclosed the activity has been replaced, making her the third top IRS official moved aside since the episode was revealed two weeks ago.

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  Kerry blasts Iranian election maneuvering

  TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry harshly criticized Iranian authorities on Friday for eliminating hundreds of presidential candidates, suggesting that Tehran is standing in the way of legitimate, representative democracy.

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  Kerry's focus on peace talks, not settlements

  TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israel's government on Friday to prevent further settlement construction where possible to help revitalize Middle East peace hopes, but stressed that the Jewish state and Palestinians alike should remain focused on the larger goal of estarting direct negotiations.

• Obama lifts ban on Guantanamo transfers to Yemen

  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is lifting his self-imposed ban on transferring Guantanamo Bay detainees to Yemen, where a leadership upheaval has improved the country's security but not eliminated a terrorist organization trying to recruit jihadists.

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  Some unions now angry about health care overhaul

  WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Barack Obama pushed his health care overhaul plan through Congress, he counted labor unions among his strongest supporters.

• Obama sketches more targeted anti-terror plan

  Out with the global war on terror. In with more narrowly targeted counterterrorism policies that persistently zero in on violent extremists at home and abroad.

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  What's a drone? How is US drone policy changing?

  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama defended America's drone attacks as legal, effective and necessary in America's campaign to counter terrorism.

• Obama to tour Jersey Shore with Gov. Christie

  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama plans to give the Jersey Shore a boost with a post-Memorial Day visit to showcase recovery efforts in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

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  Obama addressing Naval Academy graduates 2nd time

  WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after laying out his counterterrorism vision, President Barack Obama is addressing future military leaders who could help carry it out in a speech to U.S. Naval Academy graduates.

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• Study: No higher cancer rate at Conn. Pratt plant

  HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Researchers examining the incidence of brain cancer at jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney in Connecticut say they have found no statistically significant elevations in the rate of cancer among workers.

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  Women have more options for breast cancer surgery

  CHICAGO (AP) — One of the world's most glamorous women had an operation that once was terribly disfiguring — removal of both breasts. But new approaches are dramatically changing breast surgeries, whether to treat cancer or to prevent it as Angelina Jolie just chose to do. As Jolie said, "the resuls can be beautiful.

• Portland, Ore., rejecting water fluoridation

  PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The mayor of Portland, Ore., has conceded defeat in an effort to add fluoride to the city's drinking water.

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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.

• Alabama mystery illness solved: it's common flu

  MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Health officials investigating a cluster of mysterious illnesses in Alabama closed their investigation Thursday after determining the illnesses were unrelated and no new bacteria or viruses were involved.

• Judge in NYC refuses to suspend his Plan B ruling

  NEW YORK (AP) — A government appeal of a ruling giving women of all ages broad access to morning-after birth control is frivolous, a federal judge said Friday as he refused to suspend enforcement of his decision pending appeal.

• FDA denies request to block generic painkiller

  WASHINGTON (AP) — In a surprise move Friday, federal health regulators denied a request by Endo Health Solutions to block generic versions of its painkiller Opana ER, which the company argued are more easily abused than its branded product.

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  India announces low-cost rotavirus vaccine

  NEW DELHI (AP) — The Indian government announced Tuesday the development of a new low-cost vaccine proven effective against a diarrhea-causing virus that is one of the leading causes of childhood deaths across the developing world.

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  Tougher drunken driving threshold recommended

  WASHINGTON (AP) — States should cut their threshold for drunken driving by nearly half — from .08 blood alcohol level to 0.5 — matching a standard that has substantially reduced highway deaths in other countries, a U.S. safety board recommends. That's about one drink for a woman weighing less than 20 lbs.

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  US government files morning-after pill appeal

  NEW YORK (AP) — The Obama administration on Monday filed a last-minute appeal to delay the sale of the morning-after contraceptive pill to girls of any age without a prescription.

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  Cockroaches quickly lose sweet tooth to survive

  NEW YORK (AP) — For decades, people have been getting rid of cockroaches by setting out bait mixed with poison. But in the late 1980s, in an apartment test kitchen in Florida, something went very wrong.

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  NASA head views progress on asteroid lasso mission

  PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Surrounded by engineers, NASA chief Charles Bolden inspected a prototype spacecraft engine that could power an audacious mission to lasso an asteroid and tow it closer to Earth for astronauts to explore.

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  Hurricane outlook: Another busy Atlantic season

  COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Get ready for another busy hurricane season, maybe an unusually wild one, federal forecasters say.

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  2013 hurricane names: From Andrea to Wendy

  Weather forecasters are predicting another busy Atlantic hurricane season. The storms will get their names from an alphabetical list of 21 names:

• Study: Amphibians disappearing at alarming rate

  GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A new study has determined for the first time just how quickly frogs and other amphibians are disappearing around the United States, and the news is not good.

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  Solar-powered plane takes off for flight across U.S.

  A solar-powered airplane that developers hope to eventually pilot around the world took off early on Friday from San Francisco Bay on the first leg of an attempt to fly across the United States with no fuel but the sun's energy.

• Space junk needs to be removed from Earth's orbit: ESA

  Space junk such as debris from rockets must be removed from the Earth's orbit to avoid crashes that could cost satellite operators millions of euros and knock out mobile and GPS networks, the European Space Agency said.

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  Alexander Graham Bell speaks, and 2013 hears his voice

  Nine years after he placed the first telephone call, Alexander Graham Bell tried another experiment: he recorded his voice on a wax-covered cardboard disc on April 15, 1885, and gave it an audio signature: "Hear my voice - Alexander Graham Bell."

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  Campaigners call for ban on "killer robots"

  Machines with the ability to attack targets without any human intervention must be banned before they are developed for use on the battlefield, campaigners against "killer robots" urged on Tuesday.

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  Virgin's passenger spaceship completes first rocket test flight

  (Reuters) - A six-passenger spaceship owned by an offshoot of Virgin Group fired its rocket engine in flight for the first time on Monday, a key step toward the start of commercial service in about a year, Virgin owner Richard Branson said.

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  For Philadelphia bicyclist, a cat is his co-pilot

  PHILADELPHIA (AP) — For bicyclist Rudi Saldia, you could say a cat is his co-pilot.

• Fugitive in LA attempted-murder case held in Colo.

  LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man wanted for 13 years on attempted murder charges in Los Angeles was captured in Colorado after someone called police to report he was urinating on a wall outside a KFC restaurant.

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  Council members abstain from vote on abstaining

  YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) — Three members of a Michigan city council have abstained from voting on a measure that would have prevented them from abstaining on future votes.

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  Brown hounded for calling Manila 'gates of hell'

  MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Dan Brown's description of Manila as "the gates of hell" in the American novelist's latest book has not gone down well with officials in the Philippine capital.

• Crane accident cuts power to one-third of Vietnam

  HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — One mistake by a clumsy crane operator caused a 10-hour blackout over about a third of Vietnam, exposing the fragility of the nation's power grid.

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  Goat on the lam snarls NJ's Pulaski Skyway traffic

  JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — A goat believed to have escaped en route to a slaughterhouse snarled the morning commute along one of the busiest roadways in northern New Jersey on Tuesday, leading police on a nearly two-hour chase.

• Thailand urged to explore edible insect market

  BANGKOK (AP) — Researchers say Thailand is showing the world how to respond to the global food crisis: by raising bugs for eating.

• Aussie minister sorry he 'liked' exposed teen pic

  SYDNEY (AP) — An Australian politician says he has learned a valuable lesson in social networking after he "liked" a Facebook photo without realizing that it showed a teenage prankster exposing himself.

• NKorea: Detained American smuggled in propaganda

  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea delivered its most in-depth account yet of the case against a Korean-American sentenced to 15 years' hard labor, accusing him late Thursday of smuggling in inflammatory literature and trying to establish a base for anti-Pyongyang activities at a border city hotl.

• Critter cams provide peek into the lives of bears

  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Biologists at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are getting a peek into what city bears do all day.

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• Pandora posts in-line 1Q loss, upbeat sales

  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Internet radio company Pandora Media Inc. reported higher-than-expected revenue in the latest quarter, with losses in line with analysts' forecasts, as the number of subscribers who pay for ad-free listening more than doubled to exceed 2.5 million.

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  Review: Google music plan solid, serendipitous

  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Google's new music service offers a lot of eye candy to go with the tunes. The song selection of around 18 million tracks is comparable to popular services such as Spotify and Rhapsody, and a myriad of playlists curated along different genres provides a big playground for music lvers.

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  HP's 2Q offers hope even as revenue slump deepens

  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hewlett-Packard is still scrambling to meet the growing demand for more versatile and less expensive mobile devices as a slump in its personal computer sales deepens, but the company's cost-cutting measures and focus on more profitable areas of technology appear to be easing th pain.

• Twitter adds security measure to logins

  NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter is adding an extra security measure to users' accounts in an effort to prevent unauthorized logins.

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  Google to add Galapagos Islands to Street View

  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Few have explored the remote volcanic islands of the Galapagos archipelago, an otherworldly landscape inhabited by the world's largest tortoises and other fantastical creatures that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

• Lenovo says quarterly profit up 90 percent

  BEIJING (AP) — Computer maker Lenovo Group said Thursday its latest quarterly profit rose 90 percent as sales of smartphones and mobile computing technology expanded.

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  First Look: New Xbox elegant, but much unknown

  REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Will gamers want One?

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  The new consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony

  NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft is the last of the three big video game console makers to unveil its latest gaming system. The unveiling comes nearly eight years after the Xbox 360 went on sale. It follows last fall's debut of Nintendo's Wii U and a preview in February of the upcoming PlayStation 4 from ony.

• Prosecutor: IPad theft defendants ambushed victim

  LAS VEGAS (AP) — Two men accused of killing a high school freshman who refused to let go of his iPad were like wild animals ambushing a weak victim, a prosecutor said Thursday.

• Jennifer Lopez to open cellphone stores

  NEW YORK (AP) — "Jenny from the Block" wants the block to buy Verizon phones from her.

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