Allies: attacks on Afghan troops by colleagues rise sharply
KABUL, Afghanistan — Even as attacks by Afghan security forces on NATO troops have become an increasing source of tension, new NATO data shows another sign of vulnerability for the training mission: even greater numbers of the Afghan police and military forces have killed each other this year.
Europeans to debate further aid for Greece, encourage path to reform
PARIS — Vacation is over early this year in the eurozone, with Greece and its shaky future back on the table and Spain waiting in the wings to ask for help from European bailout funds.
Signs found that Iran is speeding up work on nuclear program
WASHINGTON — International nuclear inspectors will soon report that Iran has installed hundreds of new centrifuges in recent months and may be speeding up production of nuclear fuel while negotiations with the United States and its allies have ground to a near halt, according to diplomats and experts briefed on the findings.
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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s nominee to become the new ambassador to Pakistan said Tuesday that his top priority would be to press the government there to take more forceful measures against the Haqqani network, a Taliban affiliate whose leaders, sheltered in Pakistan, have mounted a series of attacks against U.S. and other targets in Afghanistan.
Phelps tops another Olympian, but at 77, she grins about it
LONDON — Larisa Latynina won 18 Olympic medals in gymnastics for the former Soviet Union, but she attended swimming Tuesday night. Michael Phelps was racing. He was trying to beat everyone in the pool and Latynina’s record as well. And when the moment came, she knew exactly what a great champion should do. She put on her lipstick.
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Julian Castro, the Democratic mayor of San Antonio, will deliver the keynote speech at his party’s national convention in September, taking the role that vaulted Barack Obama to national prominence eight years ago.
Indian electrical grid is pressed to its breaking point
WASHINGTON — The Indian electrical grid, said Arshad Mansoor, the senior vice president for research and development at the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., is like “a whole bunch of rubber bands.” Cutting some, he said, might make no difference, but cutting another one could make the web fall apart.
Massachusetts aims to cut growth of its ballooning health care costs
The Massachusetts Legislature passed a first-in-the-nation bill Tuesday that seeks to limit the growth of health care costs in the state.
Pedestrian summertime weather to persist
This past July has been quite typical here in the Boston area. Based on the preliminary monthly climate report by the NOAA, the average July air temperature this year was 75.6°F, which was 2.1°F above normal. Total rainfall was 3.40 inches, merely 3 percent higher than the normal.
Rebels in Syria’s Aleppo claim to seize police stations
BEIRUT — Syrian rebels said they took control of at least two important police stations in central Aleppo on Tuesday, maintaining their hold on several neighborhoods despite air assaults and shelling from government troops.
Obama and Congress in step on stronger sanctions on Iran
WASHINGTON — The White House and Congress raced to impose more punishing sanctions against Iran on Tuesday, as that country’s nuclear ambitions resurfaced in the presidential election campaign after Mitt Romney’s pledge to give Israel unstinting support in its confrontation with Iran.
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LOS ANGELES — A teacher under investigation for lewd conduct with a former student led police on a dramatic chase Tuesday afternoon to Rolling Hills Estates, where he drove off an embankment, went airborne and slammed into the side of an office building.
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Last year, during his best three-month stretch, Jordan Golson sold about $750,000 worth of computers and gadgets at the Apple Store in Salem, N.H. It was a performance that might have called for a bottle of Champagne — if that were a luxury Golson could have afforded.
Man is arrested for triple shooting near Columbia University last week
NEW YORK — Detectives on Saturday arrested a 30-year-old man suspected of fatally shooting three men as all four were sitting in a BMW parked across the street from a Columbia University building this month.
Retired teacher at Horace Mann School admits he had sex with pupils
NEW YORK — Tek Young Lin was revered at the Horace Mann School. He was different from other teachers — a Buddhist who carefully tended to his elaborate gardens, a chaplain and a cross-country coach. He was so beloved that the English department chairmanship was named in his honor.
Memory in child denied liver transplant is still kept alive
LOS ANGELES — A teacher under investigation for lewd conduct with a former student led police on a dramatic chase Tuesday afternoon to Rolling Hills Estates, where he drove off an embankment, went airborne and slammed into the side of an office building.
Little debate or doubt about Sandusky’s trial, juror notes
BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Joshua Harper watched Jerry Sandusky listen to one guilty verdict after another — 45 in all — and was more certain than ever that Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant coach, had sexually abused those young boys.
In Paraguay, democracy appears doubtful; trial for President Lugo
RIO DE JANEIRO — In the span of a few hours on Friday, Paraguay’s Senate convened its members, read a list of accusations and put President Fernando Lugo on trial. Dismissing his request for more time to mount his defense, the senators abruptly voted to oust him from office, spurring a fierce debate across Latin America over the fragility of democratic institutions in a region with a long history of dictatorships.
Rest of week in Boston looks beautiful
Cantabrigians can look forward to a beautiful rest of the week, with temperatures forecast to barely break 90 during the day and humidity expected to remain relatively low. Clouds will move in starting on Friday, but rain isn’t expected until Sunday at the earliest.
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KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan issued an impassioned call for the end of international airstrikes in his country Tuesday, branding them as an “illegitimate use of force” and saying that the need to protect civilian life demanded a complete halt to those operations, even in cases when troops are under attack.