One Direction better watch out. A new boy band is taking the stage and they've got the power of the White House behind them.
The tween group, Twenty20, includes the offspring of some of Obama's top advisers — Jay Carney's 12-year-old son, Hugo, U.S. Trade Rep. Mike Froman's son Ben, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan's son Lucas and Joey Doyle, whose mom is Hillary Clinton's former presidential campaign manager turned Obama campaign adviser Patti Solis Doyle.
All four are classmates of Sasha and Malia Obama at Sidwell Friends School.
They dropped a music video for their first single this month, a "catchy, power-pop" tune "Heart Thief."
The smartly produced short for the song "captures an epic kid adventure around the nation's capital" and shows the quartet rock 'n' roll across the district — hanging out at Union Station, filling up on sugar at 7-Eleven, frolicking on their skateboards and even taking a ride on Capital bikes.
The group is made up of Hugo Carney, left, (son of White House Press Sec. Jay Carney), Ben Froman, 2nd from left, (US Trade Rep. Mike Froman's son), Lucas Donovan (Housing and Urban Development Sec. Shaun Donovan's son), second from right, and Joey Doyle, far right, former Hillary Clinton presidential campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle's son.
Carney follows in his dad's footsteps as the frontman for the group.
Froman plays guitar, Donovan — who rocks a Justin Bieber do — is on bass and Doyle takes the drums.
"Before a rainbow, there's always a storm," the youngsters belt out, words of hope as their parents battle a tough political climate.
Excerpts of Hillary Clinton's forthcoming memoir obtained by Politico conflict with the factual record about what happened during and after the 2012 Benghazi terror attack.
Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., who sits on the newly formed Benghazi select committee and the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News before the excerpts were released that he is concerned the administration has not fully grasped the impact of the terrorist assault.
"We know that intelligence analysts on the ground knew instantaneously that this was Al Qaeda and its affiliates who had led this attack. And yet it took an awfully long time -- indeed today, it's still not clear this administration has acknowledged the depth and the risks associated with what it means to have an Al Qaeda affiliate actually take down an American [consulate]," he said.
In the limited excerpts published Friday from Clinton's Benghazi chapter, the former secretary of State continued to defend the administration from what she termed a "political slugfest."
Specifically, she defended the flawed explanation -- used by then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice five days after the attack -- that an obscure anti-Islam video fueled a protest gone awry in Benghazi.
"There were scores of attackers that night, almost certainly with differing motives," Clinton wrote, according to Politico. "It is inaccurate to state that every single one of them was influenced by this hateful video.It is equally inaccurate to state that none of them were. Both assertions deny not only the evidence but logic as well."
Further, she reportedly wrote that Rice relied on existing intelligence in making her statements.
But former CIA deputy director Mike Morell, who now works for Clinton's principal gatekeeper Philippe Reines at the D.C. consulting firm Beacon Global Strategies, testified in April that it was Rice who linked the video to the Benghazi attack. Morrell, who still faces allegations he misled Congress over the so-called talking points, said the video was not part of the CIA analysis as Clinton seems to suggest.
Morell told members of the House Intelligence Committee that Rice's claims about the attacks evolving from a protest were "exactly what the talking points said, and it was exactly what the intelligence community analysts believed."
However, he said: "When she talked about the video, my reaction was, that's not something that the analysts have attributed this attack to."
An independent review of more than 4,000 social media postings, conducted by a leading social media monitoring firm in December 2012, also found the YouTube video was a non-event in Benghazi.
"From the data we have, it's hard for us to reach the conclusion that the consulate attack was motivated by the movie. Nothing in the immediate picture -- surrounding the attack in Libya -- suggests that," Jeff Chapman, chief executive with Agincourt Solutions (now Babel Street), told Fox News.
Chapman said his analysts reviewed postings in Libya, including those from Benghazi, over a three-day period beginning on Sept. 11, and saw "no traffic in Benghazi in the immediate lead-up to the attack related to the anti-Islam film."
The first reference to the anti-Islam film appears to be a retweet of a Russia Today story that was not posted until Sept. 12 at 9:12 a.m. local time. The translation reads, "U.S. ambassador killed in Libya during his country's consulate in Benghazi - Russia Today http://t.co/SvAV0o7T response to the film abuser."
In addition, the video was also described as a non-event by Greg Hicks – deputy to Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in the attack -- in his May 2013 congressional testimony before the House oversight committee.
Clinton went on to write: "Every step of the way, whenever something new was learned, it was quickly shared with Congress and the American people.There is a difference between getting something wrong, and committing wrong.A big difference that some have blurred to the point of casting those who made a mistake as intentionally deceitful."
But the written testimony of Morell shows the administration continued to stick with the "hateful video" explanation long after physical evidence and other intelligence showed there was no demonstration. Morell told the House Intelligence Committee that by Sept. 18, 2012, consulate security video reviewed by the Libyans showed it was a direct assault.
Yet, a week later, before the United Nations on Sept. 25, 2012, President Obama was still relying on the flawed explanation.
"There is no speech that justifies mindless violence. There are no words that excuse the killing of innocents.There's no video that justifies an attack on an embassy," he said.
As part of its ongoing reporting, Fox News was first to report on Sept. 17, 2012, based on an intelligence source on the ground in Libya, that there was no protest.
Separate from the talking points, Clinton's defense of Rice could also be problematic because Rice inaccurately stated on three network Sunday shows -- ABC's "This Week," NBC's "Meet the Press" and "Fox News Sunday" -- that security was "strong" or "significant" at the consulate on the day of the attack.
She told "Fox News Sunday" that former Navy SEALs Ty Woods and Glen Doherty, who died in the attack, were there to "provide security," incorrectly linking them to consulate security.
At a press conference earlier this month, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said the administration should explain who briefed Rice on the talking points as well as the consulate's security status, and the individual or individuals should be fired. And if nobody briefed her on that, Graham said, Rice should resign.
"They're completely incompetent, or they were misleading her about the level of security because we were six weeks before an election, or she made it up on her own," Graham said.
On requests for additional security, Clinton continued to insist that she never saw those cables, and the fact that they were addressed to her as secretary of State was a "procedural quirk."
Fox News was first to report on an August 2012 State Department classified cable that said the U.S. Mission in Benghazi convened an "emergency meeting" less than a month before the assault and concluded Al Qaeda had training camps in Benghazi and the consulate could not defend against a "coordinated attack."
The authenticity of the classified cable, addressed to the office of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has never been challenged. It was significant enough that then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told lawmakers during congressional hearings that they were briefed on the cable's warnings. Clinton, though, claimed it was not brought to her attention.
The cable marked "SECRET" summarized an Aug. 15, 2012 emergency meeting convened by the U.S. Mission in Benghazi. It states that the State Department's senior security officer, also known as the RSO, did not believe the consulate could be protected.
According to a review of the cable, the Emergency Action Committee was also briefed "on the location of approximately ten Islamist militias and AQ training camps within Benghazi … these groups ran the spectrum from Islamist militias, such as the QRF Brigade and Ansar al-Sharia, to 'Takfirist thugs.'"
In addition to describing the security situation in Benghazi as "trending negatively," the cable said explicitly that the mission would ask for more help. The details in the cable foreshadowed the deadly attack on the U.S. compound.
While the administration's public statements have suggested that the attack came without warning, the Aug. 16 cable undercuts those claims – as it warned the Benghazi consulate was vulnerable to attack and indicates the presence of anti-U.S. militias and Al Qaeda was well-known to the U.S. intelligence community.
The Clinton book excerpts published Friday represent a fraction of the entire Benghazi chapter, which reportedly is 34 pages long.
Fox News' Pamela Browne contributed to this report
Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent.
Federal investigators are pursuing a major insider-trading probe involving finance, gambling and sports, examining the trading of investor Carl Icahn, golfer Phil Mickelson and Las Vegas bettor William "Billy" Walters.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission are examining whether Mr. Mickelson and Mr. Walters traded illicitly on nonpublic information from Mr. Icahn about his...
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs became an explosive political story this week, culminating with the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.
The final straw appeared to be a report that described chronic wait times at the Phoenix hospital and found that about 1,700 veterans in need of care were "at risk of being lost or forgotten." The VA and independent investigators with the Office of Inspector General are still in the process of uncovering problems at dozens of other VA facilities around the country while some lawmakers are calling for criminal probes.
As the investigations unfold, The Associated Press reached out to veterans in Arizona and several other states to recount their experiences with VA medical care. Some described delays and oversights. Others said they were pleased with their care.
The ongoing investigations are currently focused on scheduling, delays in care and allegations that VA managers instructed employees to falsify records. But independent reports dating back a decade have found that, while access is a problem, VA care has consistently been equal to or better than that in the private sector.
Here is what some veterans had to say:
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Vietnam veteran Dan Dominey has been in pain for months because, he said, the VA hospital in Phoenix delayed his care. The 66-year-old former Marine fell and broke his back in December.
Dominey, of Mesa, Arizona, said he had been using the VA for health care for about eight years, and he thought the service had been fine. But he never suffered any serious injuries or illnesses until now.
"They've never been quick about getting me an appointment. But then again, I never needed anything right away until this back situation happened," Dominey said.
At first, the self-employed welder didn't know how serious the injury was, so he kept working, suffering through the pain.
He finally went to the VA hospital in Phoenix in January, about a month after the accident.
At the clinic, VA doctors first performed X-rays, then weeks later an MRI, and nearly a month later a bone scan.
Dominey said he was eventually referred mistakenly by the VA to a private neurologist, and he finally got an appointment with an outside neurosurgeon. By the time the VA had scheduled him for surgery, it was already mid-May, nearly six months after the injury.
What Dominey heard next was disheartening. He said the doctor shook his head in frustration and told him the procedure likely wouldn't work now because it had been too long since the injury.
The wound should heal on its own, he was told, but it could be another year with constant pain and medication.
"I could have avoided months of pain," Dominey said.
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Thales Elliott has relied on VA medical care since he lost both his legs in Vietnam. After 46 years, Elliott has no complaints about his treatment.
"I wouldn't bad-mouth them because they've taken good care of me," said Elliott, 79, of Augusta, Georgia, who serves as commander of a local chapter of the group Disabled American Veterans.
Elliott was serving in the Army in Vietnam when a fellow soldier triggered an exploding booby trap that shredded both of Elliott's legs. After coming home, he was fitted with prosthetic legs and learned to walk again using a cane. Decades later, he still drives a car and is independent enough to live alone.
Elliott said the only inconvenience he has encountered with the VA was two years ago when he went to the emergency room with a sharp pain in his midsection. An X-ray turned up nothing, so doctors gave him some medicine and sent him home. But he remained in too much pain to lie down or sit up. The next day, he got to see his primary care doctor, who discovered Elliott had a kidney stone.
"Other than that, I haven't had any problem with them," he said. "I get my medicine, and I see a doctor once or twice a year."
Joint winners Ansun Sujoe , left, of Fort Worth, Texas, and Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post, N.Y., hold the trophy they won in the 87th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee at National Harbor, Maryland May 29, 2014. KEVIN LAMARQUE, REUTERS
Last Updated May 29, 2014 11:15 PM EDT
OXON HILL, Md. - For the first time in 52 years, two spellers were declared co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday.
Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post, New York, and Ansun Sujoe of Fort Worth, Texas, shared the title after a riveting final-round duel in which they nearly exhausted the 25 designated championship words. After they spelled a dozen words correctly in a row, they both were named champions.
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National spelling bee
Photos from the National Spelling Bee
Earlier, 14-year-old Sriram opened the door to an upset by 13-year-old Ansun after he misspelled "corpsbruder," a close comrade. But Ansun was unable to take the title because he got "antegropelos," which means waterproof leggings, wrong.
Sriram entered the final round as the favorite after finishing in third place last year. Ansun just missed the semifinals last year.
They become the fourth co-champions in the bee's 89-year history and the first since 1962.
"The competition was against the dictionary, not against each other," Sriram said after both were showered with confetti onstage. "I'm happy to share this trophy with him."
Sriram backed up his status as the favorite by rarely looking flustered on stage, nodding confidently as he outlasted 10 other spellers to set up the one-on-one duel with Ansun. The younger boy was more nervous and demonstrative, no more so than on the word that gave him a share of the title: "feulletion," the features section of a European newspaper or magazine.
"Ah, whatever!" Ansun said before beginning to spell the word as the stage lights turned red, signaling that he had 30 seconds left.
Although they hoisted a single trophy together onstage, each will get one to take home, and each gets the champion's haul of more than $33,000 in cash and prizes.
Gokul Venkatachalam of Chesterfield, Missouri, finished third, and Ashwin Veeramani of North Royalton, Ohio, was fourth.
Both champions are Indian-American. The past eight winners and 13 of the past 17 have been of Indian descent, a run that began in 1999 after Nupur Lala's victory, which was later featured in the documentary "Spellbound."
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, right, greets Vietnam's Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh, left, before their meeting, Saturday, May 31, 2014 in Singapore. Hagel traveled to Singapore to attend the 13th Asia Security Summit. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)The Associated Press
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, second from left, and Vietnam's Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh, right, during the start of their meeting, Saturday, May 31, 2014 in Singapore. Hagel traveled to Singapore to attend the 13th Asia Security Summit. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)The Associated Press
SINGAPORE – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned an international security conference Saturday that the U.S. "will not look the other way" when nations such as China try to restrict navigation or ignore international rules and standards.
China's territorial claims in the South China Sea are destabilizing the region, and its failure to resolve disputes with other nations threatens East Asia's long-term progress, Hagel said.
For the second year in a row, Hagel used the podium at the Shangri-La conference to call out China for cyberspying against the U.S. While this has been a persistent complaint by the U.S., his remark came less than two weeks after the U.S. charged five Chinese military officers with hacking into American companies to steal trade secrets.
The Chinese, in response, suspended participation in a U.S.-China Cyber Working Group, and released a report that said the U.S. is conducting unscrupulous cyber espionage and that China is a major target.
Noting the suspension, Hagel in his speech said the U.S. will continue to raise cyber issues with the Chinese, "because dialogue is essential for reducing the risk of miscalculation and escalation in cyberspace."
In a string of remarks aimed directly at China, Hagel said the U.S. opposes any nation's use of intimidation or threat of force to assert territorial claims.
"All nations of the region, including China, have a choice: to unite, and recommit to a stable regional order, or, to walk away from that commitment and risk the peace and security that has benefited millions of people throughout the Asia-Pacific, and billions of people around the world," he said.
China and Japan have been at odds over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are controlled by Japan but claimed by both.
The U.S. has declined to take sides on the sovereignty issue but has made clear it has a treaty obligation to support Japan. And the U.S. has also refused to recognize China's declaration of an air defense zone over a large swath of the East China Sea, including the disputed islands.
His remarks drew an immediate challenge from Maj. Gen. Yao Yunzhu of China's People's Liberation Army, who questioned if the U.S. and its allies followed international law and consulted with others whey they set up air defense zones.
Yao, director of the Center for China-America Defense Relations at the PLA's Academy of Military Science, also challenged how the U.S. can say it is not taking a position on the island sovereignty issue, while still saying it is committed to its treaty obligation to support Japan.
Hagel said the U.S. and allies consulted with its neighbors and, unlike China, did not unilaterally set up air defense zones.
U.S. officials also have raised concerns about Beijing's decision to plant an oil rig in part of the South China Sea also claimed by Vietnam. The move has led to a series of clashes between the two nations in the waters around the rig, including the recent sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat.
Chinese leaders, however, has been equally strong in defending their territorial actions, and have blamed the Obama administration's new focus on Asia for emboldening some of the disputes.
But some Asian leaders have expressed worries that the U.S. is doing little more than paying lip service to the complaints, fueling doubts about America's commitment to the region.
In an effort to tamp down those concerns, Hagel also used his speech to reassure Asia-Pacific nations that despite persistent budget woes and increasing demands for military aid across Africa and Europe, the U.S. remains strongly committed to Asia.
Allies in the Asia Pacific have questioned how serious the U.S. is about its so-called pivot to Asia, particularly as the recent unrest in Ukraine and terror threats in north Africa have garnered more attention. And President Barack Obama's national security speech earlier this week made no mention of the Asia Pacific.
"The rebalance is not a goal, not a promise or a vision - it is a reality," Hagel said, laying out a long list of moves the U.S. has made to increase troops, ships and military assets in the region, provide missile defense systems to Japan, sell sophisticated drones and other aircraft to Korea, and expand defense cooperation with Australia, New Zealand and India.
Still, the question was raised to Hagel after the speech, noting that the U.S. is busy backing NATO allies in Europe. Hagel said the U.S. has the ability to meet its obligations all around the world, but is also working to build the capabilities of those partners so they can better take responsibility for their own security.
He said the U.S. plans to increase foreign military financing by 35 percent and military education and training by 40 percent by 2016.
Urging nations to work together to resolve their disputes, Hagel said the U.S. is also continuing to reach out to China. Despite persistent differences, Washington and Beijing have been trying to improve their military relations, expand communications between their forces and conduct joint exercises.
"Continued progress throughout the Asia-Pacific is achievable, but hardly inevitable," Hagel told the crowded room at the Shangri-La Dialogue. "The security and prosperity we have enjoyed for decades cannot be assured unless all nations, all our nations have the wisdom, vision, and will to work together to address these challenges."
Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer answers questions at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Bellevue, Washington in this file photo taken November 19, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Jason Redmond/Files
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) CEO Steve Ballmer has purchased the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers franchise for $2 billion, a record for a professional basketball team, sole trustee Shelly Sterling announced on Friday.
In a news release from Greenberg Glusker, Sterling's counsel, she said she had signed a binding contract to sell the team to Ballmer on behalf of the The Sterling Family Trust, which owns the club.
"I am delighted that we are selling the team to Steve, who will be a terrific owner. We have worked for 33 years to build the Clippers into a premiere NBA franchise. I am confident that Steve will take the team to new levels of success."
The agreement will need to be approved by the National Basketball Association's Board of Governors before it is finalized. The NBA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"I will be honored to have my name submitted to the NBA Board of Governors for approval as the next owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. I love basketball," Ballmer said in a statement. "And I intend to do everything in my power to ensure that the Clippers continue to win – and win big – in Los Angeles."
On Thursday, Ballmer outbid two groups, one led by media mogul David Geffen that offered $1.6 billion and included TV talk show maven Oprah Winfrey and Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) CEO Larry Ellison, a source close to the process told Reuters. A group of Los Angeles investors also bid $1.2 billion for the team.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch acted as the financial advisor in the deal, Sterling's statement said.
The Clippers came up for sale after the NBA banned owner Donald Sterling for life because of racist remarks he made in a recorded conversation that was leaked last month to entertainment news website TMZ.com.
Donald Sterling's attorney, Maxwell Blecher, told The New York Times earlier that he would have to approve the sale. Blecher did not immediately respond to request for comment on Friday.
Ballmer's winning bid was raised from an initial $1.8 billion offer made earlier on Thursday, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. If approved, the deal would be second only to the $2.15 billion paid in 2012 for baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers.
"It's no wonder the prices are so high," said sports consultant Ed Desser, a former president of NBA Television and New Media Ventures. "There just aren't enough teams for all the billionaires who want them."
Sterling, a Los Angeles-area real estate developer, paid $12.5 million in 1981 for the Clippers, which were then located in San Diego.
Ballmer, 58, who retired as Microsoft CEO in February, remains on the board and still owns about 4 percent of the Redmond, Washington-based software giant, worth $13.4 billion.
Last year, he joined a group that unsuccessfully bid on the Sacramento Kings basketball team. A long-time basketball fan, until a few years ago he played a regular pickup game with other Microsoft colleagues at a public gym near the Microsoft campus.[ID:nL1N0EH1W7]
It is unclear how the team's potential sale will affect a June 3 hearing the NBA scheduled at which Donald Sterling can address the accusations against him. At that meeting, the owners could force him to sell the team on a vote by 23 of the remaining 29 owners, the NBA has said.
Maxwell Blecher, Sterling's lawyer, said in an interview with CNN that his client is prepared to file suit to fight the charges, but that he intended to wait for communication from the NBA before deciding when and whether to do so.
(Additional reporting by Bill Rigby in Seattle, writing by Curtis Skinner,; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Thursday night, the judges declared the boys winners after six rounds of vocabulary dueling. The final word Sujoe spelled was "feuilleton" and the last for Hathwar was "stichomythia."
Earlier on Thursday, "ecribellate" and "taglioni" were just two of the words that began whittling down the finalists' field in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
A dozen spellers, ranging in age from 11 to 15 and from hometowns from California to Jamaica, advanced to the championship finals. Only one repeat finalist was among the group.
The big shocker in Thursday's semifinals came when top contender Vanya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kansas, was eliminated.
Twelve-year-old Vanya, a three-time finalist whose older sister was the 2009 bee winner, correctly spelled both words onstage but didn't get a high enough score on two computerized spelling and vocabulary tests to advance.
Evan Vucci / AP
Ansun Sujoe, 13, of Fort Worth, Texas, left, and Sriram Hathwar, 14, of Painted Post, N.Y., celebrate after being named co-champions of the National Spelling Bee, on Thursday, May 29, 2014, in Oxon Hill, Md.
— Becky Bratu and Elizabeth Chuck and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Repeating charges that Russia was carrying out "special operations" in the east of Ukraine, Mykhailo Koval, the country's acting defence minister, said Ukrainian forces would continue with military operations in border areas "until these regions begin to live normally, until there is peace."
Speaking after 14 servicemen, including a general, were killed on Thursday when rebels shot down an army helicopter, Mr Koval, said: "Our armed forces have completed their assigned missions and completely clear the southern and western parts of the Donetsk region and the northern part of the Lugansk region from the separatists,"
They said about seven battalions remained, amounting to a couple of thousand troops. US officials had estimated as many as 40,000 Russian forces had been aligned along the border with a restive eastern Ukraine that has been wracked with violence between government security forces and pro-Russian separatists.
The defense officials spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the precise numbers.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel didn't provide any details to reporters traveling with him at the start of a 12-day overseas trip, but he called the withdrawal promising.
"They are not where they need to be and won't be until all of their troops that they positioned along that border a couple of months ago are gone," Hagel said.
"We do know that thousands of Russian troops have been pulled back and are moving away. But we also know that there are still thousands of Russian troops still there that have not yet moved," Hagel said.
"I just think that philanthropy is a fancy way to say that you care about others and that you want to serve others. And that's been a part of me for as long as I can remember." — Priscilla Chan, wife of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, after they announced they are donating $120 million to the San Francisco Bay Area's public school system.
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"They're telling me he should stand back and let them take his team because his opinion on that particular day was not good, was not popular? That his team should be stripped from him? It doesn't make sense. He's going to fight." — Bobby Samini, attorney for Los Angeles Clippers co-owner Donald Sterling, after his wife Shelly Sterling agreed to sell her stake in the NBA team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.
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"The competition was against the dictionary, not against each other. I'm happy to share this trophy with him." — Sriram Hathwar after he and Ansun Sujoe were declared co-champions in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
May 27, 2014: Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, right, speaks to NBC News anchor Brian Williams, left, during an NBC Exclusive interview.ap
NBC's prime-time special with Ed Snowden made for fascinating television, but I must admit I came away frustrated.
If you wanted to learn more about Snowden's thoughts, desires and dreams, his philosophy of spying and his rationalization for what he did, much of that was on display.
As a personality profile of a guy who changed the global debate over surveillance but remains a shadowy figure, the program worked quite well. The 29-year-old data whiz is smart and articulate.
But he is a fugitive from American justice, and I think Brian Williams missed a golden opportunity.
Williams is easy to watch, a good conversationalist, and funny as hell, as his appearances on "SNL" and the "Daily Show" make clear. Landing Snowden was a great get, even if it was done through an alliance with Glenn Greenwald, who was also interviewed, and obviously Snowden felt confident that his interlocutor would be fair.
But I kept waiting for Williams to pin him down: You knew you were breaking the law, and now you don't want to face the consequences of your actions? Do you think you should get to pick and choose which laws you follow? If you think this was a great act of conscience, why do you deserve to be let off scot-free?
In short, there never came a time when the anchor pressed the accused spy and tried to knock him off his talking points.
Yes, Williams asked the obligatory questions:
"A lot of people say you have badly damaged your country."
"When the president and others have made the point that you should have gone through channels, become a whistle-blower and not pursued the route you did, what's your response?"
And:
"In your mind, though, are you blameless?"
"Have you done, as you look at this, just a good thing? Have you performed, as you see it, a public service?"
"On the range between ticker-tape parade and life sentence, what do you think ought to happen to you and if and when you return to the United States?"
Williams let Snowden give lengthy answers, almost never jumping in to interrupt. Often he just went on to the next question.
Now everyone has his own style, I get it. Brian's is more conversational. And there is the tyranny of time. The more he drills down on one point, the less time he has for Snowden's answers on spying, hacking, 9/11 and other subjects the audience might find interesting.
What's noteworthy is that Williams sometimes added critical caveats taped after the interview. After an exchange in which Snowden was asked about leaking secret military information, Williams told the audience: "Just for clarification here, note that Snowden didn't deny turning over military secrets. He asserted instead they wouldn't be published." Another way to handle that would have been to tell Snowden, "you didn't answer my question."
Snowden, who shared the bulk of his NSA documents with Greenwald and the Washington Post's Bart Gellman, invoked the media in defending his massive leaks.
"That's the reason that journalists have been required by their agreement with me as the source, although they could obviously break that or do whatever they want," he said. "But I demanded that they agree to consult with the government to make sure no individuals or specific harms could be caused by any of that reporting."
Mediaite had some fun digging out Greenwald's harsh assessment of Williams after the anchor's one-year anniversary special on the killing of Usama bin Laden:
"This bin Laden show. was hagiography in its purest, most propagandistic, and most subservient form. This is typically the role Williams plays — he cleanses and glorifies American government actions, especially military actions, with his reverent, soothing, self-important baritone — but he really outdid himself here."
Glorifies? And what's wrong with his baritone? Presumably Glenn's opinion has improved since then.
Perhaps Williams faced the dilemma that part of the country sees Snowden as a traitor as part of the country views him as a hero, so he felt he needed to split the difference. If so, he succeeded.
Click for more from Media Buzz.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz.
The police in Santa Barbara knew about, but never saw those videos.
Santa Barbara County sheriff's deputies who determined Elliot Rodger was not a threat to himself or others only weeks before his shooting spree in Isla Vista, Calif., knew he had posted the alarming videos online, but didn't actually watch them, officials said Thursday.
When four deputies, a University of California at Santa Barbara police officer and a dispatcher-in-training went to his apartment for a welfare check April 30 after being contacted by his parents, they asked him about the videos, according to a statement released by the sheriff's office.
Rodger, 22 — described as shy and polite — told them the videos he posted on YouTube were simply a way for him to express himself because he was struggling to fit in socially.
The Los Angeles Times reported:
"Based upon the information available to them at the time," the statement continued, "sheriff's deputies concluded that Rodger was not an immediate threat to himself or others, and that they did not have cause to place him on an involuntary mental health hold, or to enter and search his residence. Therefore, they did not view the videos or conduct a weapons check on Rodger."
One of the deputies called Rodger's mother and, after briefing her on the interaction, passed the phone to Rodger, officials said. Rodger "told her he was fine and that he would call her later."
Deputies then gave Rodger contact information about local services he could use "if he needed help," and left. The interaction lasted about 10 minutes, officials said.
The statement, however, does not say why police didn't view the videos or whether the deputies knew anything about what was in them, the Associated Press reported.
Rodger wrote he had three semiautomatic weapons hidden in his bedroom at the time:
I tactfully told them that it was all a misunderstanding, and they finally left. If they had demanded to search my room … that would have ended everything. For a few horrible seconds I thought it was all over. When they left, the biggest wave of relief swept over me. It was so scary. It was all because of the videos.
Rodger also wrote that he immediately removed most of the videos from YouTube.
The sequence of events released in Thursday's statement is different from a statement last Sunday from sheriff's office spokesman Kelly Hoover, who said "the sheriff's office was not aware of any videos until after the shooting rampage occurred," the AP reported.
An e-mail seeking comment on why the previous statement said deputies were unaware of the videos was not immediately returned to The Washington Post on Friday morning.
The LA Times reported some have questioned why police failed to view the videos.
"If somebody was concerned about them enough to report them it would seem to me to be part of the checkup," Ann Eldridge, vice president of Santa Barbara's chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said. Others say it may not have made a difference.
Rick Wall, a former Los Angeles police captain who oversaw that department's mental health team, told the LA Times that although seeing the videos may not have stopped Rodger's rampage, it would have become part a police investigation.
He also told the AP the amount of time police spent talking to Rodger's mother while gathering details of his history was critical in understanding why she was concerned about her son.
"That's going to be the telling piece and where you're going to get the breakdown on the guy's story," Wall said. "Talking to somebody for 10 minutes, you may or may not get the ability to conduct a proper evaluation."
Avoiding further jail time, Hector Xavier Monsegur — a hacktivist legend — walked out of a federal court house in Manhattan on Tuesday.
The AP reports that U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska said Monsegur's cooperation helped disrupt hundreds of cyber attacks and helped disrupt the hacker activist group Anonymous and essentially marked the end of LulzSec.
As we reported back in 2012, Monsegur, who is also known as "Sabu," pleaded guilty to carrying out cyber attacks against companies such as Paypal, eBay and MasterCard.
His arrest — and subsequent revelation that he had become a government informant — was a punch in the gut to LulzSec and Anonymous, because Monsegur was seen a kind of "hacker demigod" in that world.
Today, because of his cooperation with investigators, Preska sentenced him to time served plus one year supervised release. Daniel Stucket, a reporter for Vice, posted video of Monsegur walking free, while smoking a cigarette.
Anonymous, as you might imagine, was not very happy today. On one of their Twitter feeds, they called for the release of Jeremy Hammond, a powerful cybercriminal the FBI caught through Sabu. They called Sabu a "snitch" and many other things we could not repeat in this space.
But here, in the form of a retweet from @YourAnonNews, is a the main argument in the hacktivist space:
Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/
GOLETA, Calif. (AP) — Thousands mourned the deaths of their classmates at a California university, lawmakers proposed ways to prevent the next round of deaths, and the rampant presence of guns were at the forefront of both discussions as a rampage that left seven dead reverberated across the state.
Richard Martinez, whose son, Christopher Michaels-Martinez, 20, died in the attacks, spoke at Tuesday's memorial on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, emphasizing that he did not speak for all the victims' relatives or even his former wife, Michaels-Martinez's mother.
But he urged students to fight for tougher gun laws, and placed the blame on what he called the inaction of politicians.
"They have done nothing, and that's why Chris died," Martinez said. "It's almost become a normal thing for us to accept this."
He got much of the crowd to repeatedly chant "Not one more," in reference to such massacres, a phrase he shouted before reporters and television cameras the day after Friday's massacre.
The school canceled classes and declared a day of mourning and reflection, four days after the shootings and stabbings in the Isla Vista community by 22-year-old community college student Elliot Rodger, who had posted an Internet video outlining his plan to slaughter as many people as possible.
Rodger had legally obtained three semi-automatic handguns and still had 400 unspent rounds of ammunition when he shot himself to death, authorities said.
On the same day, two California Assembly members proposed legislation that would create a gun violence restraining order that could be sought from a judge by law enforcement at the request of family members and friends.
"When someone is in crisis, the people closest to them are often the first to spot the warning signs, but almost nothing can now be done to get back their guns or prevent them from buying more," said Democratic Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner of Berkeley, who sponsored the measure with Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara.
Currently, therapists can tell authorities when they fear a client is at risk of committing a violent act. However, there is no prohibition on firearms ownership unless someone has been involuntarily committed for mental health treatment.
Another proposal involves establishing statewide protocols for law enforcement officers who are called to check on mentally troubled people.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, suggested that authorities should be required as part of such welfare visits to check whether a person has purchased weapons instead of just talking to the person.
Additional steps could include searching the individual's surroundings and talking to roommates, neighbors and relatives, he said.
"There is a lot we can do to prevent these kinds of horrific events in the future," said Steinberg, who has spent much of his time in the Legislature addressing mental health concerns.
State senators spent 35 minutes at the state Capitol eulogizing the students killed in the weekend violence and expressing frustration that such rampages continue despite previous efforts to end the problem.
The rampage came hours after Rodger emailed a lengthy manifesto to his parents, therapists and others, and a month after sheriff's deputies had visited him on a welfare check after his parents became concerned about his postings on YouTube.
At Tuesday's memorial, Martinez also read statements from the families of two other slain students, Cheng Yuan Hong and Weihan Wang, both 20, in which they asked for prayers or blessings for the families of the victims and the killer.
"May we together create a peaceful world and let hatred be gone with the wind," the Hong family statement said.
UC President Janet Napolitano paid tribute to the victims, saying "each of the victims left a mark on the world" and "as long as we hold them in our hearts, they are not gone."
"All died much too young, but it's important that we do not let the arithmetic of this atrocity define them," she said.
"I was trained as a spy, in the sort of the traditional sense of the word in that I lived and worked undercover, overseas pretending to work in a job that I'm not and even being assigned a name that was not mine," Snowden told NBC during an interview recorded last week in Russia.
"I'm a technical expert. I don't work with people, I don't recruit agents, what I do is I put systems to work for the United States. And I've done that at all levels from the bottom on the ground all the way to the top."
He has received asylum in Russia.
Snowden said "the (US) government might deny these things," but claimed his total experience working with different government agencies shows that he was more than a low level analyst.
"I developed sources and methods for keeping our information and people secure in the most hostile and dangerous environments around the world," he said.
"So when they say I'm a low level systems administrator, that I don't know what I'm talking about - I'd say it's somewhat misleading."
President Obama announced Tuesday that the U.S. plans to remove all troops from Afghanistan by 2016, starting with reducing the troop presence in the country to just 9,800 and an end to the U.S. combat mission at the close of 2014.
The move will mark the first time in Mr. Obama's presidency that the U.S. has not had an active combat mission in a foreign country.
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Obama on Afghanistan: "The U.S. did not seek this fight"
The president announced the United States' combat mission in Afghanistan will be over by the end of 2014.
"We have now been in Afghanistan longer than many Americans expected but make no mistake: thanks to the skill and sacrifice of our troops, diplomats and intelligence professionals we have struck significant blows against al Qaeda's leadership, we have eliminated Osama bin Laden and we've prevented Afghanistan from being used to launch attacks against our homeland," the president said.
The U.S. will leave 9,800 troops in the country in 2015 with two narrow missions, according to the White House: continue supporting Afghan forces, who took the lead ins securing the country last year, and continuing to support counter terrorism operations against the remnants of al Qaeda.
The number of forces will be reduced by about half by the end of 2015, the administration says, and by the end of 2016 will eventually consist of a normal embassy presence with a security assistance office in Kabul, as is the case in Iraq.
At the peak of the war, there were 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. Today, there are about 32,000. Mr. Obama noted in his remarks that when he took office, there were 180,000 trooped deployed abroad.
The future of U.S. troop presence has been uncertain for months as Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign a security agreement allowing U.S. troops to stay after the combat mission is concluded at the end of this year.
The candidates running to replace Karzai have indicated they will sign an agreement, but the uncertainty has delayed the U.S. military's ability to plan for the future.
"We believe that the long-term solution for Afghan security is not U.S. forces, it's Afghan forces, and that we've trained and equipped an Afghan National Security Force that needs to be responsible for securing their country," a senior administration official said ahead of the president's announcement. "This has never been a situation where the United States was signing on to provide security in Afghanistan indefinitely."
The president reiterated the necessity of signing the security agreement, but said he was hopeful it could be done.
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Obama: "America's commitment to Afghanistan will endure"
President Obama says the war in Afghanistan is ending, but the U.S. will continue helping secure the country to "preserve the gains we've made."
The president has already spoken about the war several times this week, first during a surprise Memorial Day Weekend visit to Afghanistan on Sunday and his remarks at Arlington National Cemetery commemorating the holiday on Monday.
He will deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point Wednesday, where he is expected to expand on and defend his approach to the recent foreign policy crises the country has faced.
"The bottom line is its time to turn the page on more than a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq," Mr. Obama said. "Americans have learned that it's harder to end wars than it is to begin them. Yet this is how wars end in the 21st century - not through signing ceremonies but through decisive blows against our adversaries, transitions to elected governments, security forces who are trained to take the lead and ultimately full responsibility."
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Obama on Afghanistan drawdown:: It's harder to end wars than start them.
The president announced the United States' combat mission in Afghanistan will be over by the end of 2014.
Still, he promised that the U.S. would "always keep pour commitments to friends and allies who step up" and will continue to support Afghans as they rebuild their country.
In response to the president's announcement, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, welcomed the announcement that the U.S. would maintain a troop presence in Afghanistan after the end of the year but warned against separating the decision making from conditions on the ground.
"It has been my long-standing position that input from our commanders about the conditions on the ground should dictate troop decisions, and not an arbitrary number from Washington," Boehner said. "I am pleased that today's decision supports our military's request for forces, but I look forward to hearing more specifics on how the proposed troop number will adequately cover the defined missions as well as provide appropriate force protection for our military and civilian personnel."
Overall, however, Boehner has advocated for continuing U.S. involvement if it is necessary. In the statement, he said the biggest takeaway from his trip to Afghanistan last month is that, "the most potentially damaging and completely avoidable is quitting just short of the goal line."
WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama turned uncharacteristically political Tuesday, pushing back against a measure pending in the Republican-controlled House that would let some schools opt out of federal dietary standards for school lunches.
The standards, approved by Congress and the president in 2010, set limits on sodium, fat, and calories, and require that unhealthy menu items be replaced with fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
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Some big food companies and Republican lawmakers have criticized the rules, calling them inflexible, ineffective, and expensive. Representative Robert B. Aderholt, an Alabama Republican, has attached language to a spending bill that would waive the requirements for financially ailing school districts.
In response, Obama met with a half-dozen school officials Tuesday who attested to the success of the new standards in their school systems. The standards have been introduced gradually over the past two years.
"The last thing we can afford to do right now is play politics with our kids' health," Obama said at the meeting, adding that "rolling things back is not the answer."
Sam Kass, the director of Obama's "Let's Move" campaign to reduce childhood obesity, acknowledged "legitimate challenges" for some districts in carrying out the standards.
But he cited academic studies showing that, overall, children were eating healthier foods because of the standards.
The School Nutrition Association, which represents cafeteria administrators, issued a statement Tuesday calling the rules "overly prescriptive" and citing Agriculture Department data that showed a drop in school-lunch participation since the standards were adopted.
"The first people I would have to kill are my two housemates, to secure the entire apartment for myself as my personal torture and killing chamber," Rodger wrote in a 141-page manifesto that detailed his plans.
Rodger also wrote that he would lure people into the apartment and kill them before an "ultimate showdown in the streets of Isla Vista."
He planned to "killed all of the sorority girls at the Alpha Phi House" and then drive through the streets of the bustling beach town spraying people with bullets and running over others with his car, the manifesto said.
Veronica Elizabeth Weiss, 19, and Katherine Breann Cooper, 22, were both shot and killed outside the Alpha Phi sorority house near the UCSB campus, officials said Saturday night.
Christopher Ross Michael-Martinez, 20, was killed outside the IV Deli Market. "His death has left our family lost and broken," his father, Richard Martinez said Saturday.
Thirteen others were injured. One was in serious condition at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
Alexander Mattera, 23, said that before the rampage ended, his friend Chris Johnson was shot in front of a pizza place as he was leaving an improv comedy show.
"He walked into these random guys' house bleeding," Mattera said.
Mattera was nearly struck by Rodger as well. He was sitting at a bonfire with friends when at least one bullet flew past his head. The friends ran for cover when they heard the gunfire. "We heard so many gunshots," Mattera said. "I thought they were firecrackers."
May 25, 2014: Ryan Hunter-Reay celebrates winning the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500 IndyCar auto race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis.AP
May 25, 2014: Ryan Hunter-Reay celebrates after crossing the finish line take the checkered flag in front of Helio Castroneves, of Brazil, to win the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500 IndyCar auto race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis.AP
INDIANAPOLIS – The finish was worth the wait for Ryan Hunter-Reay, who used a series of daredevil moves to deny Helio Castroneves a chance at history.
Hunter-Reay became the first American since 2006 to win the Indianapolis 500, passing Castroneves at the Yard of Bricks as the two bright yellow cars raced wheel-to-wheel under the white flag in a thrilling final lap. As Hunter-Reay surged ahead down the backstretch, Castroneves took one final look coming out of Turn 4 but couldn't pull off the pass.
Hunter-Reay won by 0.060 seconds -- the second closest finish in race history since Al Unser Jr. beat Scott Goodyear by 0.043 seconds in 1992.
"I'm a proud American boy, that's for sure," Hunter-Reay said in Victory Lane. "I've watched this race since I was sitting in diapers on the floor in front of the TV. This is American history, this race, this is American tradition."
Castroneves, trying to become the fourth driver to win a record fourth Indianapolis 500, settled for second. He was devastated by the defeat and needed several moments to compose himself, slumped in his car, head down and helmet on, before he was ready to speak. The Brazilian said a caution with 10 laps to go that caused a red flag so track workers could clean up debris and make repairs to the track wall broke his rhythm.
"It was a great fight," he smiled. "I tell you what, I was having a great time. Unfortunately second. It's good, but second sucks, you know what I mean?"
Marco Andretti finished third and Carlos Munoz was fourth as Andretti Autosport had three cars in the top four, as well as the winner.
Kurt Busch, also in a Honda for Andretti, was sixth in his first race of the day. He left immediately after the race to fly to North Carolina for Sunday night's NASCAR Sprint Cup race, where he was expected to run 600 miles in his bid to become just the second driver to complete 1,100 miles in one day.
Three other drivers made the attempt, but only Tony Stewart in 2001 completed The Double. Stewart was sixth at Indy and third at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
"All in all, I'm very pleased. I cannot believe the execution of this team," Busch said before hustling away to a helicopter ride to his waiting plane. "I tried to enjoy it. My throat's real dry because I was smiling the whole time and the fresh air was coming in my mouth."
Marco Andretti appeared to have a shot at the win, but never could mix it up with Hunter-Reay and Castroneves as the two leaders swapped position four times in the final five laps.
"Ryan's just been a huge part of our team, a great guy, a friend," said Michael Andretti, who won for the third time as a team owner and watched his son finish third. "To have him get a win here is awesome, he deserves it, he deserves to have his face on that trophy. If it couldn't be Marco, he's the next guy I wanted."
A year ago, Hunter-Reay was passed for the lead with three laps remaining and went on to finish third as the race finished under caution. He was leading Sunday and had control of the race until Townsend Bell's crash brought out the red flag. Hunter-Reay figured his chances were over.
"I can't get a break," he lamented on his team radio.
But after swapping the lead with Castroneves three times, including a dramatic inside move in Turn 3, Hunter-Reay made the final and decisive pass as the two cars took the white flag.
"At the end of the day there's stupid and bravery, and I think we were right there on the edge, both of us," said Castroneves. "I'm glad we both come out in a good way. I'm sad it did not come out the way I wanted."
WASHINGTON — During a surprise trip to Afghanistan on Sunday, President Obama thanked US troops for their service during a decade of war, saying that their sacrifices had ensured the country would never again be used as a base for terrorist attacks against the United States.
"I thank you as your commander in chief because you inspire me," Obama told about 3,000 troops in a hangar at Bagram Air Field after landing in the country early Sunday morning. "I'm here to say thank you. And I'm here to say how proud I am of you."
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The trip was unannounced, and Obama slipped out of the White House secretly Saturday evening ahead of Memorial Day. Country music singer Brad Paisley traveled on Air Force One with Obama to Afghanistan and performed for about an hour before the president spoke.
Obama chose not to meet with Hamid Karzai, the departing president of Afghanistan, and did not travel to Kabul, the country's capital. But he vowed that he would work with whomever wins the presidential runoff election scheduled for June 14: Abdullah Abdullah or Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai.
White House officials said the trip was intended as a visit with troops, not as an opportunity for the two presidents to meet. They said US officials offered Karzai the opportunity to meet Obama at the Bagram Air Field, but they said they were not surprised that it did not happen.
In his remarks to the troops, Obama made clear that he still intends to keep a small military force in Afghanistan beyond 2014 despite longstanding resistance to an enduring US presence from Karzai.
Obama's comments indicated that he may have ruled out the idea of a complete withdrawal of all US forces when the NATO-led combat mission ends this year.
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"Once Afghanistan has sworn in its new president, I'm hopeful we will sign a bilateral security agreement that lets us move forward," Obama said. "And with that bilateral security agreement, assuming it is signed, we can plan for a limited military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014."
Obama vowed that "we are going to make sure that Afghanistan can never again — ever — be used to launch a terrorist attack against our country."
''America's commitment to the people of Afghanistan will endure,'' the president said.
Obama got his biggest applause from the troops when he praised them for making sure that "America's war in Afghanistan will come to a responsible end." The crowd also roared with approval when the president said he frequently tells corporate leaders, "If you want somebody who can get the job done, hire a vet."
Obama did not make any major policy announcements in his remarks to the troops. He is expected to wait until he returns to the United States to offer his latest foreign policy and national security vision, during a speech that he is scheduled to give at the US Military Academy graduation on Wednesday.
Obama has said all US combat troops will have left Afghanistan by the end of this year. US officials hope to leave a small contingent of forces beyond the 2014 withdrawal deadline for the international security force in Afghanistan, to allow for more training of Afghan forces and continuing counterterrorism operations.
The visit to Afghanistan comes as Obama prepares to draw the second of two wars to an official close, making good on a promise that he made as a candidate to pull the United States out of such conflicts.
Ukraine's Eurobonds rose for a 10th day as investors anticipated billionaire Petro Poroshenko's presidential election victory will help resolve the conflict with Russia. The hryvnia and stocks rallied.
The yield on the dollar note due 2017 fell two basis points to 10.27 percent, the lowest since April 4. The hryvnia advanced 0.4 percent to 11.9 per dollar by 11:05 a.m. in Kiev.
Poroshenko received 53.8 percent of yesterday's vote with 50.1 percent of ballots counted, according to the Election Commission, and is set to gain the simple majority needed to avoid a runoff. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who doesn't recognize the government in Kiev, has pledged to work with the winner. Poroshenko said he will visit eastern regions to end fighting with separatists that hampered voting yesterday.
"We see all of this as very positive, especially given President Putin stated on Friday that he is looking to recognize and work with the new leadership," Simon Quijano-Evans, a London-based analyst at Commerzbank AG, wrote in an e-mailed report today.
Kernel Holding SA, Ukraine's biggest company traded on the Warsaw bourse, jumped as much as 8 percent to 29 zloty, the most since April 22. The Ukrainian Equities Index (UX) rose 4.5 percent to 1,228.96, the highest in two years.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andras Gergely in Budapest at agergely@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wojciech Moskwa at wmoskwa@bloomberg.net Chris Kirkham, Alex Nicholson
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Rescue teams are searching for three people reported missing after a large mudslide struck in western Colorado's Mesa County.
The slide hit Sunday in a remote area near the town of Collbran, about 40 miles east of Grand Junction.
Rescuers raced to the scene when it was reported around 6 p.m. MDT, but eased operations after nightfall, Mesa County Sheriff's spokeswoman Lisa McCammon said.
There's "not a lot of activity tonight," she said. The "slide area is very unstable." She said a daylight search was safer.
The department estimated the slide is about 4 miles long, 2 miles wide and about 250 feet deep in many places.
"This slide is unbelievably big," Mesa County Lt. Phil Stratton said.
The department said crews were searching for three residents of the Collbran area after they were reported missing in the slide area, situated near Salt Creek road and Vega Reservoir.
The site is in a rural part of the county and there were no reports of any structures damaged or major roads affected, McCammon said.
The sheriff's office said that the person who reported the slide at about 6:15 p.m. "described hearing a noise that sounded much like a freight train."
A unified incident command has been established between Plateau Valley Fire Department and the Mesa sheriff, to handle the slide and search for the people possibly caught in it.
Authorities say the heavy rains that fell over the weekend contributed to the slide.
The avalanche occurred about two months after a massive mudslide hit the Washington state community of Oso on March 22, killing 43 people.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
European stock markets pushed higher Monday, largely brushing off strong gains for antiausterity parties in the European Parliamentary elections over the weekend, with economists and strategists saying that investors had already priced in a solid showing for euroskeptics in the lead up to Sunday's vote.
In thin trade, due to a public holiday in the U.K., the Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.3%, with France CAC-40 up 0.2% and Germany's DAX rising as much as 0.7%.
France's far-right National Frontappeared to score a historic victory as voters delivered a strong rebuke to mainstream parties that many blame for leaving the country's economy in the doldrums. Exit polls showed the National Front, led by firebrand politician Marine Le Pen, garnered an estimated 25% of the vote nationally, with the party achieving as much as 28% in some territories.
In Germany, meanwhile, investors seemingly welcomed provisional results showing a win for Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democrats and Christian Socialists. The euroskeptic AfD, running for the first time in European elections, was seen taking 7%.
Greece's radical-left Syriza party—which opposes the country's international bailout—was poised to win, as was the U.K. Independence Party and the right-wing populist Danish People's Party.
"It looks unclear whether the results of the European Parliament elections will have any meaningful and lasting impact on financial markets beyond the early part of this week," Crédit Agricole strategist Frederik Ducrozet said.
"All in all, the EU/euro-zone governance might be little affected while any repercussions might be felt more on a domestic level where populist parties reached the highest scores," he added.
The euro initially lost some ground on the back of the results, but later strengthened again to $1.3625 against the U.S. dollar in early European trade.
"The surge in popularity from fringe parties may not translate to any imminent shift in policy and, as such, may not much alter market thinking on coming ECB policy," said Citigroup currency strategist Todd Elmer. He added that many investors also looked to have been shorting the euro ahead of the vote.
Elsewhere, as largely expected, Petro Poroshenko declared victory in Ukraine's presidential electionSunday after exit polls showed the pro-Europe chocolate tycoon won more than half the vote. Separatists, however, largely blocked voting in parts of the east.
Later in the morning, markets will be watching a speech by Mario Draghi in Portugal, for further indication of the extent of possible action the ECB might take at its next meeting in June.
In commodities markets, gold was 0.1% higher at $1,293.00, and Brent crude oil traded down 0.6% at $109.97 a barrel.
FILE: May 17, 2014: The Department of Veterans Affairs in Phoenix, Ariz.AP
The Obama administration said Saturday it will allow more veterans to get health care outside Veterans Affairs facilities, following recent revelations about long waits for treatment and purported secret lists that hid backlogs.
The statement was issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which said the plan is to expand capacity at VA facilities to increase care, or when not possible increase care in the community through outside facilities.
Officials said VA Secretary Eric Shinseki put the plan into action following President Obama's national TV address Wednesday on the issue and that it was being implemented by Friday under the direction of the Veterans Health Administration.
"VA has redoubled efforts to provide quality care to veterans and has taken steps at national and local levels to ensure timely access to care," the department said Saturday in a statement.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers have pressed for the policy change as the VA confronts the allegations about employees falsifying appointment records to cover up delays in care and about veterans dying while awaiting treatment at VA centers.
A spokesman for Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said the Florida Republican was pleased by Shinseki's announcement, but wondered why it took so long. Reports that as many as 40 veterans may have died while awaiting treatment at the Phoenix hospital surfaced more than a month ago.
Miller said in a statement Friday that Shinseki and President Obama were engaged "in an endless discussion regarding allegations, investigations and unreliable internal VA reviews" while "overlooking VA's very real, very deadly and very well-documented delays in care problem."
Miller has pledged to introduce legislation that would give any veteran who is unable to obtain a VA appointment within 30 days of application the option to receive non-VA care at the department's expense.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has called for the VA to allow more veterans to receive medical care at private hospitals. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said this past week that she was open to the idea of medical care at private hospitals. She said it was unacceptable to have a backlog of patients waiting for permission to go to a federally qualified clinic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Confronting critics of his foreign policy, President Barack Obama will soon outline a strategy for his final years in office that aims to avoid overreach as the second of the two wars he inherited comes to a close.
The president will make the case for that seemingly more limited approach during a commencement address Wednesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The speech will come amid growing frustration in the White House with Republicans and other critics who contend that Obama has weakened America's standing around the world and faltered on problems across the Middle East and in Russia, China and elsewhere.
That criticism has only mounted over the past year following Obama's decision to pull back a military strike in Syria and his inability to stop Russia from annexing territory from Ukraine. A White House official said Obama would specifically address both situations, as well as the status of ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran.
The president is also expected to discuss how he views shifts in the counterterrorism threat from al-Qaida and other groups, according to the official, who insisted on anonymity to preview the president's speech.
Obama came into office vowing to end the lengthy American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and seeking to keep a war-weary nation out of unnecessary conflicts. The war in Iraq ended in the closing days of 2011 and the Afghan conflict will formally conclude later this year, though the White House is seeking to keep a smaller contingent of U.S. troops behind to train Afghan forces and conduct counterterrorism missions.
While Obama has followed through on his pledge to end America's wars, some foreign policy analysts argue that he has over-corrected and his aversion to military action makes it harder for the U.S. to levy credible threats that force international foes to change their behavior.
"He's far too risk adverse a president," said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East adviser to Republican and Democratic administrations. "And in a world where no one will lead except America, he has abdicated and surrendered much of the leadership."
The White House official said Obama will argue that the U.S. remains the only nation capable of galvanizing action and will make the case that American power needs to be part of a sustainable international system. He will argue that his foreign policy philosophy is not isolationist, but rather "interventionist and internationalist," according to the official.
The president is expected to expand on remarks he made last month at a news conference in the Philippines, when the extent of his frustration with his critics boiled over. He specifically targeted those who are quick to call for U.S. military action, arguing that they had failed to learn the lessons of the Iraq war.
"Why is it that everybody is so eager to use military force after we've just gone through a decade of war at enormous costs to our troops and to our budget?" he said. "And what is it exactly that these critics think would have been accomplished?"
Yet Obama also cast his approach as one that "avoids errors" by being more limited in scope.
"You hit singles, you hit doubles," he said. "Every once in a while we may be able to hit a home run. "
Ahead of the president's speech, Obama's top advisers have been holding private meetings with congressional lawmakers to address their specific foreign policy concerns. However, the outreach appeared to accomplish little, according to some participants, with a Republican senator calling one meeting "bizarre" and another lawmaker saying the White House refused to provide specific answers to questions.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., was among those who participated in the White House meetings. In an interview, he questioned how much Obama's speech can accomplish in shifting the way the White House's foreign policy approach is viewed.
"One of the problems with the White House is that they view speeches as foreign policy," Corker said. "They don't really follow through with much in the way of substance. It's always minimal."
The White House official said Obama will build on his remarks during an early June trip to Europe, where he'll give a speech about the U.S. commitment to the continent while in Poland and meet with Group of Seven leaders in Brussels. Obama's top foreign policy advisers, including Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and national security adviser Susan Rice, are also expected to follow the president's address with events of their own, according to the official.
Rodger, 22, a student at Santa Barbara City College, grew up amid affluence and privilege as the son of Peter Rodger, an assistant director of "The Hunger Games" and a highly regarded film photographer in Europe, and the stepson of Soumaya Akaaboune, an actress who appeared in "Green Zone" in 2010 with Matt Damon and stars in the French version of the "Real Housewives" television series.
But in the nine videos and in a 106,000-word autobiography/cri-de-coeur written under his name and mailed through the post office to a Santa Barbara TV station, Rodger emerges as a desperately unhappy young man who pined for his birth mother — from whom he was separated by divorce — despised his stepmother and hated the frequent lavish trips to Europe and Morocco (his stepmother's homeland) that his family's wealth afforded.
And most of all, he hated women. They saw him as weak and uninteresting, he believed. They preferred strong, macho types, not a "supreme gentleman" like himself, he says in one of the videos he posted shortly before the rampage Friday. He died a virgin.
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Rodger was born in 1991 in London, where his father was then based. His mother was a Malaysian woman of Chinese descent who worked as a nurse on film sets, according to the 141-page manifesto.
NBC News has not independently verified the authenticity of the document, but Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown referred to it several times Saturday as helping to establish that Rodger was "disturbed" and "a madman."
Rodger lived a happy live with his parents and a younger sister in England until he was 5 years old, when the family moved to western Los Angeles so his father could pursue career opportunities in Hollywood, according to the manuscript.
Within two years, his parents divorced, it says. Almost immediately, his father introduced him to Akaaboune, the woman who would become his stepmother. He did not like her.
Then came school age, the start of what the writer describes as horribly unpleasant interactions with girls and — as he apparently saw them — their bully boyfriends.
MICHAEL NELSON / EPA
A woman kneels in front of a makeshift memorial Saturday for victims of the deadly shootings Friday night in Isla Vista, Calif.
According to the document written under his name, Rodger had uncomfortable but not dire dealings with girls until he reached sixth grade.
Then, "with puberty, my whole world would change, and my entire life would collapse into utter despair."
By 13, he said, he was known as the "weird kid" at his school. He saw all girls as "mean, cruel, and heartless creatures that took pleasure in my suffering."
At the same time, he was powerfully sexually attracted to them — especially to effervescent blonde girls — which made it all the more "horrible" that other boys teased him for being scared of girls.
Courtesy Weiss family
Veronica Elizabeth Weiss, 19, a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was killed in the shootings Friday night in Isla Vista, Calif.
He was intensely jealous of any boy who had a girlfriend, especially those who boasted that they were having sex. As high school went on, he retreated deeper and deeper into the world of multiplayer online role-playing games, his favorite being World of Warcraft, which he would play for hours upon hours, and which he would dream of when he was forced to leave it behind on family trips overseas, according to the manifesto.
At some point, Rodger was diagnosed as having an ultra-high-achieving form of Asperger syndrome, a disorder on the autism spectrum, an attorney for his family said Saturday.
It's important to stress that there has never been any scientific link between Asperger and acts of violence, and there is no claim that Rodger's disorder itself had anything to do with Friday's actions.
But the diagnosis does partly explain why he was in Santa Barbara in the first place.
At the urging of his family, who wanted him to become more independent, Rodger left Los Angeles for Santa Barbara in June 2011 at age 19. He enrolled in Santa Barbara City College and was treated by "multiple" medical and psychiatric specialists, the family's lawyer said Saturday.
Childhood Photo Courtesy Richard Martinez via EPA
A childhood photo of Christopher Ross Michael-Martinez, a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was killed in the shootings Friday night in Isla Vista, Calif.
It didn't work, according to Rodger's videos and the manifesto written under his name. He dropped out and re-enrolled several times and doesn't appear to have declared a major. His isolation grew ever worse as he was rejected by the women at his college and at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
"I'm 22 years old, and I'm still a virgin. I've never even kissed a girl," Rodger says in one of the videos, which he shot while sitting at the wheel of what appears to be the same BMW he is believed to have used to stalk the streets of Isla Vista on Friday night.
"I've been through college for 2½ years — more than that actually — and I'm still a virgin. It has been very torturous," he says. "College is the time when everyone experiences those things such as sex and fun and pleasure. Within those years, I've had to rot in loneliness."
Declaring that life has not been "fair," he complains: "You girls have never been attracted to me. I don't know why you girls aren't attracted to me."
And then he promises: "I will punish you all for it."
ROBYN BECK / AFP - Getty Images
Investigators inspect the suspected gunman's car Saturday after the deadly drive-by shootings Friday night in Isla Vista, Calif.
The manifesto picks up the story from there.
In December 2012, it says, he bought a gun — the first step toward what he grandiosely called "the Day of Retribution," which he planned for November 2013 in Isla Vista. It says he knew he would "die in the process."
"I didn't want to die. I fear death, but death is better than living such a miserable, insignificant life," it says.
The second gun — Rodger was found with three in all on Friday night, along with more than 40 magazines of ammunition — was bought in the spring of last year. About the same time, he came across a website devoted to men who hate women and are unable to persuade them to have sex, where he posted screeds against women.
Under treatment from several counselors in Santa Barbara, the document says, Rodger decided to postpone his murderous plans. He would try to win the Mega Millions lottery — hoping to become a multimillionaire in his own right and win the affections of a woman, any woman, who would sleep with him by the time he turned 22.
It didn't happen. As his 22nd birthday approached last July, he kept losing in the lottery and in attracting women. And everywhere he turned, he felt he was being mocked by every man who walked the streets holding hands with a woman, kissing a woman, even talking about a woman, according to the document written under his name.
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The weekend before he turned 22, he was at a party where he "saw lots of guys walking around with hot blonde girls on their arm," it says.
"It fueled me with rage, as it always had," the author writes. He pretended to shoot the women with his finger, sparking a fight with other men during which Rodger fell and broke his ankle.
The sheriff's office confirmed Saturday that authorities were called to a local hospital last July and investigated an altercation during which Rodger was injured — an altercation it said he instigated.
It was the last straw.
"I gave them all one last chance to accept me, to give me a reason not to hate them," the author writes. "I gave the world too many chances. It was time for Retribution" — which he timed for this spring.
"I moved to Isla Vista with the goal of losing my virginity and attaining the life I desire," the document says.
The group is made up of Hugo Carney, left, (son of White House Press Sec. Jay Carney), Ben Froman, 2nd from left, (US Trade Rep. Mike Froman's son), Lucas Donovan (Housing and Urban Development Sec. Shaun Donovan's son), second from right, and Joey Doyle, far right, former Hillary Clinton presidential campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle's son. 
Evan Vucci / AP 
MICHAEL NELSON / EPA 
Courtesy Weiss family 
Childhood Photo Courtesy Richard Martinez via EPA 
ROBYN BECK / AFP - Getty Images 
