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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon and the White House condemned on Monday reports that Afghan forces who worked with U.S. military personnel sexually assaulted boys, and members of Congress complained about a U.S. soldier being forced out of the military because he intervened in 2011, attacking an Afghan police commander he believed was raping a child. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and others are questioning whether the U.S. military routinely discouraged troops from intervening in such sexual assaults. Hunter said Army Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland must leave the Army by Nov. 1, because his intervention to stop a child rape triggered...

Half a century ago, when Los Angeles Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax chose not to pitch Game 1 of the 1965 World Series against the Minnesota Twins because it fell on Yom Kippur, Elliot Strom was a 15-year-old baseball fan in Toronto. After attending services that morning, Strom, who acknowledges that at the time he "wasn't the best synagogue attender in the world," told his father he planned to stay home that afternoon and watch the World Series on TV rather than return for late services. This did not go over well. "My father was very unhappy with me,'' Strom recalls....

The St. Louis Cardinals became the first team to clinch a playoff spot in the major leagues Saturday, but it wasn’t anything they did. The San Francisco Giants’ loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, a few hours after the Chicago Cubs beat the Cardinals 5-4, made sure St. Louis will make the postseason. This is the fifth consecutive season the Cardinals will make the playoffs, a run of postseasons that is a franchise record for the team with the second-most World Series titles (11). St. Louis’ success this season -- the Cardinals have by far the best record in baseball (92-56)...

SIMI VALLEY, California — A top pollster who has analyzed the motivations behind Donald Trump supporters says that there's only one thing that the real estate mogul can do wrong: Not be himself. Ahead of the second Republican debate in Simi Valley, California, on Wednesday, Republican pollster Frank Luntz told Business Insider that the only one way that Trump can lose support is if he forgoes his outspoken style. It's an outcome that Luntz doubts. "The key to Donald Trump’s success is authenticity. The moment he comes across as the other candidates, the moment that he comes across as a...

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Texas Rangers' red-clad fans stood on their feet clapping in unison before the start of the ninth inning, anticipating something special Tuesday night at Globe Life Park. They never sat down. Three batters into the inning, the Rangers had their seventh walk-off win of the season. Mitch Moreland's sacrifice fly to center field scored pinch-runner Drew Stubbs with the winning run. Texas 6, Houston 5. The Rangers, left for dead in late July when they fell nine games behind the Houston Astros, will wake up Wednesday morning in first place for the first time this season.

Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik believes that "it's never going to be trendy to be observant or religious in Hollywood circles." The Jewish married mother of two told Fox News that she received a lot of negative attention after taking a trip to Israel. "I've gotten a lot of negative attention for visiting Israel," she said about her trip to visit a friend in the Israel Defense Forces. "That's what's amazing...simply by going to Israel this summer and saying nothing more than, 'I've gone to Israel,' I got the same amount of hatred and threats and anti-Semitism for actually...

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is expected to launch its long-awaited tablet computer on Wednesday, sporting a low-enough price to give Apple Inc's iPad some serious competition for the first time. At a news conference Wednesday morning in New York, Amazon will likely unveil a seven-inch tablet that will let users read e-books, download digital music and video games and stream movies and TV shows. Analysts expect the tablet to be priced around $250, roughly half the price of Apple's dominant iPad, which starts at $499. "If Amazon prices the Kindle Fire at $250, it has the potential to become the...

There's an article posted this morning, "Mother 'bludgeoned daughters 7 and 4 to death with a hatchet after failed pregnancy". It's not that the poster doesn't have a right to post a legitimate news story. It's not that the poster is doing anything morally wrong by posting it. Indeed I have no doubt that the poster is as sickened and grieved by the murders of children as any other decent person is. Maybe it's just me. I used to drive slowly past the bad wreck and crane my neck to see "whatever there was to see" Now I want to...

Here, we've chosen the best places for pizza around the country from new guard spots—including a Bay Area pizzeria that uses locally milled flour—to the nearly century-old East Coast institutions started by the original pizzaiolo obsessives that loyalists still (rightfully) love.

The memorial sits on the National Mall near the Tidal Basin, between memorials honoring Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. It includes a 30-foot-tall sculpture of King and a 450-foot-long granite wall inscribed with 14 quotations from the civil rights leader. The Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin: The Location on The Mall:

A federal jury says Chicago law enforcement must pay $330,000 to a family after officers shot their dog during a home raid that turned up no illegal activity. Thomas Russell, then 18, opened the door to his home in February 2009 to find police officers with their guns drawn. He asked if he could lock up his 9-year-old black labrador, named Lady, before letting the officers inside. The Chicago Tribune describes what happened next: Police refused the request and came into the house, the lawsuit said. When Lady came loping around the corner with her tail wagging, Officer Richard Antonsen...

During the 2008 election cycle Yahoo! was a huge supporter of the Obama candidacy. Since he took office little has changed. The mantra has been: Obama = wonderful, wise, brilliant Conservatives = racist, stupid, greedy One thing that was a constant was that Obama was never shown reading from a teleprompter. If Yahoo! showed that, it might interfere with the image that words of wisdom simply flowed extemporaneously from his lips like water from a mountain spring. Well I'm not under the delusion that Yahoo! is suddenly becoming anything other than a leftist site, but still our take our little...

Your opinions... Who will be the GOP nominee? Who will come in 2nd and 3rd? Will Obama keep Biden as his VP nominee? Try to play nice.

Did someone create a company for the sole purpose of giving to a political action committee trying to boost Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign? That's what it looks like. As The Ticket reported earlier this week, three firms gave $1 million apiece to Restore Our Future, a conservative "super PAC" planning to spend millions to help Romney's White House bid. One of those companies was W. Spann LLC, a mysterious New York-based company that apparently closed up shop last month shortly after its contribution to the pro-Romney PAC. As NBC News's Michael Isikoff reports, the company was formed in March...

My wife and I are thinking of an October trip that would include Gettysburg. We want to fly into the area and would probably take a bus or some type of shuttle, not a rental car, into Gettysburg for however many days we need to stay. So I need some advice from knowledgeable FReepers (Is there any other kind of FReeper?): First of all what city should we fly into? Baltimore and Harrisburg look most likely. I know Gettysburg has an airport but it doesn't appear to have major carriers. Does anybody know if bus or shuttle service is available...

A charity founded by Newt Gingrich paid Gingrich's for-profit company $220,000 over two years, ABC News reports. The non-profit, Renewing American Leadership, was meant to spur conversation about restoring Christian principles in Washington, and mostly did that through letters seeking donations. The list of people who responded to those letters with checks was given to Gingrich--something that would be very valuable to a potential presidential candidate building support early in the campaign. ReAL, as the non-profit is called, also paid full-price for Gingrich's books and DVDs. ABC News asked Gingrich for comment ahead of a speech in New Hampshire, but...

We've known about this unofficially since March, but it's official now - New Line, MGM, and Warner Brothers have announced that Peter Jackson's HOBBIT films are titled THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, to be released December 14, 2012, and THE HOBBIT: THERE AND BACK AGAIN, to be released December 13, 2013.

JOPLIN, Mo. -- State officials said Thursday morning that they don't know the whereabouts of 232 people who likely were in the city on Sunday afternoon when the tornado hit. Missouri Department of Public Safety deputy director Andrea Spillars released a list of the names. She urged survivors to check in. Officials said previously they believe people who are "unaccounted for" aren't necessarily dead or trapped in debris. They say many are probably safe and but failed to tell friends and family where they are. Cell phone service in Joplin remains spotty. Spillars said officials know some of the missing...

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney is emerging as the man to catch in the narrowing Republican presidential field, grabbing a clear head start in fundraising, organization and experience despite vulnerabilities that still might undo him. With Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels becoming the latest respected Republican to forgo a candidacy, many party insiders say the field is largely set. And Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and Olympic Games organizer, is in front. "It's Romney's to lose," said Scott Reed, a GOP consultant who managed Bob Dole's presidential campaign. He said Romney's biggest advantages are his personal wealth, fundraising know-how and experience as...

just askin...