News You Ought to Know

OBAMA TO SLOW PACE OF AFGHANISTAN TROOP WITHDRAWAL
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. will slow the pace of its troop drawdown in Afghanistan, leaving 8,400 troops there when President Barack Obama completes his term, Obama announced Wednesday in a blunt acknowledgment that America will remain entangled there despite his aspirations to end the war. In a statement at the White House, Obama said the security situation in Afghanistan remains “precarious” and the Taliban a threat roughly 15 years after the U.S. invaded in the aftermath of 9/11. He said he was committed not to allow terrorists to use Afghanistan “as a safe haven for terrorists to attack our nation again.”
GOP TO EXAMINE FBI DECISION ON CLINTON EMAILS
WASHINGTON (AP) – Irate that Hillary Clinton will not face criminal charges over her emails, House Republicans are summoning FBI Director James Comey to Capitol Hill to answer their questions. Comey will testify Thursday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the panel’s chairman, Jason Chaffetz of Utah, announced Wednesday. The announcement came a day after Comey rebuked Clinton for “extremely careless” behavior in her handling of classified emails as secretary of state, but declared that “no charges are appropriate” in the case. “There are a lot of questions that have to be answered. And so we’re going to be asking those questions,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters, adding that it looked like Clinton had gotten preferential treatment.
FEDS OPEN INVESTIGATION INTO DEADLY POLICE SHOOTING
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – The U.S. Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation Wednesday into the videotaped police killing of a black man who authorities say had a gun as he wrestled with officers on the pavement outside a convenience store. Alton Sterling, 37, was confronted by police on Tuesday after an anonymous caller said he had threatened someone with a gun outside the store where he was selling homemade CDs, authorities said. In a cellphone video taken by a community activist and posted online, two officers had Sterling pinned to the ground, and gunfire erupted moments after someone yelled, “He’s got a gun!

TRUMP: SADDAM KILLED TERRORISTS ‘SO GOOD’
RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) – Donald Trump, who frequently criticizes U.S. foreign policy under President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is praising Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s ruthlessness. “Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, right? … But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good,” Trump told supporters at a campaign rally Tuesday night in Raleigh, North Carolina. “They didn’t read ’em the rights, they didn’t talk. They were a terrorist, it was over.” Trump has previously said the world would be “100 percent better” if dictators like Saddam and Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi were still in power.
SCATHING REPORT SLAMS BLAIR OVER BOTCHED IRAQ WAR
LONDON (AP) – Britain’s decision to go to war in Iraq was a failure born of flawed intelligence, lack of foresight and “wholly inadequate” planning, an official inquiry concluded Wednesday in a report seven years in the making. Retired civil servant John Chilcot, who oversaw the inquiry, said “the U.K. chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort.” The 2.6-million-word report is an exhaustive verdict on a divisive conflict that – by the time British combat forces left in 2009 – had killed 179 British troops, almost 4,500 American personnel and more than 100,000 Iraqis.
OSCAR PISTORIUS SENTENCED TO 6 YEARS IN PRISON FOR MURDER
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) – Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee Olympian described by a judge as a “fallen hero,” was sentenced on Wednesday to six years in a South African prison for the murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a ruling viewed by some as too lenient. However, Judge Thokozile Masipa appeared to anticipate criticism of a jail term that fell far short of the normally mandated 15 years for murder under South African law, declaring: “Our courts are courts of law, not courts of public opinion.” Pistorius, who shot Steenkamp through the door of a toilet cubicle in his home in 2013, was asked to stand and face Masipa as she announced his sentence in a wood-paneled courtroom in the South African capital, Pretoria.
CONSERVATIVE OPPOSITION ENDANGERS HOUSE REPUBLICAN GUN BILL
WASHINGTON (AP) – Conservative opposition put a House Republican gun and anti-terrorism bill in jeopardy Wednesday, even as Democrats pressed for election-year votes on their proposals to stiffen firearm curbs. In an embarrassing blow to House Speaker Paul Ryan, members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus said they would oppose the measure despite its similarity to a GOP bill in the Senate that’s endorsed by the National Rifle Association. Caucus members complained that the House bill, which Ryan has been pushing, did not adequately protect the rights of gun owners. In a written statement, the Freedom Caucus, which claims about 40 House members, also faulted the measure for “failing to do enough to address the threat of radical Islamic terrorism.” Without their support and with solid Democratic opposition, Republicans would lack the votes to move the bill ahead.
AP PHOTOS: MUSLIMS CELEBRATE EID, MARKING RAMADAN’S END
BEIRUT (AP) – Muslims around the world are celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday, a time for family and feasting, to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan and its daytime fasting. Businesses closed across the Muslim world, as people dressed up and visited relatives, enjoying their first daytime meals in a lunar month. Mosques hold special prayers at sunrise, and children are often given gifts or a special allowance. The holiday lasts one to three days, and is eagerly anticipated after the month of fasting. During Ramadan, the faithful refrain from eating, drinking, smoking or sexual activity from dawn to dusk, with even a small sip of water enough to invalidate the fast, which is one of the five pillars of Islam.
PHILADELPHIA ARCHBISHOP: DIVORCED CATHOLICS MUST AVOID SEX
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia says divorced and remarried parishioners should abstain from sex and live “like brother and sister” if they want to receive Holy Communion and haven’t had their previous marriage annulled. Archbishop Charles Chaput issued a new set of pastoral guidelines for clergy and other leaders in the archdiocese that went into effect July 1. The guidelines say Catholics in same-sex partnerships, civilly remarried parishioners and unmarried couples living together should not be permitted to serve on parish councils, instruct the faithful, serve as lectors or dispense Communion. Such “irregular” relationships “offer a serious counter-witness to Catholic belief, which can only produce moral confusion in the community,” the guidelines state, acknowledging it is a “hard teaching.” Church teaching says that unless divorced and remarried Catholics received an annulment – a church decree that their first marriage was invalid – they are committing adultery and cannot receive the sacrament of Communion.
‘BIG BANG’ STAR KALEY CUOCO SORRY FOR PIC OF DOGS ON US FLAG
Kaley Cuoco has apologized for posting a picture on social media on Independence Day of her dogs sitting on an American flag. Commenters sharply criticized the Instagram photo, which the “Big Bang Theory” star had said was taken by her dog sitter while she was out of town. She later removed the picture and posted another with a graphic of an American flag in the shape of a heart. In the caption she writes that she made a mistake and sincerely apologizes to “anyone that has been offended.” She adds that the picture in no way reflects her “feelings toward what the American flag represents.” She calls herself “a proud American, today, tomorrow, always.”