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WASHINGTON (AP) — Today, President Barack Obama plans to nominate his choice to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. Robert McDonald is a former executive with Procter & Gamble, is a West Point grad and served as a captain in the Army. If confirmed by the Senate, McDonald would lead a troubled agency gripped by reports of treatment delays and cover-ups.
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists say heavy clashes are underway between several rebel factions and an al-Qaida breakaway group over control of a border crossing with Iraq. On Sunday, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq, declared the establishment of an Islamic state. In Iraq, the group recently has captured cities and towns as well as border crossings, effectively erasing the frontier.
KALAK, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi refugees have begun the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in a nation gripped by unrest. At the end of the first daylong fast on Sunday, men scrambled to reach pots of rice, meat and chicken in a hot encampment some 60 miles from the northern city of Irbil, the capital of Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region. Families have been fleeing to the region as Sunni extremists claim more and more of Iraq.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Marine corporal who was declared a deserter nearly 10 years ago after disappearing in Iraq is to be moved today to his original home base of Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun (wah-SEF' ah-LEE' hah-SOON') was flown to Norfolk, Virginia yesterday from an undisclosed location in the Middle East. A month after disappearing in Iraq in 2004, Hassoun turned up in Beirut, Lebanon, and blamed his disappearance on Islamic extremist kidnappers. He was about to face military proceedings at Camp Lejeune when he disappeared again.
PARIS (AP) — France is replacing its plan to teach children the "ABCD of equality" between boys and girls after protests by some parents who fear it's a stealth effort to erase gender differences. The Education Ministry says it will replace the plan with new training for teachers when the new school year begins in September.
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