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WASHINGTON (AP) — Social conservatives are scoffing at a new Obama administration effort to settle down a politically charged controversy over birth control. Under the change, the U.S. will start allowing faith-affiliated charities, colleges and hospitals to notify the government — rather than their insurers — that they object to contraception on religious grounds. The Family Research Council dismissed the new fix as an insulting accounting gimmick.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Several nations assailed Russia at a closed-door United Nations meeting today, charging that it has undertaken an illegal and unilateral action to violate the sovereignty of neighboring Ukraine. The Obama administration condemned the movement of a Russian convoy into eastern Ukraine, demanding that it be withdrawn. Russian ambassador Vitaly Churckin defended his country.
FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri says she's pushing for federal and local investigations to be completed at about the same time in the case involving the killing of a black man by a white police officer in a St. Louis suburb. McCaskill says she's hopeful that physical evidence in the case will provide, quote, "incontrovertible facts" about what actually happened during the shooting.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council has condemned the killing of American journalist James Foley and said the Islamic State militant group must be defeated. In a statement out today, the council calls the killing, quote, "a tragic reminder of the increasing dangers journalists face every day in Syria." The council said the incident demonstrates the brutality of Islamic militants.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows that Hamas will pay a "heavy price" after a mortar shell killed a 4-year-old boy in a small farming community near Gaza today. The Israeli military says five other Israelis were hurt in rocket attacks. Israel carried out at least 35 airstrikes in Gaza. Meanwhile, gunmen in the Palestinian territory shot to death 18 alleged spies for Israel.
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