Uniformed man kills US service member

Uniformed man kills US service member

kabul, afghanistan

A man in an Afghan police uniform shot and killed a U.S. service member Sunday, a U.S. Defense Department official said, raising the death toll to 10 in such attacks in the space of just two weeks.

The surge in violence by Afghan allies against their international partners has raised doubts about the ability of the two forces to work together at a key transition time. Afghan forces are expected to take over security for the country by the end of 2014, when the majority of international combat forces are scheduled to leave.

Boy ID’d; was killed in lightning strike

duluth, minn.

A 9-year-old Wisconsin boy died from a lightning strike, one of eight boaters who sought shelter on a Lake Superior beach, Minnesota authorities said Sunday,

Luke Voigt, 9, of Iron River, Wis., was one of eight family members and friends who were on a sailboat that took refuge about 5:30 p.m. Saturday from a rapidly approaching thunderstorm near the Duluth-Superior harbor, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Lightning struck before most could get off the boat, but one person was able to call 911.

Hurricane Gordon heads toward Azores

miami

Hurricane Gordon sped across the Atlantic on Sunday toward the eastern Azores islands, where a hurricane warning is in effect, U.S. forecasters in Miami said.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Gordon was centered about 110 miles south-southwest of Sao Miguel Island in the Azores as of 8 p.m. EDT. Gordon had weakened to a Category 1 hurricane with top sustained winds of 85 mph and higher gusts.

Congressman Akin backs off comments

st. Louis

Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, the conservative Republican U.S. Senate candidate, quickly backed off comments that aired earlier Sunday, in which he told an interviewer that a woman’s body “has ways” to prevent pregnancy during rape and that such pregnancies are “really rare.”

Akin, a six-term congressman, was asked in an interview that aired Sunday on St. Louis television station KTVI if he would support abortions for women who have been raped.

“It seems to me first of all from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Akin said. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” Akin said of a rape victim’s chances of becoming pregnant.

He also said he would prefer that punishment for rape be focused on the rapist and not “attacking the child.”

Akin said in an emailed statement later Sunday that he “misspoke” in the interview, though the statement did not say specifically which points.

USS Constitution sets sail at 215 years old

boston

At 215 years old, the USS Constitution is the U.S. Navy’s oldest commissioned warship afloat. But it’s not too old to take a quick sail.

For 17 minutes on Sunday, the ship cruised west across Boston Harbor, reaching a maximum speed of 3.1 knots. It was its first sail under its own power since turning 200 in 1997.

The short trip — a distance of 1,100 yards — was to commemorate the Constitution’s victory over a British warship of a similar size in a fierce battle during the War of 1812. The victory earned the ship its nickname, “Old Ironsides.”

Associated Press