No evidence of gunshot at Walter Reed hospital

No evidence of gunshot at Walter Reed hospital

BETHESDA, Md.

Police say there’s no evidence of gunshots and no injuries reported after officers searched a 20-story tower at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington.

Montgomery County police say a 911 call reporting hearing a single shot inside Building 1, part of the original hospital on the campus in Bethesda, came from the tower Monday morning.

Egypt pushes new anti-terrorism bill

CAIRO

After a series of stunning militant attacks, Egypt’s government is pushing through a controversial new anti-terrorism draft bill that would set up special terrorism courts, shorten the appeals process, give police greater powers of arrest and imprison journalists who report information on attacks that differs from the official government line.

The draft raised concerns that officials are taking advantage of heightened public shock at last week’s audacious attacks to effectively enshrine into law the notorious special emergency laws that were in place for decades until they were lifted after the 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Rather than reviewing security policies since the attacks, officials have largely been focusing blame on the media for allegedly demoralizing troops and on the slowness of the courts.

Trump tries to clarify statement

WASHINGTON

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump clarified his campaign launch speech in which he accused Mexican immigrants of being rapists, saying Monday that he blamed the Mexican government, not the “fabulous” Mexican people, for sending criminals across the border.

In a three-page statement, Trump offered no evidence to bolster his claim. He pointed to a recent killing in San Francisco in which a man in the country illegally is accused of shooting a woman as evidence that “the worst elements in Mexico are being pushed into the United States by the Mexican government.”

Hundreds of thousands gather for pope’s Mass

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador

Hundreds of thousands of people filled a park in Ecuador’s main port city Monday for Pope Francis’ first big event of his three-nation South American tour, hoping for a glimpse of Latin America’s first pope returning to his home soil for a Mass dedicated to the family.

Many pilgrims spent the night outdoors, and some walked for miles to reach the park on Guayaquil’s northern outskirts where the crowd sang hymns and sought pockets of shade to keep cool amid the scorching sun and high humidity. Firefighters sprayed them with water hoses to provide relief.

Study adds doubt on value of mammograms

The increased use of mammograms to screen for breast cancer has subjected more women to invasive medical treatments but has not saved lives, a new study says.

After reviewing cancer registry records from 547 counties across the United States, researchers concluded that the screening tests aren’t working as hoped. Instead of preventing deaths by uncovering breast tumors at an early, more curable stage, screening mammograms have mainly found small tumors that would have been harmless if left alone.

Combined dispatches