Aid team to evacuate hundreds from Syria's Homs

Red Cross aid teams stood ready on Wednesday to enter the contested Syrian city of Homs to evacuate people trapped and wounded by 10 days of fighting between rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

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Both sides had agreed to a temporary truce, the International Committee of the Red Cross said from Geneva.

Teams from the ICRC and its partner the Syrian Red Crescent were ready to go into Homs as soon as possible, pending final arrangements.

"Fighting has been raging for more than 10 days between the Syrian Army and armed opposition groups in several neighborhoods of Homs city," said B?atrice M?gevand-Roggo, the ICRC's regional head of operations.

"Hundreds of civilians are stuck in the old city of Homs, unable to leave and find refuge in safer areas, because of the ongoing armed confrontations."

Pro-opposition Homs residents said rebels and troops were still locked in fierce battles on Wednesday evening in the neighborhoods the ICRC wanted to enter.

"They are still firing mortars and missiles into the city and there is heavy fighting in al-Qusour, al-Qarabis and al-Khalidiya," said activist Abu Yazen.

Russian shipment of attack helicopters for Syria halted off Scotland

Homs has been at the center of the 15-month revolt against Assad and became the focus of world concern in February and March, when opposition-held neighborhoods endured weeks of government bombardments and sniper fire in which hundreds of people were killed.

A Homs resident said a similar evacuation agreement was reached a few days ago but collapsed when shots were fired by Assad's forces. The government said on Tuesday it was trying to evacuate civilians and blamed rebel fighters for obstructing efforts to get people out safely.

In other action, rebels stormed an army barracks in the northwestern province of Latakia overnight and killed at least 20 soldiers, the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The rebels had captured some soldiers, including a colonel, and seized machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, it said.

Latakia, a Mediterranean coastal province and home to Syria's main port, was relatively free of warfare until the past month.

As the action unfolded in Syria, world leaders aired their differences over the conflict at the G20 Summit at the Mexican resort of Los Cabos.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Assad, whose family have ruled Syria for four decades, had lost all legitimacy and that it was impossible to conceive of any solution to the violence that left him in power.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters at the end of the summit: "We believe that nobody has the right to decide for other nations who should be brought to power, who should be removed from power."

Alarmed but apparently impotent to resolve the crisis, the outside world is deeply divided in its response to the increasingly sectarian conflict that threatens to become a proxy war for regional powers.

Western nations and their Sunni Muslim allies in the Gulf and Turkey seek Assad's overthrow but are wary of intervention, while Russia, China and Shi'ite Iran - Assad's strategic ally - have protected Assad from a tough international response.

The United Nations says more than 10,000 people have been killed by government forces during the conflict, while Syria says at least 2,600 members of the military and security forces have been killed by what it calls foreign-backed "Islamist terrorists".

What began as a peaceful protest movement has developed into a civil war between the armed factions, marked by a campaign of repression by Assad's forces that has been internationally condemned for its ferocity.

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Boehner takes hard line on Holder contempt vote

WASHINGTON (AP) ? House Speaker John Boehner demanded Thursday that the Obama administration give in and turn over documents related to a botched gun-tracking operation, insisting that's the only way to stop a House vote to hold the attorney general in contempt.

Boehner took a hard line against the Obama administration and Attorney General Eric Holder despite a willingness by House Republicans and Holder to negotiate a settlement before the matter becomes a constitutional crisis. The president has invoked executive privilege, a legal principle used to avoid disclosure of internal presidential documents.

While a confrontation between the legislative and executive branches of government would be an academic dispute to most voters, Boehner on Thursday injected a human element into the battle over documents related to Operation Fast and Furious. He said the family of slain border agent Brian Terry deserved answers about the guns that killed him.

Two guns that were allowed to "walk" from Arizona to Mexico in the failed effort to track weapons were found near Terry after he was killed.

"The Terry family deserves answers about why their son was killed as a result of an operation run by the United States government," Boehner told his weekly news conference.

During the year and a half investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Justice Department turned over 7,600 documents about details of Operation Fast and Furious. But because the department initially denied and then admitted it used a risky investigative technique known as "gun-walking," the committee has turned its attention to how the department responded to the investigation. The additional documents it seeks are about that topic.

Agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Arizona abandoned the agency's usual practice of intercepting all weapons they believed to be illicitly purchased. Instead, the goal of gun-walking was to track such weapons to high-level arms traffickers who had long eluded prosecution and to dismantle their networks.

Gun-walking has long been barred by Justice Department policy, but federal agents in Arizona experimented with it in at least two investigations during the George W. Bush administration before Fast and Furious. These experiments came as the department was under widespread criticism that the old policy of arresting every suspected low-level "straw purchaser" was still allowing tens of thousands of guns to reach Mexico. A straw purchaser is an illicit buyer of guns for others.

The agents in Arizona lost track of several hundred weapons in Operation Fast and Furious.

Boehner renewed his allegation that President Barack Obama's decision to assert executive privilege to withhold the documents "is an admission the White House officials were involved in the decision that misled the Congress and covered up the truth." In fact, historically, several presidents have invoked executive privilege over Cabinet department documents that did not directly involve White House officials.

In an election year, each party leveled charges against the other.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., accused Republicans of pursuing Holder to retaliate against his effort to stop suppression of voters in the upcoming elections. "I'm telling you, this is connected," she told reporters.

In an effort to back up her assertion, Pelosi's office emailed Democratic reports from 2007, when the party accused Republicans of an ongoing effort to deprive people of the right to vote.

Meanwhile, the liberal People for the American Way distributed a video in which Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., suggested a motive for the Obama administration's initial support of the gun-walking fiasco.

"Could it be that what they really were thinking of was in fact to use this walking of guns in order to promote an assault weapons ban?" said Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

"Many think so. And they haven't come up with an explanation that would cause any of us not to agree," Issa said.

Issa commented in an interview during the National Rifle Association convention in April.

His spokesman, Frederick Hill, said, "Emails from officials who worked on Fast and Furious clearly show that they wanted to use aspects of the operation to justify new restrictions on gun sales." Hill provided several documents on the subject from Fast and Furious officials.

Holder, in Copenhagen, Denmark, for meetings with European Union officials, said Thursday the administration had given the committee a proposal to negotiate an end to the conflict.

"I think the possibility still exists that it can happen in that way," Holder said. "The proposal that we have made is still there. The House, I think, the House leadership, has to consider now what they will do, so we'll see how it works out."

But he called the contempt vote "unwarranted, unnecessary and unprecedented."

White House press secretary Jay Carney said there was "absolutely" no cover-up on the Fast and Furious controversy. He said executive privilege was asserted only on internal deliberations and "that is separate from trying to find out the truth about this operation."

Democrats contended that a 23-17 party-line contempt vote in the House Oversight committee Wednesday was just political theater.

On Tuesday, Holder offered to give lawmakers a briefing on the withheld documents but insisted that this action satisfy Issa's subpoena for the records and negate the need for a contempt vote.

Boehner on Thursday rejected Holder's approach.

"The negotiation that was proposed by the attorney general is, we should accept some documents of his choosing and, as a result of him turning over some documents of his choosing, that we would never ever pursue contempt," Boehner said. "Now this is not hardly a rational basis for a negotiation, nor is it a reasonable attempt at turning over the documents we've been asking for."

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Spain borrowing costs soar in debt auction

Spain paid sharply higher interest rates in a short-term bill auction on Tuesday, highlighting growing investor concerns that the country might eventually need foreign help to finance itself.

The Treasury raised (EURO)3.39 billion ($4.28 billion) in 12- and 18-month bills _ more than its upper target of (EURO)3 billion _ and demand was robust, but the cost skyrocketed. The interest rate on the 12-month bills rose to 5.07 percent from 2.98 percent at the last such auction on May 14. The rate on the 18-month bills soared to 5.10 percent from 3.3 percent.

In the secondary market, where issued debt is traded openly, the yield on 10-year Spanish bonds remained perilously high at 7.03 percent, down 0.10 percentage points from the previous day.

Worries about Spain's ability to repay its debt grew last week when the country agreed to accept a eurozone loan of up to (EURO)100 billion to shore up its ailing banks, which are sitting on massive amounts of soured real estate investments.

The big fear is that, as the money will count as a loan and raise Spain's overall debt load, the country's financing costs will suffocate the government as it tries to wade its way through a money-sucking recession and a 24.4 percent jobless rate.

Marc Ostwald of Monument Securities said that while Spain met its sale target for the debt auction on Tuesday, "the yields at which these were sold can only be described as prohibitively expensive."

If investors are demanding such high rates for short-term debt, Spain needs not only a eurozone rescue package for its banks but "an outright bail-out package," Ostwald said. "It is becoming very difficult to see how it can manage without that beyond the end of the third quarter, unless yields fall dramatically!"

Markets were also rattled ahead of the auction by news that the second part of a government-ordered audit of Spanish banks has been delayed to September from late July. A separate, less thorough stress test by two companies remains due to be delivered this week, but when it will be made public is not clear.

Spain can survive the current high interest rates for weeks or even months, analysts say, but not in the longer term. If it becomes clear that the borrowing rates will not come back down, Spain will likely have to ask for a European bailout _ money that would come at lower interest rates than those offered by bond markets. The problem is that Spain's (EURO)1.1 trillion economy is the eurozone's fourth-biggest and larger than those of bailed-out Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined.

The Spanish economy minister, attending the Group of 20 world leaders' summit in Mexico, said the country is being punished unfairly in debt markets.

"We in the government are convinced that the current situation of punishment in the markets, what we're suffering from today, doesn't correspond with the efforts, or the potential, of the Spanish economy," Luis de Guindos said Monday. "This is something that will have to be recognized in the coming days and weeks."

Spain is waiting for the two independent audits of its banks, due to be presented to the government Thursday, to determine how much of the (EURO)100 billion eurozone rescue loans Spain will tap. Investor sentiment toward Spain will in coming days depend upon the sum of loans demanded as well as any support measures announced by European leaders.

A draft of the G-20 final statement says the world's largest economies in the developed and developing world want to stress economic growth as a way to end Europe's crisis. That stands in contrast to the current German-driven austerity drive to bring deficits down.

Analysts again seem underwhelmed by European leaders' response to the crisis.

Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said the rise in the Spanish 10-year bond rate this week "once again puts Europe's fourth largest economy squarely in the cross hairs as the probable next candidate for a bailout."

"Fears about growing bad debts and deposit outflows from Spanish banks have proved a toxic combination as European leaders dither on what the next steps in the crisis should be."

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Prayers For A Caddo Special Education Teacher's Family

Ramsey Branch

Caddo Schools is calling for prayer and support for the family of Ramsey Branch.? He?s a special education teacher and baseball coach at C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport.???He and his family were on vacation in Galveston, Texas when his wife went into early labor; at just 29 weeks.? The baby was delivered at 3-? pounds and is in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at a Galveston hospital.? The family is currently staying at the Ronald McDonald House.?

An account has been setup at Chase Bank for those wishing to offer financial support.? The account number is:? 473112865.

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Dating evidence: Relics could be of John the Baptist

ScienceDaily (June 18, 2012) ? New dating evidence supports claims that bones found under a church floor in Bulgaria may be of John the Baptist, who is described in the Bible as a leading prophet and relative of Jesus Christ. A team from the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at Oxford University dated a knucklebone from the right hand to the 1st century AD, a date which fits with the widely held view of when he would have lived. The researchers say they were surprised when they discovered the very early age of the remains adding, however, that dating evidence alone cannot prove the bones to be of John the Baptist.

The bones were originally discovered in 2010 by archaeologist Kazimir Popkonstantinov, excavating under an ancient church on an island in Bulgaria known as Sveti Ivan, which translates into English as St John. The knucklebone was one of six human bones, including a tooth and the face part of a cranium, found in small marble sarcophagus under the floor near the altar. Three animal bones were also inside the sarcophagus. Oxford professors Thomas Higham and Christopher Ramsey attempted to radiocarbon date four human bones, but only one of them contained a sufficient amount of collagen to be dated successfully.

Professor Higham said: "We were surprised when the radiocarbon dating produced this very early age. We had suspected that the bones may have been more recent than this, perhaps from the third or fourth centuries. However, the result from the metacarpal hand bone is clearly consistent with someone who lived in the early first century AD. Whether that person is John the Baptist is a question that we cannot yet definitely answer and probably never will."

Former Oxford student Dr Hannes Schroeder and Professor Eske Willerslev, both from the University of Copenhagen, also reconstructed the complete mitochondrial DNA genome sequence from three of the human bones to establish that the bones were all from the same individual. Significantly, they identified a family group of genes (mtDNA haplotype) as being a group most commonly found in the Near East, which is better known as the Middle East today -- the region where John the Baptist would have originated from. They also established that the bones were probably of a male individual after an analysis of the nuclear DNA from samples.

Dr Schroeder said: "Our worry was that the remains might have been contaminated with modern DNA. However, the DNA we found in the samples showed damage patterns that are characteristic of ancient DNA, which gave us confidence in the results. Further, it seems somewhat unlikely that all three samples would yield the same sequence considering that they had probably been handled by different people. Both of these facts suggest that the DNA we sequenced was actually authentic. Of course, this does not prove that these were the remains of John the Baptist but nor does it refute that theory as the sequences we got fit with a Near Eastern origin."

The Bulgarian archaeologists, who excavated the bones, also found a small tuff box (made of hardened volcanic ash) close to the sarcophagus. The tuff box bears inscriptions in ancient Greek that directly mention John the Baptist and his feast day, and text asking God to 'help your servant Thomas'. One theory is that the person referred to as Thomas had been given the task of bringing the relics to the island. An analysis of the box has shown that the tuff box has a high waterproof quality and is likely to have originated from Cappadocia, a region of modern-day Turkey. The Bulgarian researchers believe that the bones probably came to Bulgaria via Antioch, an ancient Turkish city, where the right hand of St John was kept until the tenth century.

In a separate study, another Oxford researcher Dr Georges Kazan has used historical documents to show that in the latter part of the fourth century, monks had taken relics of John the Baptist out of Jerusalem and these included portions of skull. These relics were soon summoned to Constantinople by the Roman Emperor who built a church to house them there. Further research by Dr Kazan suggests that the reliquary used to contain them may have resembled the sarcophagus-shaped casket discovered at Sveti Ivan. Archaeological and written records suggest that these reliquaries were first developed and used at Constantinople by the city's ruling elite at around the time that the relics of John the Baptist are said to have arrived there.

Dr Kazan said: "My research suggests that during the fifth or early sixth century, the monastery of Sveti Ivan may well have received a significant portion of St John the Baptist's relics, as well as a prestige reliquary in the shape of a sarcophagus, from a member of Constantinople's elite. This gift could have been to dedicate or rededicate the church and the monastery to St John, which the patron or patrons may have supported financially."

The scientific analysis of the relics undertaken by Tom Higham and Christopher Ramsey at Oxford, and their colleagues in Copenhagen was supported by the National Geographic Society. The documentary 'Head of John the Baptist', featuring the scientists' work was shown on the National Geographic Channel on 17 June 2012.

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Cubs batter White Sox in Chicago battle

Associated Press Sports

updated 11:19 p.m. ET June 18, 2012

CHICAGO (AP) - Bryan LaHair knows a position change is imminent. He passed his first audition with flying colors.

LaHair and Alfonso Soriano homered to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 12-3 victory over the White Sox on Monday night in the opener of the crosstown, interleague series.

Making his first appearance of the season in right field, LaHair was tested early with a retreating catch to rob Gordon Beckham of extra bases in the first inning.

"I had a feeling I was going to get a ball early in the game, it always works that way," LaHair said. "I got a good read, got a good jump and took a good angle."

Manager Dale Sveum called the catch "as key as anything."

Highly touted first base prospect Anthony Rizzo is tearing up Pacific Coast League pitching and could be promoted soon, leaving the 29-year-old LaHair as the odd man out unless he lands in the outfield.

"After today, probably every day," Sveum said when asked how often LaHair will play the outfield. "Depending on what we do at first base, I think LaHair is going be out there quite a bit with (David) DeJesus in center field against right-handed pitching."

The big lefty also helped his cause by hitting his 13th homer of the season with one on and two outs in the third to put the Cubs up 2-0.

With winds gusting to 41 mph the Cubs had season highs of five home runs, 15 hits and 12 runs.

Starlin Castro and Luis Valbuena homered and had three hits apiece for the Cubs and Geovany Soto added a solo shot in his first game back from the 15-day disabled list.

Matt Garza (3-5) allowed home runs to Paul Konerko and A.J. Pierzynski, but limited the damage to three runs over six innings to earn the win.

Zach Stewart (1-2) was tagged for six runs and nine hits, including four homers, over 5 2-3 innings.

"You get two outs and then he just couldn't get that third out. They were swinging it," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "It was a night (the ball) was carrying, and they put it on the barrel a lot."

The Cubs exacted some revenge on the White Sox, who earned the sweep when the teams met at Wrigley Field May 18-20. The White Sox had won seven of the last eight matchups against the Cubs.

The Cubs scored 11 runs with four homers on Memorial Day against the San Diego Padres, and had 14 hits four times.

The White Sox have lost five of their last six and nine of 13 overall.

Castro added a two-run shot in the fifth, and Soriano hit a solo homer two batters later.

Soriano's 440-foot blast to straightaway center was his 13th of the year - all have come since May 15. He added an RBI single in the Cubs' six-run seventh.

His four homers and 10 RBIs are franchise records for a designated hitter.

"Not a lot of guys his age can do what he does," Garza said of Soriano. "There are very few, and the few that do, they're well respected."

Garza was referring to the rain of boos Soriano caught on the last homestand for not running out a dropped liner to third. The 36-year-old has been a lightning rod for criticism from Cubs fans in his tenure there.

"He cares so much about what he does and takes a lot of pride in his craft," Garza said. "He deserves a lot more respect from the fans than he's getting."

Stewart was roughed up in his first start of the season. Pitching in a long-relief role this season, he was called upon to give aces Chris Sale and Jake Peavy extra rest.

Stewart allowed nine hits and six runs over 5 2-3 innings. He was pulled in the sixth after allowing his fourth homer of the game to Soto, who had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. He had been out since May 16.

Will Ohman gave up two runs in 2-3 of an inning of relief, and Nate Jones gave up four runs without retiring a batter in the seventh.

Valbuena's three-run shot capped the Cubs' big inning.

Pierzynski hit a solo homer in the fifth, his 12th of the season and Konerko hit his 13th, a two-run shot, in the sixth.

Garza gave up three runs and five hits over six innings. He struck out six and issued one walk.

Notes: The announced paid attendance was 33,215. . The Cubs placed RHP Ryan Dempster (right lat tightness) on the 15-day DL and recalled RHP Scott Maine from Triple-A Iowa. . C Welington Castillo was optioned to Iowa to accommodate Soto's roster spot. . The White Sox agreed to terms on a minor-league contract with first-round draft pick Courtney Hawkins. Hawkins, the 13th overall pick, will report to Advanced Rookie League Bristol. . Chicago Bulls Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen threw out the first pitch. . The Cubs will send Travis Wood (0-3, 4.58 ERA) to the hill on Tuesday against Peavy (6-2, 2.91).

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Dickey does it again

R.A. Dickey became the first major league pitcher in 24 years to throw consecutive one-hitters and Ike Davis hit a grand slam to lead the New York Mets past the Baltimore Orioles 5-0 on Monday night.

Yankees beat Braves for 10th straight win

NEW YORK (AP) - CC Sabathia struck out 10, Derek Jeter drove in three runs and the New York Yankees won their 10th straight game, beating the Atlanta Braves 6-2 Monday night.

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