WASHINGTON (AP) — For President Barack Obama, National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden’s globe-trotting evasion of U.S. authorities has dealt a startling setback to efforts to strengthen ties with China and raises the prospect of worsening tensions with Russia. Relations with both China and Russia have been at the forefront of Obama’s foreign policy agenda […]

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan officials say a brazen Taliban assault on the presidential palace in Kabul has left three guards dead. The militant group had earlier said that all eight attackers died today in the early morning attack on one of the most secure parts of the Afghan capital. Militants with false papers and […]

UNION MILLS, Ind. (AP) — Authorities have identified the worker killed in an explosion at a northwestern Indiana grain elevator. LaPorte County Coroner John Sullivan said 67-year-old James Swank of Union Mills died in the explosion Monday afternoon at the Union Mills Co-op. The co-op is about 50 miles southeast of Chicago. Sullivan says neighbors […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Paul Ryan says the Senate’s advancement of stronger border security provisions makes it more likely that immigration reform will pass the House and become law. The House “will do its own legislation,” Ryan said, and won’t take up the Senate bill if it is passed this week. But the Wisconsin Republican […]

PORTLAND (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Bill Hathaway of Maine, who also served in the House and was a prisoner of war during World War II, has died at age 89. U.S. Sen. Angus King, a former Senate staffer for the Democrat Hathaway, on Monday announced Hathaway’s death. He called Hathaway “a dear friend” and […]

PORTLAND (AP) — Developers are scaling back an ambitious project at a former industrial site on Thompson’s Point in Portland. The Portland Press Herald reports that the new plan approved last week by city staff delays the start of construction of a new sports arena. It scraps a concert hall in favor of an additional […]

AUGUSTA (AP) — Wildlife officials are seeking volunteers to help determine the effect of a lethal fungus on Maine’s bat population. White nose syndrome has wiped out entire bat-hibernating colonies in the Northeast and in Maine. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and Maine Audubon are asking volunteers to identify bat colonies across Maine […]