Bears LB Urlacher announces retirement

CHICAGO (AP) — Star linebacker Brian Urlacher says he's retiring after spending 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears.

Intercontinental missile test-launched in Calif.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — The U.S. Air Force launched an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile from a California base on Wednesday, a month after the test flight was postponed because of tensions with North Korea.

Others who took the 5th: McGwire, Abramoff, North

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lois Lerner of the IRS joins a diverse roll call of people who have invoked Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions at congressional hearings over the years.

Bahrain claims Iranian drone found

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahrain's Interior Ministry says an Iranian drone has been found in the strategic Gulf kingdom that hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

Feds open special inspection into NC nuke plant

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Federal regulators said Wednesday that they are conducting a special inspection of a nuclear power plant outside North Carolina's capital city that was forced to shut down last week after operators discovered corrosion and cracking in the reactor vessel's covering.

IRS official Lerner: 'I did nothing wrong'

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the storm over the agency's targeting of conservative groups told Congress on Wednesday that she had done nothing wrong in the episode, and then invoked her constitutional right to refuse to answer lawmakers' questions.

Kenya's truth report: Killings, land grabs, graft

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya's president received a long-awaited Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission report that names the president and his deputy as being among those suspected of planning and financing Kenya's 2007-08 postelection violence in which more than 1,000 people died and 600,000 were evicted from their homes.

Chinese premier visits Pakistan, praises ties

ISLAMABAD (AP) — China's premier signed economic agreements and praised Pakistan in glowing terms as he began a two-day visit Wednesday, underscoring the importance of the longstanding alliance to the two Asian powers.

Iran expands nuke technology

VIENNA (AP) — The U.N.'s atomic agency says Iran is moving ahead to update a program the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons.

Complaint accuses Exxon Mobil of anti-gay bias

NEW YORK (AP) — One after another, major U.S. corporations have updated anti-discrimination policies to protect gay, lesbian and transgender workers, drawing plaudits from gay-rights groups. There's one prominent exception: Exxon Mobil Corp.

Douglas, Damon dramatize a steamy show-biz affair

NEW YORK (AP) — The idea of Michael Douglas playing Liberace might seem nearly as outrageous as Liberace himself.

Stocks rise on Fed stimulus hopes, home sales

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are moving higher Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it was too soon for the central bank to pull back on its economic stimulus programs.

FBI says man shot dead while being questioned about Boston bombings

By Barbara Liston and Mark Hosenball ORLANDO, Fla./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An FBI agent shot and killed a Florida man who turned violent while being questioned about the Boston Marathon bombings early on Wednesday, the bureau said. A friend of the dead man identified him as 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev of Orlando, a Chechen who had previously lived in Boston, the Orlando Sentinel and Orlando tele

Germans, French eye plan to create jobs for young

BERLIN (AP) — Germany and France are preparing to launch a drive to combat the problem of high European youth unemployment, which officials in Berlin say will center on trying to get business involved and make better use of already-pledged public money.

Russia says Assad's foes lack commitment to peace talks

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday that the Syrian opposition had not yet shown enough commitment to efforts to arrange a peace conference with President Bashar al-Assad's government. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised the Syrian government's response to joint U.S.-Russian efforts to seek a resolution to the more than two-year-old conflict but said the opposition was too divid

U.N. warns of 'mounting reports' of Syria chemical arms use

By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations is receiving increasing reports of the use of chemical weapons in Syria's 2-year-old civil war as the violence escalates, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday. The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebels who have been fighting to oust him accuse each other of using chemical weapons in Aleppo in March and Homs

Bernanke's Q&A testimony to congressional panel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Below are highlights of the question and answer session of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony on the U.S. economy to the congressional Joint Economic Committee on Wednesday. BERNANKE ON TIGHT MORTGAGE LENDING: "If you can get a mortgage ... the payments are low and affordability is high. "I agree with you ... that mortgage lending is still too tight. ...

Polish man gets quick face transplant after injury

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A 33-year-old Polish man received a face transplant just three weeks after being disfigured in a workplace accident, in what his doctors said Wednesday is the fastest time frame to date for such an operation.

Militants release seven Egyptians kidnapped in Sinai

By Tom Perry and Yousri Mohamed CAIRO/ISMAILIA (Reuters) - Seven Egyptian security men kidnapped by Islamist militants in Sinai last week were freed on Wednesday and President Mohamed Mursi vowed to pursue a crackdown on lawlessness in the desert peninsula. The abduction underlined the threat posed by jihadists who have exploited a security vacuum that opened up in the isolated Sinai after the 2

Oil falls near $95 on small drop in supplies

The price of oil fell near $95 a barrel Wednesday as the nation's oil supply fell less than expected and demand for gasoline remained weak.

2 infants among 10 kids killed in Oklahoma tornado

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma medical examiner's office says two infants are among 24 people killed by the tornado that ripped across the Oklahoma City area this week.

NY funeral for student accidentally shot by police

SLEEPY HOLLOW, N.Y. (AP) — Many young people are among the mourners attending the funeral of a Hofstra University student who was accidentally shot by police.

Bernanke signals Fed to maintain stimulus efforts

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Wednesday that the U.S. job market remains weak and that it is too soon for the Federal Reserve to end its extraordinary stimulus programs.

House panel seeks to curb military sexual assaults

WASHINGTON (AP) — Determined to check the growing epidemic of sexual assaults in the armed forces, a House panel is poised to approve a series of revisions to longstanding military law. They include stripping commanding officers of their unilateral authority to change or dismiss a court-martial conviction and requiring that service members found guilty of sexual offenses be dismissed or dishonor

Mugabe signs Zimbabwe constitution, paving way for vote

By Cris Chinaka HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe signed a new constitution into law on Wednesday, replacing a 33-year-old document forged in the dying days of British colonial rule and paving the way for an election later this year. Approved overwhelmingly in a referendum in March, the constitution clips the powers of the president and imposes a two-term limit. However, it doe

FBI: Man fatally shot in Boston bombing probe

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The FBI is leaving open the question of who fired the fatal shot that killed a man being questioned by authorities in the Boston bombing probe.

Mais non! French universities may teach in English

PARIS (AP) — In France, there's a brewing debate over whether to speak anglais in universite.

IMF calls on Britain to do more for growth

LONDON (AP) — The International Monetary Fund has called on Britain to do more to support the economic recovery, urging the government Wednesday to speed up investment in infrastructure and come up with a plan to privatize its bailed out banks.

Rescuers search Oklahoma tornado town ruins as recovery starts

By Carey Gillam and Ian Simpson MOORE, Oklahoma (Reuters) - Rescue workers with sniffer dogs picked through the ruins of an Oklahoma town on Wednesday to ensure no survivors remained buried after a deadly tornado left thousands homeless and trying to salvage what was left of their belongings. "Yesterday I was numb. Today I cried a lot. Now I'm on the victory side of it," said Beth Vrooman, who hid

Zimbabwe's president signs new constitution

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's president signs into law a new constitution and vows to hold peaceful and clean elections later this year.