Krishnadev Calamur

Updated at 1:04 p.m. ET

Iraq and Iran are refuting U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter's assertion that Iraqi forces lacked the "will to fight" the self-declared Islamic State, resulting in the loss last week of Anbar Province and its capital, Ramadi.

Saad al-Hadithi, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider ...

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who as recently as 2009 led his country, was sentenced Monday by a Jerusalem court to eight months in prison for unlawfully accepting money from a U.S. supporter.

As we reported in March when Olmert was convicted in the case:

"At ...

Updated at 4:41 p.m. ET

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is calling the flood damage in the central part of his state "absolutely devastating."

Abbott flew over parts of the Blanco River Monday, a day after storms triggered flooding. The hardest-hit communities were Wimberley and San Marcos. Abbott added 24 counties ...

TLC has pulled 19 Kids and Counting, the reality show featuring Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar's family, from its schedule amid reports of sexual misconduct against John Duggar, their oldest son, when he was 15.

Here's TLC's statement:

"Effective immediately, TLC has pulled all episodes of 19 Kids ...

Updated at 6:09 p.m. ET

The man convicted of killing Washington intern Chandra Levy in 2001 will get another day in court after prosecutors agreed not to oppose a new trial for Ingmar Guandique.

Vincent Cohen, the acting U.S. attorney, and Leslie Ann Gerardo, the assistant U.S. attorney, asked the ...

Updated at 5:45 p.m. ET

Robert Gates, the president of the Boy Scouts of America, tells NPR his organization will have a decision on its ban on gay adults no later than October. His comments come a day after he told the Boy Scouts that a ban on gay ...

Updated at 3:40 p.m. ET

Emails released Friday by the State Department appear to confirm Hillary Clinton's assertion that she received no classified information on her personal email account while she served as secretary of state. Still, some of the emails were classified at the FBI's request after the fact ...

Steve Cook, who heads the Midwest Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigators Association, tells NPR that soldiers returning from World War II formed biker gangs, which became infamous during a 1947 riot.

A grand jury has returned indictments against all six Baltimore Police Department officers charged in connection with the death last month of Freddie Gray, the state's attorney in Baltimore says.

Prosecutor Marilyn J. Mosby said at a news conference that the officers will be arraigned July 2. The ...

Robert Gates, the president of the Boy Scouts of America, says the organization must reassess its ban on gay adults, saying, "We must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be."

Gates, a former CIA director and former defense secretary, warned ...

Updated at 3:36 p.m. ET

The Florida mailman who landed a gyrocopter on the lawn of the Capitol last month appeared in court today and pleaded not guilty to all six charges against him.

Douglas Mark Hughes was charged Wednesday and faces up to 9 1/2 years in prison.

...

President Obama says that while the loss of Ramadi to the self-declared Islamic State is a "setback," he doesn't think the U.S. is losing to the militant group.

"No, I don't think we're losing, and I just talked to our CENTCOM commanders and the folks on the ground," Obama tells ...

The self-declared Islamic State has taken control of Palmyra, an ancient city that's on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites.

Palmyra and Tadmur, the modern town that adjoins it, have been the scene of recent fighting between Syrian government troops and fighters from the Islamic State. Multiple news reports ...

Late last year, the journal Science published a study that suggested door-to-door canvassing could increase support for same-sex marriage. That study, by Michael LaCour, a doctoral student of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Donald Green, a professor of political science at Columbia University, was ...

Lawmakers in Nebraska have given final approval to a measure that would abolish the death penalty with enough votes to override a threatened veto from Gov. Pete Ricketts.

The vote was 32-15. Conservative Nebraska has a unicameral Legislature and all bills go through three votes. In the previous round, the ...

Former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, Vice President Joe Biden's son, is being treated at a military hospital outside Washington, the vice president's office said.

The vice president's older son is being treated at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., the office said. No reason was given, but

The Los Angeles City Council voted today to raise the hourly minimum wage in the second-largest U.S. city from $9 to $15 by 2020 — a move that would cover as many as 800,000 people.

The Los Angeles Times has more on the vote:

"Tuesday's 14-1 vote was ...

Updated at 3:13 p.m. ET

Japanese air bag supplier Takata says nearly 34 million vehicles were fitted with its defective inflator mechanisms, doubling the number of vehicles affected in the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday.

The recall is believed to be the largest in ...

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said his team will accept the punishment handed to it by the NFL in connection with the "Deflategate" scandal.

Speaking Tuesday at the owners meeting in San Francisco, Kraft said the Super Bowl champions will "accept reluctantly" the penalties meted out this ...

Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy who was seized 15 years ago from his relatives in Miami by U.S. government officials who returned him to his native country, says he would like to visit the United States as a tourist.

"For my family it has always been, we always have the ...