IS top command dominated by ex-officers in Saddam’s army
By HAMZA HENDAWI and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA While attending the Iraqi army’s artillery school nearly 20 years ago, Ali Omran remembers one major well. An Islamic hard-liner, he once chided Omran…
Social issues
FACT CHECK: GOP candidates veer from the truth in 1st debate
By JOSH LEDERMAN Republicans seeking their party’s 2016 presidential nomination have the challenging task of trying to stand out among the 17 candidates in the race, and Thursday’s televised debate…
Victims conflicted over death penalty for theater gunman
By SADIE GURMAN Marcus Weaver spent nearly three years talking openly about forgiving the man who shot him, killed his friend and caused untold suffering. As a Christian opposed to…
No. 2 Senate Republican proposing gun background check bill
By ALAN FRAM Backed by the National Rifle Association, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican leader is introducing legislation that would reward states for sending more information about residents with serious…
Half of blacks say police have treated them unfairly
By JESSE J. HOLLAND A majority of blacks in the United States — more than 3 out of 5 — say they or a family member have personal experience with…
Severe crackdown in China on church crosses draws backlash
By DIDI TANG About a dozen Catholics wept and sang hymns outside their church as a man climbed to the top of the building and sliced off its steel cross…
Debate stage drama: GOP awaits top 10 announcement
By STEVE PEOPLES and KATHLEEN RONAYNE They crowded the stage in New Hampshire for a debate-style faceoff. But the jam-packed Republican field will be narrowed considerably for the first formal…
AP WAS THERE: US drops atomic bombs on Japan in 1945
By The Associated Press On two days in August 1945, U.S. planes dropped two atomic bombs — one on Hiroshima, one on Nagasaki, the first and only time nuclear weapons…