National News | The Dalles Chronicle

National News

Subscribe

King and Messiah are on the rise for baby names

WASHINGTON (AP) — Talk about high expectations for a newborn: King and Messiah are among the fastest-rising baby names for American boys.

Cash-strapped consumers cut health care

TRENTON, N.J. — Spending on prescription medicines in the U.S. fell for the first time in decades last year, slipping as cash-strapped consumers continued to cut back on use of health care services.

Tease photo

Hard-line Islamists to make gains in Pakistan vote

Candidates in Pakistan vow support for Taliban fight MARDAN, Pakistan — The imposing, black-bearded politician in a striking white turban takes the stage at a campaign rally in northwest Pakistan as a song about Islamic holy war blares over loudspeakers. Before a chanting crowd, he praises the Afghan Taliban and blasts Pakistan’s government for not protecting Osama bin Laden from U.S. commandos.

Tease photo

World and national news in brief

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. wants to keep nine bases in Afghanistan after American combat troops withdraw in 2014 and the Afghan government will let them as long as it gets “security and economic guarantees,” President Hamid Karzai said Thursday in his first public offer in talks about the future relationship between the two uneasy allies.

Tease photo

Air Force strips 17 of authority

Nuclear missteps revealed WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force stripped an unprecedented 17 officers of their authority to control — and, if necessary, launch — nuclear missiles after a string of unpublicized failings, including a remarkably dim review of their unit’s launch skills. The group’s deputy commander said it is suffering “rot” within its ranks.

Sanford redeems career, heading to Congress

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — In a story of political redemption, Mark Sanford is headed back to Congress after his

Tease photo

World and national news in brief

BOSTON (AP) — The chief of the police in Worcester, Mass., says the department has been reluctantly dragged into the efforts to find a burial plot for dead Boston Marathon suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and a deal for the state prisons department to take the body has fallen through.

US home prices up 10.5 pct. in past year

WASHINGTON (AP) — A survey shows U.S. home prices rose 10.5 percent in March compared with a year ago, the biggest gain since March 2006.

National news in brief

WASHINGTON (AP) — The sexual battery arrest of the Air Force officer who led the service’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit underscores how far the Defense Department has to go in addressing the plague of sexual crimes in the military, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday.

Tease photo

Search drags on for burial spot for bomb suspect; fund distribution still an issue

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts funeral director is striking out in his search for a place to bury the Boston Marathon bombing suspect killed in a gunbattle with police.

Tease photo

National news in brief

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is trying to leverage new evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government used chemical weapons, and make a fresh diplomatic and possible military push with allies to end the country’s civil war.

States worry about loss of low-income coverage

WASHINGTON — Thousands of people with serious medical problems are in danger of losing coverage under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul because of cost overruns, state officials say.

Tease photo

National and world news in brief

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials say suicides among middle-aged Americans climbed at a startling rate over the past decade, a period that included the recession. Overall, the suicide rate for the age group jumped 28 percent from 1999 to 2010. And among whites, it shot up 40 percent.

More Boston bombing suspects in custody

BOSTON (AP) — Three more suspects have been taken into custody in the marathon bombings, city police said Wednesday. The police department made the announcement in a tweet Wednesday morning, saying more details would follow. Police spokeswoman Cheryl Fiandaca confirmed the tweet but referred all other questions to the FBI.

Tease photo

World and national news in brief

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a surprise twist to the decade-plus effort to ease access to morning-after pills, the government is lowering the age limit to 15 for one brand — Plan B One-Step — and will let it be sold over the counter.

Events

Latest blog posts