WASHINGTON (AFP) ― U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will lift a ban on women serving in combat, a senior defense official said Wednesday, after a decade of war that saw female troops thrust onto the battlefield.Panetta and General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, “are expected to announce the lifting of the direct combat exclusion rule for women in the military,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters.“This policy change will initiate

LONDON (AFP) ― Prime Minister David Cameron promised Wednesday to give the British people a vote on EU membership, sparking immediate criticism from his main European partners.In a long-awaited speech in London, Cameron vowed to hold a referendum by the end of 2017 giving voters the choice of staying in or leaving the European Union if his Conservative Party wins the next election in 2015.He said he wanted to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s troubled EU membership before putting the new agreem

A Los Angeles elementary school teacher accused of sexually abusing 20 students and one adult was arrested Wednesday, police said.　 Eight counts of continual sexual abuse and seven counts of lewd acts upon a child have been filed against Robert Pimental for abuse that took place at George De La Torre Jr. Elementary in the Wilmington area, police said.　  In addition to the 15 felonies, misdemeanor charges are expected, said Officer Christopher No.　 His bail has been set at $12 million, and an arr

A far-right political party is distributing thousands of knives to women in a western Indian state to help them protect themselves after a fatal gang-rape last month alarmed the country.Shiv Sena, a party with a reputation for intimidation and unrest, began handing out the weapons to women at a function in Mumbai late Wednesday on the birthday of the group‘s late founder Bal Thackeray, who died in November.“The way you cut vegetables, cut the hand of the person who touches you the same way,” loc

Authorities in Oregon said a man was arrested for allegedly hiding a camera on a co-worker‘s desk to record her using a breast pump.Portland Police Sgt. Pete Simpson said Russell Gordon, 44, allegedly concealed the pen camera on his co-worker’s desk at the MB&G consulting firm, where he has been employed as IT manager for more than 10 years, KGW-TV, Portland, reported Wednesday.The woman discovered the camera and turned it in to supervisors.“Investigators determined that Gordon placed the camera

Authorities in the U.S. are investigating whether police in a town dominated by one of the nation's largest polygamous sects prevent women from leaving the church run by imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs.Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne on Tuesday said the probe involves the town of Colorado City, the home base of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The criminal investigation mirrors the one that landed Jeffs in prison in one of the largest custody cases in U.S. histor

JERUSALEM (AFP) ― Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday emerged from hard-fought elections weakened but still best placed to form a new government and likely to reach out to centrist parties strengthened by the vote.In results that defied expectations, the centrist Yesh Atid became Israel’s second strongest party, just a year after it was created by former journalist Yair Lapid, who has overnight become the country’s newest political star.And the strong results for centrist part

MOSCOW (AP) ― The Kremlin’s evacuation of Russians from Syria on Tuesday marks a turning point in its view of the civil war, representing increasing doubts about Bashar Assad’s hold on power and a sober understanding that it has to start rescue efforts before it becomes too late. The operation has been relatively small-scale ― involving fewer than 100 people, mostly women and children ― but it marks the beginning of what could soon turn into a risky and challenging operation. Analysts warn that

LONDON (AFP) ― Prime Minister David Cameron will on Wednesday propose holding a referendum after 2015 giving British people the choice of staying in or leaving the European Union.Cameron will say in a long-awaited speech in London that he wants to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s membership because “public disillusionment with the EU is at an all-time high,” and then put the new terms to the people.According to pre-released excerpts, Cameron will say his Conservative party will make the pledge