WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009 in Pakistan and Yemen. The disclosure to Congress comes on the eve of a major national security speech by President Barack Obama.

DENVER (AP) — Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper indefinitely delayed the execution of convicted killer Nathan Dunlap on Wednesday and said he was unlikely to allow it as long as he is governor.

By Mary Wisniewski CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Chicago Board of Education voted on Wednesday to close 50 schools - including about 10 percent of all elementary schools in the largest mass school closing in the nation. The closings in mainly Hispanic and African-American neighborhoods have drawn protests by parents and teachers union leaders who say the closures will put children in danger with longer walks through troubled areas as well as disrupt families. ...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments approved a mission on Wednesday to help Libya improve its border security in response to concerns that Islamist militants and weapons move freely across the North African country's frontier. The 110-member EU civilian team, expected to start deploying in Libya next month, will advise and train Libyan officials on how to strengthen the security of the country's land, sea and air borders, an EU statement said. The EU team, being sent at Libya's request, will have a budget of 30 million euros ($39 million) for its first year and be based in Tripoli. ...

In a medical first, doctors used plastic particles and a 3-D laser printer to create an airway splint to save the life of a baby boy who used to stop breathing nearly every day.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of a House panel angry over the growing epidemic of sexual assaults in the military took a key step toward tackling the problem by passing legislation Wednesday that would strip commanding officers of their longstanding authority to unilaterally change or dismiss court-martial convictions in rape and assault cases. Lawmakers believe the revision will lead to a cultural shift and encourage victims to step forward.

By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles, which has more storefront medical marijuana shops than any other U.S. city, will close hundreds of the dispensaries and hike taxes on those that will be allowed to remain under a ballot measure approved by a wide margin of voters. Nearly 63 percent of voters supported Proposition D, which will cap the number of medical pot dispensaries at 135, compared with 37 percent opposed, according to preliminary results released on Wednesday, the day after the vote. ...

By Arshad Mohammed AMMAN (Reuters) - Western governments are ready to increase support to opponents of President Bashar al-Assad if he rejects a political solution to Syria's civil war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday. Kerry said recent military gains by Assad's forces were only temporary and that if the Syrian leader believed that the counter-offensives against the rebels would be decisive, "then he is miscalculating". ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Army sergeant has been charged with secretly photographing and videotaping at least a dozen women at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, including in a bathroom.

By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Wednesday with the S&P 500 posting its biggest decline in three weeks, after minutes from the latest U.S. Federal Reserve meeting showed some officials were open to tapering large-scale asset purchases as early as at the June meeting. Trading was volatile - the Dow and the S&P indexes both rose more than 1 percent during the morning, but fell more than 1 percent in the afternoon. ...

MOORE, Okla. (AP) — Dan Garland could feel the latch on the shelter door begin to turn in his hand. It was as if the storm outside were a living, breathing thing — and it was trying desperately to get in.

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The U.S. and several key allies looked again Wednesday for a strategy to end Syria's civil war, their united efforts unable at the moment to stem the Assad regime's military gains and Washington still unwilling to join those providing the rebels with lethal military aid.

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The U.S. and several key allies looked again Wednesday for a strategy to end Syria's civil war, their united efforts unable at the moment to stem the Assad regime's military gains and Washington still unwilling to join those providing the rebels with lethal military aid.

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The U.S. and several key allies looked again Wednesday for a strategy to end Syria's civil war, their united efforts unable at the moment to stem the Assad regime's military gains and Washington still unwilling to join those providing the rebels with lethal military aid.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that the United States has killed four Americans in counterterrorism operations, three of whom were not targets of the strikes involving drones in Yemen and elsewhere. Holder named the four dead U.S. citizens in a letter to members of Congress one day before President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver an address on the use of drones. The letter defends the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, the one dead American who was an intended target of a drone strike, the letter said. ...

Darrell Issa would like a do-over. The Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, no doubt motivated in part by outrage over his allowing the IRS's Lois Lerner to invoke her Fifth Amendment right during a hearing Wednesday, plans to demand she return to complete her testimony. His argument: Lerner waived her ability to claim that right once she offered an opening statement. Is he right?

BELMAR, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose own state was beset by a major storm last year and then by squabbling in Congress over disaster aid, said Wednesday that Oklahoma's tornado victims deserve "swift and immediate" help, and federal lawmakers have said they are likely to get it.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co's quarterly profit slid 32 percent but the world's largest personal computer maker raised the lower end of its full-year outlook after earnings per share beat forecasts, sending its stock 10 percent higher. Net income fell to $1.08 billion, or 55 cents a share, from $1.59 billion, or 80 cents a share, a year earlier. The company earned 87 cents per share on an operating basis during the second quarter on revenue of $27.6 billion. ...

The U.S. government admitted for the first time Wednesday that it intentionally droned American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2011, and that it unintentionally droned three other Americans, including al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son. Attorney General Eric Holder admitted it in a letter to Congress, The New York Times' Charlie Savage reports. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is showing singer-songwriter Carole King that she has friends at the White House.

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Board of Education voted Wednesday to close 50 schools and programs, an ambitious plan that has sparked protests and lawsuits and could help define — for better or worse — Mayor Rahm Emanuel's term in office.

By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is pressing ahead with the construction of a research reactor that Western experts say could eventually produce plutonium for a nuclear weapon if Tehran decides to make one, a U.N. report showed on Wednesday. In another development likely to worry the United States and its allies, the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had added to its capacity to refine uranium, which can also provide the fissile core of a bomb if enriched to a high level. The IAEA also said Iran had asphalted a part of a military site, Parchin, that the U.N. ...

It's been a good week for proponents of immigration reform. The sweeping bill that seeks to legalize most of the country's 11 million unauthorized immigrants was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday night, after five full days of debate and amendments that did little to significantly change the original compromise. So, what's next [...]

WASHINGTON (AP) — A key House committee chairman on Wednesday sharply criticized a wide-ranging immigration bill just passed by a Senate committee, underscoring the difficulties ahead as the politically volatile measure moves forward in a divided Congress.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A key House committee chairman on Wednesday sharply criticized a wide-ranging immigration bill just passed by a Senate committee, underscoring the difficulties ahead as the politically volatile measure moves forward in a divided Congress.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A key House committee chairman on Wednesday sharply criticized a wide-ranging immigration bill just passed by a Senate committee, underscoring the difficulties ahead as the politically volatile measure moves forward in a divided Congress.

The bottom line: Experience matters.

(Reuters) - Starbucks Corp executive Michelle Gass, who was instrumental in the world's biggest coffee chain's post-recession U.S. turnaround, is leaving after more than 16 years to become chief customer officer at retailer Kohl's Corp . Gass, known for having led many big initiatives at Starbucks, including the development of Frappuccino blended drinks, will join Kohl's in the newly created position on June 17, the low-price department store said on Wednesday. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Wednesday rejected a Republican bid to turn the federal food stamp program over to the states.

By Li-mei Hoang and Mark Anderson LONDON (Reuters) - A British soldier was hacked to death by two men shouting Islamic slogans in a south London street on Wednesday, in what the government said appeared to be a terrorist attack. Video footage filmed by an onlooker just minutes after the killing showed an angry man with hands covered in blood, holding a bloodied meat cleaver and a knife. "You people will never be safe. Remove your government. ...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — It was the customer service disaster heard around the Internet.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc on Wednesday said it has paid off its U.S. Department of Energy loan, using money raised last week in a stock and notes offering. The automaker said it wired $451.8 million to repay the full loan with interest. "I would like to thank the Department of Energy and the members of Congress and their staffs that worked hard to create the (Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing) program, and particularly the American taxpayer from whom these funds originate," Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a statement. "I hope we did you proud. ...

By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles Councilman Eric Garcetti, elected mayor in a race shaped by dire fiscal constraints and questions of how to tame runaway budget deficits, declared victory on Wednesday by tweeting "the hard work begins." Garcetti crossed the finish line of his two-year campaign to lead America's second-largest city with 54 percent of the votes cast in Tuesday's election to defeat City Controller Wendy Greuel, who garnered 46 percent. ...

DETROIT (AP) — Electric car maker Tesla Motors says it has repaid a loan from the U.S. government nine years early.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge apologized Wednesday for an 18-month delay in unsealing documents in a case involving an alleged leak of classified information to a reporter.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A Chechen immigrant who was being questioned about his ties to one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was shot to death early Wednesday after he lunged at an FBI agent with a knife, officials said.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A Chechen immigrant who was being questioned about his ties to one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was shot to death early Wednesday after he lunged at an FBI agent with a knife, officials said.

CAIRO (AP) — The safe release Wednesday of seven conscripts kidnapped by suspected militants in Sinai brought a victory for Egypt's Islamist president after months of criticism that his government is mismanaging the country.

Attorney General Eric Holder informed Congress on Wednesday that the U.S. had killed four Americans in drone strikes since 2009 – radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and three others who were “not specifically targeted.” Holder’s disclosure, first reported by the New York Times, came a day before President Barack Obama was to defend his counter-terrorism strategy [...]

GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — The Boy Scouts of America has started its meeting in which members of its national council are to decide whether to change the group's long-standing ban on openly gay boys.