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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has voted to cut food stamps by $2 billion a year. The chamber rejected 234-188 a Democratic amendment to a wide-ranging farm bill that would have maintained current spending on food stamps and cut farm subsidies instead. The bill cuts the $80 billion-a-year program by about 3 percent and makes it harder for some people to qualify. The Senate passed a farm bill last week that would make much smaller cuts to the food stamp program, which has doubled in cost since 2008. The House is debating 103 amendments to the five-year, half-trillion dollar bill as backers are trying to shore up votes for final passage. Democrats are opposing it because of the food stamp cuts, while some conservatives say

NEW YORK (AP) — Men's Wearhouse doesn't like the way its founder looks anymore. The men's clothier said Wednesday that it has fired the face of the company and its executive chairman, George Zimmer, 64, who appeared in many of its TV commercials with the slogan "You're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it." The company announced the move in a terse statement that gave no reason for the abrupt firing of Zimmer, who built Men's Wearhouse Inc. from one small Texas store using a cigar box as a cash register to one of the North America's largest men's clothing sellers with 1,143 locations. The firing appears to end the career of one of TV's most recognizable pitchmen.

An Oklahoma City police officer opened fire on a suspect in northeast Oklahoma City on Thursday afternoon, officials said.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Hopes dimmed for talks aimed at ending the Afghan war when an angry President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday suspended security negotiations with the U.S. and scuttled a peace delegation to the Taliban, sending American officials scrambling to preserve the possibility of dialogue with the militants. What provoked the mercurial Karzai and infuriated many other Afghans was a move by the Taliban to cast their new office in the Gulf nation of Qatar as a rival embassy. The Taliban held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday in which they hoisted their flag and a banner with the name they used while in power more than a decade ago: "Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan." U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supporters of far-reaching immigration legislation rejected a challenge Wednesday from Senate conservatives demanding evidence that the nation's borders are secure before millions living in the United States unlawfully can gain legal status. The vote came as lawmakers on both sides of the issue digested a startling Congressional Budget Office forecast that the bill would fail to prevent a steady increase in illegal residents in the future, even though it would grant legal status to millions already in the country without the necessary papers. "Illegality will not be stopped, but it will only be reduced by 25 percent," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., referring to the prediction by the non-partisan CBO.

OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Beneath a swimming pool, under a horse farm and now a weed-grown field north of Detroit. For at least the third time in a decade, FBI agents grabbed shovels and combed through dirt and mud in the search for Jimmy Hoffa's remains or clues to the disappearance of the former Teamsters boss. Once again, the search was futile. "Certainly, we're disappointed," Detroit FBI chief Robert Foley told reporters Wednesday as federal and local authorities wrapped up another excavation that failed to turn up anything that could be linked to Hoffa, who has been missing since 1975. Many people interested in the mystery assume Hoffa ran afoul of the mob and was whacked. "Right now the case remains o

An accident on eastbound Interstate 240 near Shields Boulevard was reported. The vehicles involved were a tractor-trailer and a motorcycle, trooper Betsy Randolph said.

SandRidge Energy Inc. announced Wednesday that CEO Tom Ward has been terminated without cause and that James Bennett has been named CEO.

DENVER (AP) — A new wildfire in the foothills southwest of Denver forced the evacuation of dozens of homes Wednesday as hot and windy conditions in much of Colorado were making it easy for new fires to start and spread. The new fire burning near Pine was small, but it was still a concern because it was producing large flames and headed toward a ridge. The fire began in an area of the Pike National Forest that is not heavily populated but dotted with cabins and homes along the few roads. Residents within 3 miles of the fire were told to leave immediately, and calls went to more than 400 telephone numbers, Jefferson County sheriff's spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said.

BERLIN (AP) — Summoning the harsh history of this once-divided city, President Barack Obama on Wednesday cautioned the U.S. and Europe against "complacency" brought on by peace, pledging to cut America's deployed nuclear weapons by one-third if Cold War foe Russia does the same. The president also declared that his far-reaching surveillance programs had saved lives on both sides of the Atlantic, as he sought to defend the controversial data-mining to skeptical Europeans. Speaking against the soaring backdrop of the Brandenburg Gate, Obama said that "bold reductions" to the U.S. and Russian nuclear forces were needed to move the two powers away from the war posture that continues to seed mistrust between their governments.

GENEVA (AP) — The Syrian civil war contributed to pushing the numbers of refugees and those displaced by conflict within their own nation to an 18-year high of 45.2 million worldwide by the end of 2012, the U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday. Those are the highest numbers since 1994, when people fled genocide in Rwanda and bloodshed in former Yugoslavia. By the end of last year, the world had 15.4 million refugees, 937,000 asylum seekers and 28.8 million people who had been forced to flee within the borders of their own countries, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a report. Of those, 17 percent were new to their situations in 2012: 1.1 million new refugees and 6.

The NHL's Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars will face off in Oklahoma City for a 2013-14 preseason game. The game, announced Wednesday by the Oklahoma City Barons, will be Sept. 27 inside the Cox Convention Center. Oklahoma City opens its 38-game AHL home schedule with a weekend set of games October 4 and 5. In addition to the home opener, the Barons are scheduled to play at home Nov. 12, 15 and 16 and Dec. 20 and 21. The Barons annual Education Field Trip Day will be Nov. 12. Tickets for the Oilers vs. Stars, which is being called the NHL Showcase presented by Mercy, are included in all Barons full-season seat holder packages and will be available to partial plan holders and group leaders in the near future.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Best-selling author Vince Flynn, who wrote the Mitch Rapp counterterrorism thriller series and sold more than 15 million books in the U.S. alone, died Wednesday in Minnesota after a more than two-year battle with prostate cancer, according to friends and his publisher. He was 47. Flynn was supporting himself by bartending when he self-published his first novel, "Term Limits," in 1997 after getting more than 60 rejection letters. After it became a local best-seller, Pocket Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint, signed him to a two-book deal — and "Term Limits" became a New York Times best-seller in paperback. The St.

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — Attorneys quizzed a whittled-down group of prospective jurors Wednesday in the Trayvon Martin case, asking if any were neighborhood watch volunteers like the teen's shooter and reminding them the trial would be different from what they've seen on shows like "CSI." The day began with a judge reading the formal second-degree murder charge against George Zimmerman, who shot the unarmed, 17-year-old Martin in February 2012. Zimmerman, 29, is pleading not guilty and says he acted in self-defense. Martin's death prompted public outrage around the nation, with some accusing Sanford police of failing to investigate the shooting thoroughly from the beginning because of Martin's race and because he was from the M

MIAMI (AP) — Country singer Slim Whitman, the high-pitched yodeler who sold millions of records through ever-present TV ads in the 1980s and 1990s and whose song saved the world in the film comedy "Mars Attacks!," died Wednesday at a Florida hospital. He was 90. Whitman died of heart failure at Orange Park Medical Center, his son-in-law Roy Beagle said. Whitman's tenor falsetto and ebony mustache and sideburns became global trademarks — and an inspiration for countless jokes — thanks to the TV commercials that pitched his records. But he was a serious musical influence on early rock, and in the British Isles, he was known as a pioneer of country music for popularizing the style there.

SEATTLE (AP) — Passengers from a United Airlines Denver-to-Tokyo flight that diverted to Seattle Tuesday when the Boeing 787 had an oil filter issue are on their way again. United spokeswoman Mary Ryan says in an email that the airline put them up in hotel rooms overnight and they took off from Sea-Tac Airport Wednesday morning in another 787. Ryan says there's no further information about the oil filter or aircraft maintenance. A Boeing spokeswoman told The Seattle Times Tuesday the problem was unrelated to any battery issues that grounded the 787 fleet from January to May.

LONDON (AP) — With Prince William and the former Kate Middleton expecting their first child in mid-July — and much of the world interested in the birth of a future monarch — the royals' office has released some of the couple's plans, although many details are still being kept private. Kate has made several public appearances recently but is expected to keep a low profile in the final weeks of her pregnancy. Here is the latest news about the infant who will, upon entering the world, be third in line for the British throne. KING OR QUEEN? Royal officials can't say — and it's not because they are being coy, it's because Kate and William have not found out — and don't plan to.

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — Former investigators are pushing to reopen the probe into the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of New York, saying new evidence points to the often-discounted theory that a missile strike may have downed the jumbo jet. The New York-to-Paris flight crashed July 17, 1996, just minutes after the jetliner took off from John F. Kennedy Airport, killing all 230 people aboard. The effort to reopen the probe is being made in tandem with the release next month of a documentary that features the testimony of former investigators who raise doubts about the National Transportation Safety Board's conclusion that the crash was caused by a center fuel tank explosion, probably caused by a spark from a short-c

BERLIN (AP) — President Barack Obama raised the prospect Wednesday that Europe might need to adjust its economic policies to tackle high youth unemployment and make sure that some countries don't "lose a generation." Obama warned during his visit to Berlin that, while he was confident the euro area's leaders will resolve their debt crisis, austerity and structural reforms must not cause policymakers to lose sight of the main goal: Improving people's lives. Unemployment in the group of 17 European Union countries that use the euro, which is stuck in recession, has shot up to a record 12.2 percent. Youth unemployment in southern Europe's crisis-hit economies, such as Spain and Greece, is now well above 50 percent.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she now supports gay marriage, becoming the third Senate Republican to do so. Murkowski says she believes same-sex marriage will encourage family values. She says she supports the right of all Americans to marry the person they love. She says allowing gay marriage "keeps politicians out of the most private and personal aspects of peoples' lives." Murkowski previously said she was "evolving" on the issue. She announced her decision in an opinion piece posted on her website Wednesday. Two other GOP senators — Mark Kirk of Illinois and Rob Portman of Ohio — previously announced their support for gay marriage. Forty-nine Democratic senators and two independents s