World/Nation
• Journalist held captive in Syria arrives in U.S.
BOSTON - Journalist Peter Theo Curtis returned home to the United States on Tuesday, two days after being freed by a Syrian extremist group that held him hostage for 22 months, his family said.
Curtis family spokeswoman Betsy Sullivan said in a statement that Curtis arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport Tuesday afternoon after leaving Tel Aviv. By evening he had been reunited with his mother, Nancy Curtis, at Boston Logan International Airport.
"I have been so touched and moved, beyond all words, by the people who have come up to me today - strangers on the airplane, the flight attendants, and most of all my family - to say welcome home," Curtis said in the statement.
He also said he was "deeply indebted" to the U.S. officials who worked to get him released.
Curtis, 45, of Boston, was released by al-Nusra Front, a Sunni extremist group.
Last week, journalist James Foley, who also was kidnapped in 2012 while covering the Syrian uprising, was killed. The Islamic State group posted a Web video showing his beheading.
• Israel, Hamas agree to open-ended cease-fire
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel and Gaza's ruling Hamas agreed Tuesday to an open-ended cease-fire after seven weeks of fighting - an uneasy deal that halts the deadliest war the sides have fought in years, with more than 2,200 killed, but puts off the most difficult issues.
In the end, both sides settled for an ambiguous interim agreement in exchange for a period of calm. Hamas, though badly battered, remains in control of Gaza with part of its military arsenal intact. Israel and Egypt will continue to control access to blockaded Gaza, despite Hamas' long-running demand that the border closures imposed in 2007 be lifted.
Hamas declared victory, even though it had little to show for a war that killed 2,143 Palestinians, wounded more than 11,000 and left some 100,000 homeless. On the Israeli side, 64 soldiers and six civilians were killed, including two killed by Palestinian mortar fire shortly before the cease-fire was announced.
• Union Army officer honored 151 years later
WASHINGTON - A century and a half after his valiant death at the Battle of Gettysburg, a Union Army officer is being awarded the nation's highest military decoration, thanks to a decades-long campaign by his descendants and Civil War buffs.
The White House announced Tuesday that President Barack Obama approved the Medal of Honor for 1st Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing, who was killed standing his ground against Pickett's Charge during the pivotal, three-day Battle of Gettysburg.
Congress granted a special exemption last December for Cushing to receive the award posthumously since recommendations normally have to be made within two years of the act of heroism and the medal awarded within three years.
The White House also announced that Obama will award the medal in a ceremony on Sept. 15 to two Vietnam War soldiers who also received the congressional exemption - Army Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie G. Adkins and Army Spc. Donald P. Sloat. The medal is given to members of the Armed Forces who risk their own life in an act of great personal bravery.
Cushing was born in Delafield, Wis., raised in Fredonia, N.Y., and buried at his alma mater, West Point, after being killed on July 3, 1863, at age 22. He commanded about 110 men and six cannons, defending the Union position on Cemetery Ridge against Pickett's Charge, a major Confederate thrust that could have turned the tide in the war. Cushing received a bullet wound in the head.
• Investigators: No proof VA delays caused deaths
WASHINGTON - Government investigators found no proof that delays in care caused veterans to die at a Phoenix VA hospital, but they found widespread problems that the Veterans Affairs Department is promising to fix.
Investigators uncovered large-scale improprieties in the way VA hospitals and clinics across the nation have been scheduling veterans for appointments, according to a report released Tuesday by the VA's Office of Inspector General.
The report said workers falsified waitlists while their supervisors looked the other way or even directed it, resulting in chronic delays for veterans seeking care.
"Inappropriate scheduling practices are a nationwide systemic problem," said the report by Richard Griffin, the VA's acting inspector general. "These practices became systemic because (the Veterans Health Administration) did not hold senior headquarters and facility leadership responsible and accountable."
The report could deflate an explosive allegation that helped launch the scandal in the spring: that as many as 40 veterans died while awaiting care at the Phoenix VA hospital. Investigators identified 40 patients who died while awaiting appointments in Phoenix.
- The Associated Press