Malaysian Plane ‘Shot Down With 295 On Board’  —  A passenger plane with 295 people on board has been shot down as it flew above eastern Ukraine, according to aviation sources.  —  The Malaysia Airlines plane, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was travelling at an altitude of 10km …

Cruz's next fight: Immigration  —  Texas Sen. Ted Cruz plans to take a hard-line stand that could rile up conservatives just as lawmakers — including two from his home state — are struggling to address the growing humanitarian crisis along the southern border.

I Don't Care If You Like It  —  Women are tired of being judged by the Esquire metric  —  Last week, I got into a fight on Twitter with New York magazine's Jonathan Chait, whose work I respect, and it wasn't about anything that either of us had written; rather, we were tussling over the merits …

Elaine Stritch, Tart-Tongued Broadway Actress and Singer, Is Dead at 89  —  Elaine Stritch, the brassy, tart-tongued Broadway actress and singer who became a living emblem of show business durability and perhaps the leading interpreter of Stephen Sondheim's wryly acrid musings on aging …

Edward Snowden urges professionals to encrypt client communications  —  Exclusive: Whistleblower says NSA revelations mean those with duty to protect confidentiality must urgently upgrade security  —  The NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, has urged lawyers, journalists, doctors, accountants …

Clinton Is Best Known, Best Liked Potential 2016 Candidate  —  Huckabee's image is slightly better than other GOP contenders  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Hillary Clinton is currently the best known and best liked of 16 potential 2016 presidential candidates tested in a July 7-10 Gallup poll …

Democrats' Plan to Create the Next Todd Akin  —  The party is hoping to keep Republicans talking about reproductive issues, and is praying for a candidate to make another massive mistake.  —  Democrats are not just hoping for another Todd Akin, they're trying to create one …

UNRWA STRONGLY CONDEMNS PLACEMENT OF ROCKETS IN SCHOOL  —  Yesterday, in the course of the regular inspection of its premises, UNRWA discovered approximately 20 rockets hidden in a vacant school in the Gaza Strip.  UNRWA strongly condemns the group or groups responsible for placing the weapons in one of its installations.

Stephen Elop's email to employees  —  Microsoft's strategy is focused on productivity and our desire to help people “do more.”  As the Microsoft Devices Group, our role is to light up this strategy for people.  We are the team creating the hardware that showcases the finest of Microsoft's digital work …

The Border and Obama  —  It's time to stop running away from the nation's troubles  —  The woman from Honduras was tiny and extremely pregnant.  “When are you due?” asked Sister Norma Pimentel, the director of Catholic Charities in the Rio Grande Valley.  “Ya,” the woman replied in Spanish: “Already"-she was past due.

Fake screener probes passengers at SFO  —  (07-16) 17:46 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — A man suspected of being drunk posed as a security screener at San Francisco International Airport long enough to direct a couple of women into a private booth for pat downs before real security staffers caught on to him, authorities said Wednesday.

The Hidden Barrier to a Republican Senate Majority  —  The GOP has had little recent success defeating Democratic incumbents  —  If Republicans are to win the Senate, they probably are going to have to do something they haven't done since 1980: beat more than two Democratic Senate incumbents in November.

Jeb Bush Raising Private Equity Funds as Campaign Weighed  —  As other Republicans travel the country laying the groundwork for 2016 presidential campaigns, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is raising private-equity funds for oil and gas ventures.  —  Bush, 61, whose family made much of its fortune …

Exclusive: Feds Struggling to Cope With Medical ‘Breakdown’ at the Border  —  The federal government is so overwhelmed by the current tide of migrants crossing the border it can't provide basic medical screening to all of the children before transporting them - often by air …

Federal judge's ruling on California death penalty stuns experts  —  A federal judge's ruling that California's death penalty is unconstitutional was described by legal experts Wednesday as stunning and unprecedented.  —  The ruling by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney found …