10 things to know for today

Published 12:00 am Thursday, June 19, 2014

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:
1. MILITANTS FLY BLACK FLAGS OVER IRAQ REFINERY

Meanwhile, Baghdad has asked the U.S. to launch airstrikes to beat back insurgents holding vast territories across the country’s north.

2. WHY CONGRESS HESITATES ABOUT AFGHANISTAN TROOP PULLOUT

The deteriorating situation in Iraq is giving lawmakers pause about Barack Obama’s plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghan military bases by the end of 2016.

3. ASSASSIN OF AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN CROWN PRINCE STILL STIRS CONTROVERSY IN BALKANS

A century after the shot that sparked World War I, there is little agreement about Gavrilo Princip, the baby-faced Serb teenager who killed Franz Ferdinand.

4. WHAT MAKES INDIAN TOP CIVIL SERVANTS NERVOUS

Many of the country’s bureaucrats feel uneasy about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s order to do all official work in Hindi.

5. FORMER GUARD ACCUSED OF CRIMES AT AUSCHWITZ

The 89-year-old Philadelphia man has said he was stationed outside the Nazi camp and wasn’t responsible for the deaths of Jews and others.

6. COLORADO EX-LAWMAN FACES SENTENCING

After a shocking fall from grace in meth-for-sex scandal, former "top sheriff" Patrick Sullivan, 71, repeatedly fails drug tests while on probation for that case.

7. AMAZON TRIES TO BLAZE NEW TRAIL WITH FIRE PHONE

The device has many features that are practically smartphone industry standards, but breaks ground in other areas that could make it a magic wand for shoppers.

8. WHO SEEKS PROTECTIONS FOR WITNESSES

Shelly Sterling’s attorneys will ask a judge to order Los Angeles Clippers co-owner Donald Sterling to stop threatening and harassing his wife’s legal team.

9. GOOGLE GOADS GIRLS TOWARD GEEKDOM

The tech behemoth leads non-profits in a campaign called "Made with Code" that aims to balance gender disparity in the computer programming field-and on its own staff.

10. CHEERING FOR MEXICO, BUT GOING HOME TO U.S.

The number of fans waving the green-white-and-red at the World Cup surprises observers in Brazil, but talk to the supporters, and it becomes clear they came from their adopted homeland.