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By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's pick to be the No. 2 official at the Homeland Security Department faces tough questioning from lawmakers about an investigation into his role in helping a company, run by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother, to secure a foreign investor visa.

Alejandro Mayorkas, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, was to testify Thursday at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. His nomination hit a snag Tuesday when http://america-newspaper.blogspot.com/ first reported that the Homeland Security Inspector General's Office was investigating Mayorkas' role in helping secure a foreign investor visa for Tony Rodham's Gulf Coast Funds Management even after the application was denied and an appeal rejected.

[READ: Many Praise Janet Napolitano's DHS Leadership]

In an email to lawmakers, the IG's office said "at this point in our investigation, we do not have any findings of criminal misconduct."

Congressional officials briefed on the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details of the case publicly, said the visa was for a Chinese executive. Homeland Security and Citizenship and Immigration Services have not commented on the investigation.

Rodham's company said Tuesday it was not aware of the investigation or of any investor visa application being denied.

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, has called for Mayorkas' nomination to be put on hold pending the outcome of the IG's investigation. The committee's chairman, Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., was looking into the case.

[READ: Napolitano Steps Down from DHS, Heads to California]

The investigation does not appear to have any direct ties to Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. Nonetheless, any hint of scandal or even the most tangential connection to Clinton, who is a possible 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, is likely to become fodder for Republican super PACs, which have sought to discredit her record while she maintains a lower profile with private speeches and work on a new book.

The international investor visa program run by USCIS, known as EB-5, allows foreigners to get visas if they invest $500,000 to $1 million in projects or businesses that create jobs for U.S. citizens. The amount of the investment required depends on the type of project. Investors who are approved for the program can become legal permanent residents after two years and can later be eligible to become citizens.

Even before the inspector general's investigation became public, two other congressional officials said several Republican members on the committee had planned to ask Mayorkas for more details about his role in the 2001 commutation by President Bill Clinton of the prison sentence of the son of Horacio Vignali, a Democratic Party donor in Los Angeles.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to because they were not authorized to comment by name on the committee's inquiry, said a background questionnaire submitted to Mayorkas in advance of the hearing pressed him for a detailed accounting of his actions in the weeks before the sentence was commuted on Clinton's last day in office.

Another of Hillary Rodham Clinton's brothers, Hugh Rodham, had been hired by Horacio Vignali to lobby for the commutation for his son, Carlos, who was serving a 15-year sentence for his conviction on three federal drug charges.

Mayorkas, who was a U.S. attorney in California at the time, told lawmakers during his 2009 confirmation hearing to head USCIS that "it was a mistake" to have talked to the White House about the request. The congressional officials said Mayorkas acknowledged in recent answers to his questionnaire that he also had telephoned a U.S. attorney in Minnesota at the time to check on the Vignali commutation matter.

This was not the headline that the Center for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics gave its recent release of provisional fertility data for 2012. However, if you compare the most recent CDC data with Rosstat data on Russian births you see that, for the first time in a very long time, in 2012 Russia's birth rate actually exceeded that of the United States. This is, to put it mildly, a significant reversal from the not too distant past when the US had a birth rate that was as much as 75% higher than Russia's. As you can see, the speed and scale of the convergence is impressive

Since 2008, the Russian birth rate has increased by about 10% while the United States has slumped by about 9%. At first glance this might sound surprising: didn't Russia's economy performance abysmally during the financial crisis? But it's really not much of a mystery when you really think about it: Russia, and particularly its labor market, rebounded from the financial crisis quickly. The sorts of metrics which would be a reasonable guide to family formation and births, particularly the unemployment rate and the average real wage, are at historically good levels in Russia. Essentially, Russian wages have never been higher and unemployment has never been lower. Meanwhile, in the United States, wages are stagnant and unemployment is way above its long-term trend. This sort of economic malaise has had a predictably depressive effect on fertility.

What is not particularly relevant for the discussion are the personalities of Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin: neither deserves much credit (or blame) for their respective country's performance. Fertility is notoriously immune to state interventions, and while I'm sure someone will show up in the comments and say that Russia's strong performance is solely due to the "maternal capital" program the reality is that most of the change is due to structural demographic and economic factors that are incredibly difficult to change. So Russia's relatively good performance doesn't automatically vindicate Putin and the US poor performance doesn't "prove" that Obama is awful.

It's also worth noting that Russia's birth rate will, in the not too distant future, start to decrease as the tiny cohort born during the chaos of the 1990′s comes into prime childbearing years and replaces the relatively large cohort born during the 1980′s. It's unlikely, then, that Russia's birth rate is going to exceed that of the United States for very long: there is, at most, a 4-5 year window before structural factors take over and reduce Russia's rate while bolstering that of the United States.

But I nonetheless want to highlight the enormous change in relative performance between Russia and the United States because 1) it's something that's not well recognized and 2) strongly suggests that Russia is not some bizarre and indecipherable "dying nation" but is actually dealing with a number of demographic problems that every other advanced country is also dealing with. A lot of people pointed at Russia's naturally shrinking population and basically said "what a wretched and awful place: they can't even maintain their own numbers!" The fact that the white population is now naturally shrinking in the US should hopefully make people just a little less willing to stereotype the Russians and a little more willing to honestly discuss issues of demography by engaging with hard data.

(CNN) -- Land of the free. Home of the brave. Bastion of mediocre Internet speeds.

Already getting clobbered by countries like South Korea and Japan, the United States is close to falling out of the top 10 nations in terms of Internet-connection speeds, according to a new report.

The United States fell from 8th to 9th after being passed by Sweden in the first quarter of this year, according to networking firm Akamai's quarterly State of the Internet report. Akamai handles about one-third of the world's Web traffic.

The other countries with quicker Web connections than the United States? Hong Kong, Switzerland, Netherlands, Latvia and the Czech Republic.

The slip comes despite average U.S. speeds going up 27% from the same time last year, according to Akamai.

In some ways, the United States is at a disadvantage when it comes to fast connections. Its sprawling size and hefty population can make building efficient broadband networks a challenge. But critics argue that a relative lack of competition among service providers also hurts.

Susan Crawford, a tech policy analyst and professor at Cardozo Law School in New York City, argues that Internet access should be a public utility like gas, electricity and water because it has become just as essential.

In her book, "Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly in the New Guilded Age," she says a lack of regulation in the Unites States has allowed a small number of companies to dominate the broadband market, meaning consumers have fewer choices and pay higher prices.

"In Seoul, when you move into an apartment, you have a choice of three or four providers selling you symmetric fiber access for $30 per month, and installation happens in one day," Crawford told TIME earlier this year. "That's unthinkable in the United States. And the idea that the country that invented the Internet can't get online is beyond my imagination."

Akamai reported that the average Web connection in the United States was 8.6 megabytes per second. South Korea's average was 14.2 megabytes per second.

Of course, some folks in the United States have it better than others. In some regions of the country, residents still don't even have basic connections to high-speed Internet.

But if you live or work in Vermont, you're in pretty good shape. Average speeds there are 12.7 megabytes per second -- meaning connections in the Green Mountain State are, on average, faster than Japan's.

Looking for speedy Internet elsewhere in the U.S.? New Hampshire, Delaware, the District of Columbia and Utah round out the top five spots.

ARLINGTON, Texas - -- The United States won its CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal Wednesday night , but the Americans might be without their coach for Sunday's final.

Landon Donovan continued his resurgence, scoring two goals and setting up a third to spark the U.S. to a 3-1 win over Honduras at Cowboys Stadium.

U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann, however, was ejected in the 87th minute after he vehemently objected to what he thought was a foul on team captain DaMarcus Beasley.

The Americans will play the winner of the second game of the doubleheader between Mexico and Panama in the final at Soldier Field in Chicago on Sunday.

"They beat us in just about every aspect of the game," Honduras coach Luis Fernando Suarez said, adding that the U.S. was the favorite to win the title. "After five games, the United States has proven to be the most complete in the group."

Tell that to Klinsmann, who was asked to leave the U.S. bench in the waning moments by referee Walter Quesada (Costa Rica). Klinsmann was so infuriated that Quesada did not give a Honduran player a yellow card that he spiked the game ball that had rolled his way.

The Gold Cup disciplinary committee is expected to make a ruling on Klinsmann in the next 24 hours, according to a CONCACAF spokesman.

"It was just a reaction out of frustration," Klinsmann said, "because the fouls added up. It just kind of boiled over . . . I apologize for the reaction. It was not meant for the referee."

The U.S. dominated from start to finish. Eddie Johnson gave the U.S. an 11th-minute lead off a Donovan feed. Donovan then struck for the first of his goals in the 27th minute, slotting the ball past goalkeeper Donis Escober.

"The first 30 minutes was brilliant football," Klinsmann said. "We wanted to come out with high-pressure football and that's what they did."

The Hondurans cut the deficit to 2-1 in the 52nd minute when Nery Medina headed home a free kick past goalkeeper Nick Rimando.

Donovan scored a minute later as he tapped in Alejandro Bedoya's cross.

Klinsmann said he was seeing "the best Landon Donovan ever. I won't take anything less than that."

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Credit: Reuters/Toru Hanai

1 of 9. An employee of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) works at the bourse in Tokyo June 13, 2013.

The flash HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers' Index for China fell to 47.7 this month from June's final reading of 48.2, marking a third straight month below the 50 threshold between expansion and contraction.

"The lower reading of the July HSBC Flash China Manufacturing PMI suggests a continuous slowdown in manufacturing sectors thanks to weaker new orders and faster destocking," said Hongbin Qu, chief China economist of HSBC.

"This adds more pressure on the labor market," he said.

Worries of a rapid slowdown in the world's second-biggest economy as well as expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin to trim its massive bond-buying stimulus later this year have rattled global markets in recent weeks.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS pared earlier gains and wavered in and out of negative territory.

Japan's Nikkei share average .N225 fell 0.6 percent, giving back some of its two-day rally, after government data showed the country's export growth unexpectedly slowed in June from a year earlier. The figures were a worrying sign that China's slowing economy hurt overseas demand and could potentially threaten Japan's economic recovery.

In U.S. trading on Tuesday, the S&P 500 snapped a four-session winning streak and retreated from Monday's record closing high, while upbeat results from United Technologies bolstered the Dow, which also touched a record intraday high.

The Australian dollar also erased its early gains against its U.S. counterpart and skidded 0.4 percent to $0.9260, after tame inflation data left the door open for the Reserve Bank of Australia to cut interest rates next month if it chooses.

"If the RBA thinks the economy needs a stimulus hit, these data are completely consistent with that. Our view is that growth is slowing in the economy. So we would expect the RBA to cut rates in August," said Brian Redican, a senior economist at Macquarie.

Yields on U.S. benchmark 10-year Treasury notes rose to 2.519 percent from their U.S. close of 2.507 percent, though still well below a two-year high of 2.76 percent touched on July 8.

The euro slipped slightly after the China data to $1.3207, after rising as high as $1.3238 on Tuesday, its highest level since June 21.

Against the yen, the dollar took back some lost ground, rising 0.3 percent to 99.74 yen, moving away from a one-week low of 99.13 yen touched in the previous session.

The dollar index .DXY extended gains, adding 0.2 percent to 82.126, after it skidded to a one-month low of 81.926 on Tuesday. The index set a three-year high of 84.753 last week.

Commodity markets had pushed higher ahead of the China data, but those gains unraveled in its wake.

Copper dropped 0.8 percent to $6,982 a tonne , after earlier touching a session high of $7,060, its loftiest since June 18. U.S. crude fell 0.3 percent to $106.96 a barrel.

Spot gold remained above the $1,300 an ounce after rallying to a one-month high on Tuesday.

(Additional reporting by Langi Chiang and Jonathan Standing in Beijing and Wayne Cole in Sydney; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Credit: Reuters/Kham

A worker arranges steel structures at a construction site of an apartment in Hanoi June 14, 2013.

"Vietnam has come a long way in addressing its own challenges to meet the high standards of the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), but we still have work to do together," USTR Michael Froman said in a statement after a meeting with Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang.

Froman's remark came shortly after a coalition of labor and human rights groups urged President Barack Obama on Wednesday to suspend free-trade negotiations with Vietnam because of concerns over that country's treatment of workers and people who criticize the government.

"President Obama must hold Vietnam accountable for its record on worker and human rights before America rewards the country with greater trading privileges," Teamsters union President James Hoffa said in a statement.

The demand came on the eve of a White House meeting between Obama and the Vietnamese president, and as the 18th round of regional free-trade talks among the United States, Vietnam and nine other countries were wrapping up in Malaysia. Japan joined this week as the 12th country in the talks.

The Obama administration hopes to finish those talks on the proposed TPP by the end of the year, and the concerns raised by the Teamsters, the Citizens Trade Coalition and Human Rights Watch were a preview of the likely debate in Congress over the agreement.

They highlighted a report by the Worker Rights Consortium, a group of university administrators, students and other advocates that monitors working conditions in foreign countries.

It describes cases of forced labor and child labor, pregnancy and gender-based discrimination, health and safety hazards and excessive working hours and inadequate wages that the groups said Vietnam should be required to correct before striking a free-trade deal with the United States.

In addition, Vietnam has jailed an increasing number of dissidents, bloggers and religious leaders in recent years, holding them for long periods without access to family or legal counsel and often subject to torture or other mistreatment, Human Rights Watch said in a recent release.

Democratic Representative George Miller said in a letter to Froman that the WRC report showed, "Export industry workers in Vietnam ... are routinely denied the basic labor standards that the United States requires from its trading partners."

He stopped short of asking for talks with Vietnam to be suspended, but pressed Froman to explain "what steps the administration is willing to take to ensure that Vietnam is able to comply" with labor provisions established by a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers in 2007 for trade agreements.

The 12 TPP countries are negotiating commitments to protect workers and the environment as part of the trade pact, but critics fear they will not be subject to the same enforcement rules as business provisions.

(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Credit: Reuters/Kham

A worker arranges steel structures at a construction site of an apartment in Hanoi June 14, 2013.

"President Obama must hold Vietnam accountable for its record on worker and human rights before America rewards the country with greater trading privileges," Teamsters union President James Hoffa said in a statement.

The demand came on the eve of a White House meeting between Obama and Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, and as the 18th round of regional free trade talks between the United States, Vietnam and nine other countries were wrapping up in Malaysia.

The Obama administration hopes to finish those talks on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, by the end of the year, and the concerns raised by the Teamsters, the Citizens Trade Coalition and Human Rights Watch were a preview of the likely debate in Congress over the agreement.

They highlighted a report by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), a group of university administrators, students and other advocates that monitor working conditions in foreign countries.

It describes cases of forced labor and child labor, pregnancy and gender-based discrimination, health and safety hazards and excessive working hours and inadequate wages that the groups said Vietnam should be required to correct before striking a free trade deal with the United States.

In addition, Vietnam has jailed an increasing number of dissidents, bloggers and religious leaders in recent years, holding them for long periods without access to family or legal counsel and often subject to torture or other mistreatment, Human Rights Watch said in a recent release.

Representative George Miller, a senior Democrat from California, in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, said the WRC report showed, "Export industry workers in Vietnam ... are routinely denied the basic labor standards that the United States requires from its trading partners."

He stopped short of also asking for talks with Vietnam to be suspended but pressed Froman to explain "what steps the administration is willing to take to ensure that Vietnam is able to comply" with labor provisions established by a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers in 2007 for trade agreements.

The 12 TPP countries are negotiating commitments to protect workers and the environment as part of the trade pact, but critics fear they won't be subject to the same enforcement rules as business provisions.

(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

The Detroit River off of Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan on August 9, 2001. A Canadian looking to prove his swimming skills, and drunk, provoked an international rescue when he jumped into the Detroit River and swam to the United States, police say.AFP/File

A Canadian looking to prove his swimming skills, and drunk, provoked an international rescue when he jumped into the Detroit River and swam to the United States, police said Wednesday.

John Morillo, 47, told the Windsor Star after being released from custody on Tuesday the stunt was "very stupid" but he relishes now being able to boast to friends about his exploit.

"I was drinking, but I wasn't really drunk," Morillo told the Canadian daily. "The thing is, I've been telling people I'm going to swim across the river for years and they're like 'yah, yah, blah, blah, you can't make it.' So, I don't know, last night I just decided it was the time to go."

Morrillo reportedly managed to swim across the river separating Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, and have his picture taken by curious passers-bye, and was heading back when he noticed a stir around him.

His neighbor back on the Canadian shore had called police when she lost sight of him in the treacherous waters.

A search was launched in the middle of the night involving Canadian police as well as both US and Canadian coast guards, three boats and a helicopter. He was eventually found on the Canadian side of the Detroit River at 12:50 am local time (0450 GMT), nearly two hours after he first jumped into the river.

"As soon I saw the helicopters going by and the boats looking for me, I was like 'oh, this is really stupid,'" Morillo told the Star.

"The harbor master was extremely mad at me," he said. "I don't know, maybe they pulled him out of bed or something."

Authorities said he has been charged with public intoxication and faces fines of up to Can$25,000 (US$24,200) for swimming in a shipping channel.

He also has been barred from the waterfront.

Credit: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov

A general view is seen of Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow July 24, 2013.

"Any move that would allow Mr. Snowden to depart the airport would be deeply disappointing," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, adding that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had telephoned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; editing by Jackie Frank)

The United States will be seeking its 10th straight victory on Wednesday night (7 p.m. Eastern, Fox Soccer) when it faces Honduras in the semifinals of the Concacaf Gold Cup at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex. Mexico and Panama will play the second game of the doubleheader with the winners scheduled to play for the tournament championship in Chicago on Sunday.

The match against Honduras will be the third between the two teams this year: Honduras won the first game, the opener for both teams in the final round of regional World Cup qualifying, 2-1, on Feb. 6; the American team capped a string of three victories in qualifying by defeating Honduras, 1-0, in Sandy, Utah, on June 18.

The semifinal doubleheader in Texas is expected to draw a healthy crowd to Cowboys Stadium. But some of the pregame chatter has centered on the temporary grass field that was placed not over an artificial turf surface, but directly on top of a concrete floor. Sod was also installed over the playing surface for last Sunday's quarterfinal doubleheader at M&T Stadium in Baltimore, where the U.S. beat El Salvador, 5-1.

Here are some pregame notes:

■ The former D.C. United midfielder Andy Najar scored the game's only goal Sunday when Honduras ousted Costa Rica, 1-0, in the quarterfinals. Najar, who moved to the United States with his family at age 13, had the option to declare his international allegiance to either the U.S. or his native country. He chose Honduras in April 2011, rather than wait to receive U.S. citizenship.

■ The U.S. has a 10-2-2 record so far in 2013 (having lost only to Honduras and to Belgium in a friendly). The American team has a 9-1-1 record on U.S. soil.

■ The U.S. has outscored the opposition by 16-3 in the Gold Cup; striker Chris Wondolowski leads all goal scorers with five in the tournament.

■ Two of the four players recalled for the knockout stages played key roles in Sunday's win over El Salvador. Central defender Matt Besler played 75 minutes and striker Eddie Johnson scored a goal 15 seconds after entering the match in the 60th minute. Alan Gordon did not play Sunday and Omar Gonzalez, a Dallas native, did not join the U.S. team until after the Los Angeles Galaxy's game last weekend in M.L.S.

■ With his goal and three assists against El Salvador, Landon Donovan now has 54 goals and 55 assists in his international career. Donovan is the only 50/50 player in U.S. men's national team history.

■ The U.S. has a 13-4-3 record against Honduras over all and is 10-2-2 on U.S. soil.

■ Brek Shea, who was added to the roster when Josh Gatt was dropped because of injury, scored the game-winner against Costa Rica - his first international goal. It makes him the seventh player on the U.S. roster to score his first international goal in a Gold Cup game. Joe Corona also scored his first senior international goal for the U.S. in the tournament.

■ The match against Costa Rica was the 600th international game for the U.S. men's team. Including the win against El Salvador, the overall record is 246-226-129 dating to 1916.

■ Three players on the roster were part of the first U-17 residency program class in 1999: DaMarcus Beasley, Kyle Beckerman and Donovan.

■ The U.S. is playing in its 11th Gold Cup semifinal dating to 1991 and has a 7-2-1 record; but has won its last four semifinal games.

■ After the Gold Cup, the U.S. will play a friendly against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo on Aug. 14 before returning to World Cup qualifying with a match at Costa Rica (Sept. 6) and against Mexico (Sept. 10).

MOSCOW - Russia will allow former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden papers to leave the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. He has been in limbo there since June 23, when he arrived from Hong Kong to evade espionage charges in the United States for disclosing details about secret U.S. surveillance programs. - Snowden leaves Hawaii for Hong Kong. - Snowden offers details of U.S. spying programs to Britain's newspaper. Stories are published in Britain and the United States, including on the existence of the program Prism and a court order to force telecoms company Verizon to hand over phone records of millions of Americans.

Credit: Reuters/Khalil Ashawi

A Free Syrian Army fighter aims his weapon as he takes a defensive position in Deir al-Zor July 23, 2013.

Russia is at loggerheads over the conflict with its U.N. Security Council partner, the United States, where President Barack Obama can now move forward with arming rebels after easing some congressional concerns.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a press conference that Washington's plans would undermine joint efforts to organize an international peace conference on Syria that he agreed to with his U.S. counterpart, John Kerry, in May.

"If our American partners are now focusing on arming the opposition and are sharing plans... to strike Syrian government positions, then this, of course, runs against agreements to hold a conference," he said.

"That goes against our joint initiative."

The chances of bringing Syria's divided opposition and Assad's representatives to the negotiating table have faded in recent weeks, and help from Hezbollah has tilted the situation on the ground in Assad's favor.

More support from the United States could help the rebels push back. U.S. forces could help in various ways, the top U.S. military officer has said, from training to enforcing no-fly zones or conducting limited attacks on military targets.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; editing by Mike Collett-White)

USA Hockey will have 48 players at its orientation camp Aug. 26-27 in Arlington, Va., which will serve as the first step to picking the players who will represent the United States at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

But according to David Poile, the team's general manager, the real work starts in October.

"The evaluations we're going to be making are going to be mostly in October, November and December," Poile said during a conference call Tuesday. "We believe in the body of work that these players have done to this point to get an invitation to this training camp, but our evaluation will be done during the regular season. ... I assure you that we are going to make our decisions based on who's playing best and who deserves to be on our team. Our scouting component with our committee and what we see in October, November and the first part of December will be the most important aspects in making final decisions.

"Just because a player is not at this camp, that does not mean he won't make the Olympic team. And conversely, just because you're at this camp doesn't mean you'll make the Olympic team."

The orientation camp will be two days, and there will be no on-ice component due to the high cost of insuring the players. Instead, most of the time will be spent educating the players on all the different aspects that go into being part of the Olympics, from the layout of the facilities to travel arrangements for the players and their families to the drug-testing and registration programs.

In addition, the players will spend time getting to know the coaches, management and staff, have team-building exercises, and spend time with area youth hockey groups.

"This is a chance for all of us to get together, to get to know each other a little bit better, to introduce the coaching staff, for the coaches to get in front of [the players] a fair bit," Poile said.

The real work will come when the games start for the 2013-14 NHL regular season. At that point, everything becomes equal and the best players will head to Sochi.

That could include a number of young players. The camp roster includes four players over 30, with 33-year-old Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres the oldest invited, but five players 20 or younger: Anaheim Ducks goaltender John Gibson and Chicago Blackhawks forward Brandon Saad are 20, Winnipeg Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba and Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Galchenyuk are 19, and Nashville Predators defenseman Seth Jones is the youngest player in the camp at 18.

"We're looking a little bit to the future," Poile said. "We have a future component to this camp that we didn't have in 2010. I'm really pleased with the depth and quality [of players] that we have. For sure our eyes are on 2014, but we also have a little bit of an eye on the future when we invite these younger players."

Also invited to the camp were 16 players from the 2010 Olympic team that won the silver medal in Vancouver, and though there's no guarantee all 16 will be on the team for Sochi, Poile said he does expect a few to play major roles in 2014, among them Minnesota Wild teammates Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.

"In 2010 when Brian Burke and myself and our committee put the team together, this was the big change from previous Olympic teams, the end of what we called the great era in USA hockey," Poile said. "The [Keith] Tkachuks, the Brett Hulls, [Chris] Chelios, [Mike] Richter, [Mike] Modano, there were none of those guys on the team. We talked and we had our fingers crossed that players like Ryan Suter and Zach Parise could take the torch from these guys and be the next great generation of USA players, and that's happened. Getting a silver medal in Vancouver certainly represents a certain degree of success for these younger players. Now they're in a position where they should be our best players and our leaders and we're counting on them to do that. Arguably, Ryan Suter should be our best defenseman and Zach Parise could be our best forward. We think the world of them and we're counting on them both on and off the ice to be our best players."

Another player who will be counted on heavily is Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane, who also played a significant role four years ago in Vancouver.

" Patrick Kane is obviously one of our best players," Poile said. "The only player who has won two Stanley Cups, won a Conn Smythe Trophy [and] that speaks a lot for Patrick Kane. We're looking for him to be a top player, make big plays, score big goals -- the usual from Patrick Kane. Like I said about Zach Parise, if we're going to have any success in Sochi, it's going to be players like Parise and Patrick Kane that are going to have to lead the way."

Success in Sochi also would buck a trend for the U.S. In four previous Olympics using NHL players, the Americans have won a silver medal in 2002 in Salt Lake City and 2010 in Vancouver. But when the games were held on foreign soil -- 1998 in Nagano, Japan, and 2006 in Turin, Italy -- the U.S. failed to medal.

Poile said it's something he's aware of, and the reasoning could go beyond the fact the games outside North America are played on the wider international ice surface.

"This is the big question probably for both Canada and the U.S.," Poile said. "'Why have we not had more success over there?' The North American players play a different type of game than European players. They grew up playing a different style, they grew up on a different-size ice surface. Having said that, I believe we can win, and I'm sure Canada feels the same way. So what do we need to change? I don't have those answers right now."

Poile said he has a few ideas, and some of them can be seen in the list of players invited to the orientation camp -- and those not invited.

"[Assistant GM] Ray Shero and I are going to talk to former Olympians, guys who have played in Europe both in the World Championships and in the last two Olympics to see what the USA did good and what we might not have done so good and what kind of changes we can make as far as our player selection," he said. "I think it's shown in the numbers that we've invited to the camp and the type of players that we invited, and the type of players left off the list. ... When we make our final decisions and we choose Player A over Player B, it's going to be because we think he can be successful in Sochi, he can be successful in Europe, and it might be a different choice than we made in Vancouver."

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Credit: Reuters/Joe Penney/Files

1 of 7. Weeds grow in a former Portuguese colonial administrative building in Cacheu, Guinea-Bissau, in this file picture taken October 27, 2012.

Behind lay the steamy shore of Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest countries on the planet. Ahead lay the Al Saheli, a luxurious 115-foot white motor yacht with tinted black windows.

Riding in the speedboat was Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto - a Guinea-Bissau former naval chief and war hero and, according to U.S. investigators, a kingpin of West Africa's drug trade. Na Tchuto was allegedly hoping to seal a deal involving millions of dollars and tons of cocaine. He was also in for a surprise.

"Once onboard (the Al Saheli), we were offered champagne," said Vasco Antonio Na Sia, the captain of the speedboat, speaking on Guinea-Bissau state television when he later returned home. As the new arrivals awaited the refreshments, agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stormed out of the Al Saheli's hold.

"Instead of champagne, we got 50 heavily armed men running at us shouting 'Police, Police!'," said Na Sia. The DEA team arrested Na Tchuto and two of his aides, but later let go Na Sia and another man, his uncle Luis Sanha.

"They told me, 'You and Luis will be freed because your names are not on our list.' That is how I was saved," Na Sia said. He and Sanha could not be contacted for further comment.

The sting on April 2 was part of a U.S. operation to lure two prominent figures from Guinea-Bissau into international waters so they could be seized and taken to the United States for trial on allegations of drug smuggling. Court documents and Reuters interviews show the elaborate nature of the operation, which was part of a larger effort by the DEA to counter drug cartels seeking to use weak African states as transit points for smuggling.

"The DEA's focus in Africa is to disrupt or dismantle the most significant drug, chemical, money laundering, and narco-terrorism organizations on the continent," Thomas Harrigan, the DEA's deputy administrator, told a Senate hearing in 2012.

The operation off Guinea-Bissau was the first time the DEA had targeted such high-ranking officials in an African state. Na Tchuto is now facing trial in New York on charges of conspiring to traffic cocaine, including to the United States. The U.S. Department of Justice says his capture has helped to break a transnational drugs ring. Na Tchuto denies the charges.

His two arrested aides were also taken to New York and face charges of conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States. They deny the charges.

Angry officials in Guinea-Bissau say Na Tchuto is the victim of entrapment and was illegally seized in Bissau's sovereign waters. Government spokesman Fernando Vaz called the sting a "kidnapping" and said if there is evidence of military officials involved in drugs smuggling, they should be tried domestically.

The DEA says Na Tchuto and his two aides were captured in international waters; it declined to provide further details while the court case is pending. It remains firm in its view that certain elements in Guinea-Bissau pose a danger that needs to be countered.

"Guinea-Bissau is a narco-state," said DEA spokesman Lawrence R. Payne in an email to Reuters. "These drug trafficking organizations are a threat to the security, stability and good governance in West Africa and pose a direct threat not only to the security of West Africans, but also of U.S. citizens."

The United States is keen to have stable partners in a region rich in commodities but struggling to fend off organized crime, maritime piracy and militant Islamism. But the DEA failed to capture its biggest target, General Antonio Indjai, whom it accuses of conspiracy to smuggle drugs and supporting FARC, a Colombian rebel group.

Indjai grabbed power in Guinea-Bissau in a 2012 coup and remains its top military official, enjoying extensive influence, though the country also has a president. Lieutenant-Colonel Daha Bana Na Walna, spokesman for Guinea-Bissau's Armed Forces Chief of Staff, called the DEA operation "regrettable" and said the alleged offences had been invented by the DEA.

He complained that Guinea-Bissau lacked equipment to tackle powerful drug cartels and was being unfairly victimized as a "narco state," especially when compared with the scale of drug-trafficking in other West African countries.

"We are fighting with the means that we have ... we don't have helicopters, vessels or vehicles," he said.

INTERNATIONAL CROSSROADS

The former Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau is home to just 1.6 million people and covers a modest 10,800 square miles; but with its array of islands and unpoliced mangrove creeks, it is a smuggler's paradise.

For years the country has been an important transit point in the lucrative drug trade from South America to Europe. United Nations experts estimate some 50 metric tons (55.116 tons) of cocaine, mostly from Colombia and Venezuela, pass through West Africa every year.

A Gulfstream jet left sitting on the tarmac at Bissau's Osvaldo Vieira International Airport is testament to the problem. It landed in July 2008 with what the U.N. believes was a bulk shipment of cocaine. When local police tried to investigate, they were blocked for several days by the army. Once the police did gain access, they found the plane empty - but sniffer dogs confirmed traces of cocaine, according to a former Guinea-Bissau government source and international law enforcement officials.

Two military interventions in the governance of Guinea-Bissau since 2010 - the second a coup in April 2012 - have deepened Western fears that the country is in the grip of suspected drugs barons like Na Tchuto, whom the U.S. added to its list of drug kingpins in 2010.

The decision to target Na Tchuto and Indjai in elaborate stings was taken by the U.S. Department of Justice. Regional diplomats, who better understand the fragile political situation in Guinea-Bissau, had little input, according to some U.S. officials. Some diplomats feared the stings could trigger another coup or spark conflict between rival factions in the country's armed forces.

One source with knowledge of the operation said a handful of DEA agents set up a field office in the U.S. embassy in Dakar, the capital of neighboring Senegal, where they worked huddled away from local embassy staff.

"There was no coordination in policy. The DEA had an opportunity and they took it ... No one thought this through," said a U.S. official, who asked not to be named, referring to the risk of the operation causing unrest among Guinea-Bissau's military.

The DEA's noose began to tighten around Na Tchuto in August last year when the bespectacled ex-navy admiral agreed to a meeting in Senegal with a man the DEA says Na Tchuto thought was a cocaine broker. In fact, he was an undercover DEA operative.

At the meeting Na Tchuto allegedly said he felt it was time for a big narcotics shipment. "Na Tchuto noted that the Guinea-Bissau government was weak in light of the recent coup d'etat and that it was therefore a good time for the proposed cocaine transaction," prosecutors say.

In subsequent meetings Na Tchuto's aides discussed the practicalities of the deal, which would involve taking delivery of a shipment of cocaine at sea, bringing it to shore and trucking it to an underground bunker for storage, according to prosecutors.

Na Tchuto allegedly told the DEA source he wanted $1 million for each metric ton of cocaine brought into the country. He offered to use a company he owned as a front to ship the drugs back out when needed, according to prosecutors.

Sabrina Shroff, a lawyer acting for Na Tchuto, declined to comment on the specifics of his case, but said he had pleaded not guilty. She added that the DEA's tactics amounted to entrapment, that Na Tchuto was in poor health and that she was struggling to find interpreters who spoke Guinea-Bissau's Balanta language.

The DEA declined to comment on how it had conducted the case; however, sting operations are a common tactic used by the agency, though they are rarely targeted at such senior foreign officials.

TWIN STINGS

In parallel with the Na Tchuto operation, the DEA also set up meetings with Indjai, say prosecutors. In 2010 Indjai had ousted his boss and briefly detained the prime minister, and had seized greater control in the 2012 coup.

To snare the military leader, undercover DEA officers posed as members of the Colombian rebel group FARC, or Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, according to prosecutors. FARC is designated a terrorist organization by Washington and runs large cocaine trafficking operations.

The officers contacted Indjai through local and Colombian traffickers operating in Guinea-Bissau and concocted a plan to import Colombian cocaine for transshipment to other countries, including the United States. In return, they asked Indjai to arrange a shipment of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, for FARC fighters to use against American helicopters in Colombia.

During meetings with undercover DEA operatives in July 2012, Indjai agreed that FARC cocaine would be shipped to Guinea-Bissau for later distribution to the United States, according to prosecutors. One of his associates said the general would expect to retain 13 percent of the drugs as a "fee" for government officials, prosecutors say.

Indjai also said he would help supply weapons to FARC and would brief Guinea-Bissau's transitional president, Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo, on the plan, according to prosecutors.

Nhamadjo is acting as interim head of state until elections can be held. His government has vehemently denied any involvement in drug trafficking and has vowed to defend its citizens against the U.S. charges.

Indjai is charged with drug trafficking and providing support for terrorists targeting the United States. His spokesman, Na Walna, said the DEA had used "infiltrators" who had proposed the drugs-for-arms exchanges. "If you invent a crime, then there can be no crime," he said.

Prosecutors allege that during recorded meetings over several months to November 2012, Indjai and his associates agreed to import some 4 metric tons of cocaine, of which 500 kg (1,102 lbs) would go to the United States. A trafficker who operates in Guinea-Bissau listed equipment needed for the work, including trucks with hidden compartments to smuggle the cocaine to the front company's warehouse, prosecutors allege.

As the stings headed towards their climax, the United States shut down its diplomatic office in Bissau, anticipating staff there would be at risk of a backlash if local officials were seized.

DELAYS AND SUSPICIONS

The Al Salehi motor yacht was a key part of the DEA's plan - but earned itself a reputation as a lemon among U.S. operatives. The DEA had seized the yacht in an earlier operation and grappled with mechanical problems on the way to Guinea-Bissau, according to a U.S. official.

Those setbacks had delayed the sting by a month. As the ship waited off the coast for the crucial moment, another delay disrupted plans.

Na Tchuto was suspicious, or cautious, or both. He initially sent Na Sia, the speedboat captain, and his aides to the Al Saheli on their own. The DEA feared their scheme was unraveling. An irate undercover agent who called himself Alex berated the visitors and demanded to deal with Na Tchuto in person, according to Na Sia.

After several hours Na Tchuto was finally lured offshore and seized. But the delay may have cost the DEA its bigger prize. The agency had intended to arrest Na Tchuto first, then attempt to lure out Indjai, a bulky man who enjoys sitting in the shade of the cashew trees at the Amura military base in the capital, by speedboat from another port. The plan failed.

It is not clear why Indjai did not go, but one Western diplomat suggested the lateness of the hour may have been a factor. "By the time they got Na Tchuto it was nearly dark, and they had no chance of getting Indjai offshore," said the source. Whether Indjai had agreed to a meeting on the Al Salehi is unclear; but it headed off without him.

Exactly where Na Tchuto was seized is disputed. The speedboat captain Na Sia said on local state TV that he had initially met the Al Saheli not far from the island of Caravela and that when he returned later with Na Tchuto, the Al Saheli was in "Guinea-Bissau's territorial waters."

The Guinea-Bissau government has supported this view. The DEA says the Al Saheli was in international waters. Either way, the vessel set sail for Cape Verde, where Na Tchuto was put on a plane and flown to New York.

THE FALLOUT

The semi-successful sting had an immediate political impact, according to locals in Bissau, the country's capital.

In the days following Na Tchuto's capture, rival military camps deployed heavily armed soldiers to the streets, setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles heading out of the capital. With President Nhamadjo in Germany for medical treatment for complications from diabetes, fears rose of another coup, or a violent power struggle within the army.

Guinea-Bissau officials hit back at the United States. "The seizure of Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto and the accusations against General Antonio Indjai, have hurt Guinea-Bissau ... creating fear in the hearts of our population of another conflict," said Vaz, the government spokesman.

Some Western diplomats and Bissau-watchers are worried about how Indjai will react to the failed plot to seize him.

"If Mr. Antonio Indjai is guilty of the allegations made against him, I would hope that we find ways to ease him out of the military in a manner that does not paint him and his supporters into a corner," said U.N. Special Representative to Guinea-Bissau, Jose Ramos-Horta. "A cornered animal would have no choice but to fight."

Payne, the DEA spokesman, and other U.S. officials said that the United States was generally keen to help local law enforcement agencies strengthen their own capacities to combat organized crime. But direct U.S. intervention reflects the suspicion of international law enforcement officials in the region that little action was taken by local agencies, at least partly because of high-level complicity.

"That was an operation that needed to be done just by us," said one U.S. official, referring to the capture of Na Tchuto. "There is a sense in some circles that we've got commandos lurking offshore ready to pounce. I don't think this will become a regular occurrence in Guinea-Bissau. But if they think it is, no harm done there."

(Additional reporting Pascal Fletcher in Johannesburg and Alvaro Andrade in Praia, Cape Verde; Editing By Richard Woods and Simon Robinson)

Nine activists who were brought to the United States illegally as children are being detained in Arizona after they tried to re-enter the U.S. in order to protest increased deportations, according to the National Immigrant Youth Alliance.

Six of the undocumented adults had either been deported or returned to Mexico on their own more than a year ago, leaving behind family in the U.S., Powell said. Three others left for Mexico to take part in the protest, said Domenic Powell, a volunteer coordinator with the National Immigrant Youth Alliance.

"These are people who have spent most of their lives in the United States. This truly is their home," Powell said.

"They wanted to take a stand for all of the people that want to come home, and at the end of the day they're in the same situation," he said.

The undocumented immigrants comprise a group known as DREAMers, the term being used to describe people who were brought to the United States illegally as young children. They are a group that has been at the forefront of the comprehensive immigration reform debate, as lawmakers consider crafting a bill to offer them a path to citizenship.

However, it's a move those young adults say only addresses a fraction of the 11 million undocumented people living in the United States and something they fear could further separate their families.

Read more ABC News coverage of immigration reform.

Lizbeth Mateo, 29, who is poised to start classes at Santa Clara Law School in California next month, came to the United States when she was 10. Mateo was one of the three people who risked their livelihoods in the United States to participate in the protest, said Mohammad Abdollahi, an organizer with the National Immigrant Youth Alliance.

"For her and the other two students, it's just a personal relationship with folks we know who have been deported," Abdollahi said. "We want the Obama administration to understand we're not going to let deportations separate our families any more."

The number of foreign-born people deported in 2006 was 280,974, while in 2011, that number increased to 391,953 people, according to the Department of Homeland Security's 2011 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials detained the group on Monday after they filed applications for humanitarian parole at the Nogales border crossing.

Federal officials said they were prohibited from discussing specific cases, however, said in a statement that immigration law requires people seeking to enter the country to bear the burden of proof to establish eligibility.

Abdollahi said he received a call from one of the people in the group today who said they are being detained in Eloy, Ariz., as authorities sort through their cases.

"They all took that risk knowing they could essentially not come back," Abdollahi said.

"We're going to be putting a lot of pressure on lawmakers to really bring them home," he said. "It's really in their hands at the end of the day."

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

The U.S. Capitol Building is pictured in Washington, February 27, 2013.

The confrontations began even before the measure made it to the floor of the House after Republican leaders moved to restrict the number of permitted amendments to 100, with no more than 20 minutes of debate on divisive issues like Syria policy and spying by the National Security Agency.

A final vote on the bill, which includes about $3 billion more than requested by President Barack Obama, is not expected until Wednesday at the earliest. Debate on the thorniest amendments, including on Syria, funding for Egypt and NSA spying, was not likely to begin until Wednesday.

The White House has threatened a presidential veto of the overall bill unless it is part of a broader budget that supports U.S. economic recovery efforts, saying current House proposals cut too much from education, infrastructure and innovation.

The White House joined senior House Republicans in urging lawmakers to oppose an amendment by Michigan Republican Justin Amash, a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement, that would bar the NSA from collecting telephone call records and other data from people in the United States not specifically under investigation.

The proposed amendment comes after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of an agency surveillance program that collects and stores vast amounts of electronic communications like phone call records and emails.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama welcomed a debate on safeguarding privacy, but opposed Amash's amendment, saying it would "hastily dismantle one of our intelligence community's counterterrorism tools."

Senior House Republicans, including Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers and Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, circulated a letter to colleagues urging them to oppose the amendment.

"While many members have legitimate questions about the NSA metadata program, including whether there are sufficient protections for Americans' civil liberties, eliminating this program altogether without careful deliberation would not reflect our duty ... to provide for the common defense," they said.

SYRIA SPLIT

As debate got under way, lawmakers expressed concern over the constraints placed on their ability to discuss contentious issues.

Representative Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, accused Republican leaders of ignoring the "real split" in Congress over the Syrian civil war and denying "any real substantive debate" over whether the United States should intervene in a conflict that has already killed 100,000.

U.S. involvement in Syria so far has been limited to providing humanitarian assistance to refugees and non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition. But Obama is moving ahead with lethal aid after determining the government of President Bashar al-Assad has sometimes used chemical weapons.

"The Republican leadership ducked a real important debate when it comes to Syria," McGovern said. "I hope that ... a few years down the road we don't look back ... and express regret that somehow we got sucked into this war without a real debate."

Lawmakers also strongly condemned the Afghan government for trying to charge the U.S. military customs duties to remove American equipment from the country.

They debated a series of amendments aimed at stripping funding from military programs for the Afghans. The bill sets Afghan war funding at $86 billion.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Eric Beech)

Nine young immigrants who had lived in the United States illegally were in custody Tuesday after a protest against deportations by the Obama administration in which they tried to enter the country without immigration papers through the border station at Nogales, Ariz.

Organizers of the protest said five of the youths, who all grew up in the United States, had left the country previously. Two of them had been officially deported. Three youths crossed into Mexico voluntarily in recent days, even though they did not have legal visas to return, in what they described as a gesture of civil disobedience.

The youths were initially detained on Monday by border authorities. On Tuesday, they asked for asylum and were transferred to the custody of immigration enforcement agents while their requests were reviewed. They were being held in an immigration detention center in Eloy, Ariz., officials said.

The protest was a tactical escalation by some young immigrants, who call themselves Dreamers, to draw attention to what they said were inconsistencies by the administration, which has continued a fast pace of deportations even while President Obama is pressing Congress to pass legislation that would offer a path to citizenship to unauthorized immigrants.

In a statement, officials from Customs and Border Protection said they could not discuss details of individual cases because of privacy concerns. But they noted that people seeking to enter the United States bear the burden "to establish that they are clearly eligible."

Immigration officials said it appeared unlikely the asylum petitions would succeed because the immigrants had lived until recently in the United States and not in Mexico where they might have faced danger. The officials said the young people appeared to have underestimated the difficulties they would face trying to be admitted without legal papers.

Mohammed Abdollahi, a leader of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, which organized the protest, said: "The idea we're trying to make about immigration is that there's no reason to detain them. They're not high priority, they're not a flight risk, in fact they're actually fighting to stay in the country."

He said the immigrants would continue their protests inside the detention center and at their immigration court hearings. "It's a waste of time, it's a waste of money, just release them to their families so they can fight their cases from the outside," he said.

The names of those detained were given as Lizbeth Mateo, Lulú Martínez, Marco Saavedra, Claudia Amaro, Adriana Gil Diaz, Luis Leon, Maria Peniche and Ceferino Santiago. A ninth woman joined the group at the last minute, and her name and immigration status were unclear.

Rebekah Zemansky contributed reporting.

USA Hockey on Monday unveiled the 48 players that will take part in the U.S. Men's National Team Orientation Camp.

The camp will be held Aug. 26-27 at Kettler Capitals IcePlex, in Arlington, Va., and will serve as the first step in picking the team that will represent the U.S. at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Sixteen of the 48 players that will attend camp were part of the United States team that won the silver medal in 2010 in Vancouver. Among that group is Minnesota Wild forward Zach Parise, whose goal in the final seconds of regulation in the gold-medal game against Canada forced overtime.

Also returning from four years ago is Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, who was named the Olympic tournament's best goaltender and most valuable player.

Other players from the 2010 team that will be at the camp are goaltender Jonathan Quick ( Los Angeles Kings); defensemen Erik Johnson ( Colorado Avalanche), Jack Johnson ( Columbus Blue Jackets), Brooks Orpik ( Pittsburgh Penguins) and Ryan Suter (Wild); and forwards David Backes ( St. Louis Blues), Dustin Brown (Kings), Ryan Callahan ( New York Rangers), Patrick Kane ( Chicago Blackhawks), Ryan Kesler ( Vancouver Canucks), Phil Kessel ( Toronto Maple Leafs), Joe Pavelski ( San Jose Sharks), Bobby Ryan ( Ottawa Senators) and Paul Stastny ( Colorado Avalanche).

Joining Miller and Quick in goal will be Craig Anderson (Avalanche), John Gibson ( Anaheim Ducks), Jimmy Howard ( Detroit Red Wings), and Cory Schneider ( New Jersey Devils).

Gibson, who helped the United States win the bronze medal at the 2013 IIHF World Championship, is one of three players invited to the camp with no NHL experience -- he played one American Hockey League game last season. Also invited are defensemen Jacob Trouba, the Winnipeg Jets' top pick in the 2012 NHL Draft who likely will make his NHL debut this season, and Seth Jones, the fourth pick of the 2013 NHL Draft by the Nashville Predators.

Dan Bylsma of the Pittsburgh Penguins will coach the team at the Olympic tournament, which runs Feb. 12-23.

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*- played on 2010 Olympic team

Humvees await uparmoring at the Armor Holdings plant in Fairfield, Ohio, Jan. 31, 2006. (AP Photo/Dayton Daily News, Ty Greenlees)The following passages are excerpted from Eduardo Galeano's new book, Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History (Nation Books). These selections originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com.The Day Mexico Invaded the United States(March 9) On this early morning in 1916, Pancho Villa crossed the border with his horsemen, set fire to the city of Columbus, killed several soldiers, nabbed a few horses and guns, and the following day was back in Mexico to tell the tale.

This lightning incursion is the only invasion the United States has suffered since its wars to break free from England.

In contrast, the United States has invaded practically every country in the entire world.

Since 1947 its Department of War has been called the Department of Defense, and its war budget the defense budget.

The names are an enigma as indecipherable as the Holy Trinity.

In 1945, while this day was dawning, Hiroshima lost its life. The atomic bomb's first appearance incinerated this city and its people in an instant.

The few survivors, mutilated sleepwalkers, wandered among the smoking ruins. The burns on their naked bodies carried the stamp of the clothing they were wearing when the explosion hit. On what remained of the walls, the atom bomb's flash left silhouettes of what had been: a woman with her arms raised, a man, a tethered horse.

Three days later, President Harry Truman spoke about the bomb over the radio.

He said: "We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies; and we pray that He may guide us to use it in His ways and for His purposes."

It was among the largest military expeditions ever launched in the history of the Caribbean. And it was the greatest blunder.

The dispossessed and evicted owners of Cuba declared from Miami that they were ready to die fighting for devolution, against revolution.

The US government believed them, and their intelligence services once again proved themselves unworthy of the name.

On April 20, 1961, three days after disembarking at the Bay of Pigs, armed to the teeth and backed by warships and planes, these courageous heroes surrendered.

On March 20 in the year 2003, Iraq's air force bombed the United States.

On the heels of the bombs, Iraqi troops invaded US soil.

There was collateral damage. Many civilians, most of them women and children, were killed or maimed. No one knows how many, because tradition dictates tabulating the losses suffered by invading troops and prohibits counting victims among the invaded population.

The war was inevitable. The security of Iraq and of all humanity was threatened by the weapons of mass destruction stockpiled in United States arsenals.

There was no basis, however, to the insidious rumors suggesting that Iraq intended to keep all the oil in Alaska.

Around this time in 2010 it came out that more and more US soldiers were committing suicide. It was nearly as common as death in combat.

The Pentagon promised to hire more mental health specialists, already the fastest-growing job classification in the armed forces.

The world is becoming an immense military base, and that base is becoming a mental hospital the size of the world. Inside the nuthouse, which ones are crazy? The soldiers killing themselves or the wars that oblige them to kill?

Geronimo led the Apache resistance in the nineteenth century.

This chief of the invaded earned himself a nasty reputation for driving the invaders crazy with his bravery and brilliance, and in the century that followed he became the baddest bad guy in the West on screen.

Keeping to that tradition, "Operation Geronimo" was the name chosen by the US government for the execution of Osama bin Laden, who was shot and disappeared on this day in 2011.

But what did Geronimo have to do with bin Laden, the delirious caliph cooked up in the image laboratories of the US military? Was Geronimo even remotely like this professional fearmonger who would announce his intention to eat every child raw whenever a US president needed to justify a new war?

The name was not an innocent choice: the US military always considered the Indian warriors who defended their lands and dignity against foreign conquest to be terrorists.

Good news. On this day in the year 2011 the world's military brass announced that drones could continue killing people.

These pilotless planes, crewed by no one, flown by remote control, are in good health: the virus that attacked them was only a passing bother.

As of now, drones have dropped their rain of bombs on defenseless victims in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and Palestine, and their services are expected in other countries.

In the Age of the Almighty Computer, drones are the perfect warriors. They kill without remorse, obey without kidding around, and they never reveal the names of their masters.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan took up the spear that Richard Nixon had raised a few years previous, and the war against drugs received a multimillion-dollar boost.

From that point on, profits escalated for drug traffickers and the big money-laundering banks; more powerful drugs came to kill twice as many people as before; every week a new jail opens in the United States, since the country with the most drug addicts always has room for a few addicts more; Afghanistan, a country invaded and occupied by the United States, became the principal supplier of nearly all the world's heroin; and the war against drugs, which turned Colombia into one big US military base, is turning Mexico into a demented slaughterhouse.

American concerns over the arrests of dissidents and other human rights abuses in Vietnam shouldn't stand in the way of closer military and economic ties with the Southeast Asian nation, the country's president said Tuesday ahead of talks in Washington with President Barack Obama.

President Truong Tan Sang's remarks, made in emailed responses to questions by http://america-newspaper.blogspot.com/, are a sign of Vietnam's desire to strengthen relations with the United States, a country with which it shares concerns over Chinese assertiveness in the region.

Sang's trip to the United States is only the second such visit by a head of state since the former foes resumed relations in 1995. He will meet President Obama on Thursday.

The United States is also seeking closer ties with Vietnam, part of its strategic "rebalancing" toward Asia, which is emerging as a vital partner for the sluggish economies of the West. But it wants to see the communist country release dissidents. Some officials have said progress on a closer relationship was contingent on an improved human rights record.

On human rights, Sang said that in Vietnam "the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people are respected."

Asked about American concerns about the arrests of bloggers, he said: "There are a number of differences between Vietnam and the United States including those on human rights, but this is quite normal."

"It is my hope that after five years of no exchanges of high-level visits between the two countries, my official visit to the United States this time will contribute to elevating Vietnam-US relations into a profound, efficient and substantive framework," he said.

The invitation by Obama for talks at the White House took some analysts by surprise, who suggested that Washington's desire to shift its military and diplomatic focus to Asia had trumped its stated concerns over human rights in Vietnam.

"It looks like the human rights issue is being finessed. Behind closed doors Obama can raise the concerns, but it's obviously not going to feature prominently," said Carl Thayer, an expert on Vietnam at the University of New South Wales in Australia. "For Obama, it is 'how do you get more jobs for Americans.' You sell more in Asia, that's the larger gain."

Both sides are expected to discuss a trade pact that Washington is negotiating with Vietnam and 10 other Asia-Pacific nations, which the Obama administration wants signed by the end of the year. Two-way trade between the U.S. and Vietnam totaled $26 billion last year. Vietnam's leaders, presiding over a stuttering economy, are also under pressure to deliver stronger economic growth.

The U.S. has been forging closer military links with Vietnam in recent years, with port calls and officer exchanges, but has yet to lift an embargo on lethal weapons imposed since 1984. U.S. officials have said they were considering lifting it, but there is no sign of this happening soon. Thayer said Vietnam was unlikely to purchase weapons from the United States, preferring Eastern European sellers, but that the ban was seen as discriminatory by some in the ruling party.

Asked whether he wanted it lifted, Sang said "I believe it is now the time for our bilateral relations to be fully normalized in all fields in the interests of the two countries, and for peace, cooperation and development in the Asia-Pacific region."

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, questioned why Sang would get a White House visit given Vietnam's record.

"Why would this happen at this time, when there has been such a concerned crackdown on freedom of expression," he said. "Now the onus is on President Barack Obama to make sure that human rights doesn't slip from the agenda. The United States has to publicly state its concerns and press the government of Vietnam to make real steps."

Credit: Reuters/Hamid Khatib

Free Syrian Army fighters move through a hole in a wall in the northern town of Khan al-Assal, after seizing it July 22, 2013.

"We believe we are in a position that the administration can move forward," House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers told Reuters.

The White House announced in June that it would offer military aid to vetted groups of Syrian rebels after two years of balking at directly sending arms to the opposition.

"We have been working with Congress to overcome some of the concerns that they initially had, and we believe that those concerns have been addressed and that we will now be able to proceed," a source familiar with the administration's thinking told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

But both Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees had expressed worries that the arms could end up in the hands of Islamist militants in Syria like the Nusra Front, and would not be enough to tip the balance of the civil war against President Bashar al-Assad anyway.

Part of the logjam was broken on July 12 when members of the Senate Intelligence Committee who had questioned the wisdom of arming the insurgents decided behind closed doors to tentatively agree that the administration could go ahead with its plans, but sought updates as the covert effort proceeded.

Now, the House committee has also given at least a cautious go-ahead.

"It is important to note that there are still strong reservations," Rogers said. "We got a consensus that we could move forward with what the administration's plans and intentions are in Syria consistent with committee reservations."

The source familiar with the administration's thinking said, "The committees were persuaded and we will be able to move forward."

The timeline was unclear, but supporters of the rebels hope the deliveries of U.S.-provided arms will start in August.

They hope for "a large number of small weapons" such as rifles and basic anti-tank weapons, said Louay Sakka, a co-founder of the Syrian Support Group, which backs the Free Syrian Army fighting Assad.

Committee sessions on arming the rebels are classified and have been held in secret. Senior government figures like Secretary of State John Kerry have briefed lawmakers behind closed doors to persuade them to back the White House's Syria strategy. Rogers said he still had "very strong concerns" about the plan's chances of success.

REBELS LAGGING

The mostly Sunni Muslim rebels have been struggling since government forces, helped by Lebanese Hezbollah allies, took the strategic town of Qusair in early June. Backed by warplanes and artillery, Assad is much better armed than the rebels.

Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, opposes sending U.S. arms to the rebels.

"It's too late to affect the outcome with a small amount of arms," Schiff said. "I think we would have to provide such a massive amount of arms, and additional military support to change the balance on the battlefield, that we would inevitably be drawn deeply into the civil war," he said.

"And I think we also have to expect that some of the weapons we provide are going to get into the hands of those who would use them against us," Schiff said.

He said his view is probably a minority one within the intelligence committee - but that for many Americans, after two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is "little appetite for getting involved in a third."

Obama has been reluctant to intervene in the civil war in Syria, in which more than 100,000 people have died.

"Arms do not make peace," said Lakhdar Brahimi, the special peace envoy for Syria of the United Nations and the Arab League. "We would like to see the delivery of arms stopped to all sides," he told reporters in Washington.

He said the United States and Russia both agreed there was no military solution to the Syrian conflict "even if they are delivering weapons in the hope their side is going to win."

Brahimi said it was possible to find a political solution in efforts to bring together the warring parties for a peace conference in Geneva. "It is extremely difficult to bring (together) people who have been killing one another for two years just by waving a magic wand to a conference like this. It will take time but I hope it will happen."

Supported by Iran and Russia, Assad has looked increasingly stronger in recent months while the opposition has been fractured.

Clashes between Islamist rebel forces and Kurdish militias spread to a second Syrian province last weekend.

The fighting is further evidence that the 2011 uprising against Assad's rule has splintered into turf wars that have little to do with ousting him.

(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Alistair Bell, Eric Walsh and Lisa Shumaker)

Egypt is a disaster veering toward catastrophe. President Barack Obama's decision to ignore U.S. law by continuing financial aid will only exacerbate the situation. The administration's signal achievement is that almost everyone in Egypt now blames America, which has provided almost $75 billion in financial assistance to Cairo over the years.

Egypt became a top aid recipient after Anwar Sadat switched sides during the Cold War. His government was paid even more for making peace with Israel. Washington argued that the stability seemingly purchased was a good deal. No longer, however.

First, the law requires halting assistance. If the administration doesn't want to obey, it should urge Congress to amend the law. Only by applying a Clintonesque twist can what happened in Cairo-the army arresting the president and top aides, prosecuting opponents, shutting television stations, detaining journalists, freezing assets, and shooting demonstrators-be called something other than a coup. In fact, the Associated Press detailed how the military planned its takeover for months and aided the group Tamarrod in building opposition to former president Mohamed Morsi.

The Heritage Foundation's James Phillips acknowledged that "the letter of the law does require a cutoff of U.S. aid," but contended that "the spirit of the law, which was passed to help protect democracy, would support continuing aid because the coup was launched against a leader who was ignoring the will of the people in order to impose his anti-democratic Islamist agenda."

Traditionally conservatives do not favor legal feelings over enactments. More important, Morsi was not alone in his authoritarian tendencies. Mubarak-era military, judicial, and bureaucratic leaders worked to block democratic rule at every turn. Nor was Morsi the first elected leader to inflate his own powers: George W. Bush and Barack Obama come to mind.

Moreover, it is sheer fantasy to impute democratic yearnings to the Egyptian military, a praetorian institution which served as the guardian of dictatorship since the 1952 coup against King Farouk I. Egyptian military officers are a caste apart, pampered apparatchiks who control as much as 40 percent of the economy. They always have been far more interested in power and privilege than democracy and liberty. Noted Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute: "the military traditionally represents the older elite as well in Egyptian society, which feels that it's their God-given right to do this sort of thing." For the generals, Morsi's authoritarianism simply became a pretext for their authoritarianism.

Second, abundant foreign "aid" has contributed to Egypt's catastrophic economic failure. Government-to-government assistance has consistently hindered rather than advanced economic progress in developing states. John Bolton recently argued: "Everyone, whatever their politics, agrees that Egypt's economy needs massive assistance." Actually, no. What that economy needs is massive reform. Unfortunately, American subsidies discourage reform by underwriting Egypt's inefficient and counterproductive economic policies.

Third, whatever political influence the U.S. may have gained from foreign aid was dissipated when Cairo realized that it could count on receiving the money irrespective of its behavior. The Washington Post'sDavid Ignatius contended: "Better to continue aid, and insist that it be conditioned on the military scheduling early elections." However, that requires the willingness to stop writing checks, which Washington has never done and obviously will never do.

Where is the evidence of American leverage? The Mubarak regime rejected both economic and political reform, creating the corrupt, inefficient state which fails the Egyptian people today. As the revolution unfolded the administration successively declared itself for Hosni Mubarak, his negotiated exit, and his speedy exit, without Egyptians paying the slightest attention. Although the administration attempted to mobilize its network of U.S. trained Egyptian officers, Adm. Mike Mullen, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted that money "couldn't buy the U.S. the connections it needed in a time like this."

The decision to continue aid under President Morsi had no positive effect. He pursued exclusionary political and incompetent economic policies, apparently against Washington's advice. The security services worked to undermine his government, also presumably against the administration's wishes.

The coup even more dramatically demonstrated U.S. impotence. Observed the Hoover Institution's Kori Schake: "Reports that the national security advisor, secretary of state, secretary of defense, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had tried unsuccessfully to restrain Egypt's military led to the [conclusion] that the United states has very little influence over a military determined to once again entrench itself above elected civilians."

No one in Cairo is listening to Washington now. The military is adopting the Egyptian equivalent of North Korea's "military first" policy, shooting demonstrators, making political decisions, and appointing civilians friendly to the military. Even the coup-friendly Wall Street Journal admitted: "the military drew up the new constitutional 'road map' in secret without consultation with the anti-Morsi opposition. The interim president will rule by decree. The constitution, which an authoritarian Mr. Morsi rammed through late last year, will be redrafted by unelected officials," mostly Mubarak retreads.

Worse, contra Washington's plaintive pleas, the military has reverted to the Nasser-Sadat-Mubarak policy of suppressing the Muslim Brotherhood. If the movement goes into violent resistance there will be neither stability nor democracy in Egypt.

Deputy Secretary of State William Burns visited Cairo two weeks after the coup. Brotherhood leaders refused to see him. Morsi's opponents, the fundamentalist al-Nour Party and liberal Tamarrod movement, also rebuffed the U.S. envoy. At least Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi-who simultaneously serves as head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, defense minister, and deputy prime minister-gave Burns an audience. However, the regime continued to target Brotherhood officials even as Burns called for "the military to avoid any politically motivated arrests."

US Vice President Joe Biden speaks about US - Asia and India economic and trade policy at George Washington University on July 18, 2013. Biden was due in India Monday at the start of a four-day visit designed to revive momentum in flagging diplomatic ties and fire up bilateral trade.AFP/File

Supporters of Pakistan's outlawed Islamic hard line group, Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) torch Indian and US flags during a protest in Karachi on July 19, 2013. US Vice President Joe Biden was due in India Monday at the start of a four-day visit designed to revive momentum in flagging diplomatic ties and fire up bilateral trade.AFP/File

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid arrive for a joint press conference at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on June 24, 2013. During his trip Kerry sought to assuage Indian fears about the aftermath of next year's withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.Pool/AFP/File

US Vice President Joe Biden was due in India Monday at the start of a four-day visit designed to revive momentum in flagging diplomatic ties and fire up bilateral trade.

Biden, the first vice president to visit India in three decades, will meet senior leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi before heading to the financial hub Mumbai to deliver a keynote speech on the economy.

In an interview published in Monday's Times of India newspaper, Biden said the world's two biggest democracies had a "tremendous capability to work together" but should be doing more.

He also emphasised that he wanted to see an acceleration in bilateral trade, which he said was on track to meet $100 billion this year.

"The United States has welcomed India's emergence and both nations have profited from it," the vice president said.

"India's rise as a global economic power is one of the most powerful stories of the 21st century," he added.

The announcement of Biden's visit was made during a trip to India last month by Secretary of State John Kerry, who sought to assuage Indian fears about the aftermath of next year's withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

India, which has spent more than two billion dollars of aid in Afghanistan, fears any return of the Taliban, hardline Islamists who were strong allies of Pakistan before being toppled in 2001.

Nascent talks between the US and Taliban were due to start last month after the Islamists opened an office in Doha, but they collapsed before even getting off the ground.

In his meeting with Indian leaders, Biden is expected to reiterate that the US will not back any peace process involving the Taliban unless they renounce violence.

"If the Taliban are to have any role in Afghanistan's political future, they will need to break ties with al-Qaeda, stop supporting violence and accept the Afghan constitution as part of the outcomes of any negotiated peace settlement," he told the Times of India.

"We strongly support the role India has played in Afghanistan, leveraging its economic strength to improve Afghanistan's economy ...in projects that will help to ensure our common goal of a stable and prosperous future for the Afghan people," he added.

Biden will fly on Wednesday to Mumbai where he is expected to hold a roundtable with business leaders and press for stronger intellectual property protection.

While bilateral trade has grown in recent years, there is still widespread frustration among US business leaders over what they see as unfair trading practices.

Among the points of contention is India's championing of generic drugs -- which advocates say save lives in poor nations -- despite protests from Western drug firms.

India in turn has been alarmed by proposals in the US Congress to curb visas for high-tech workers.

India's Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma were both in Washington last week to pitch for investment and discuss India's readiness to open talks on a bilateral investment treaty.

"Economic engagement in both trade and investment, though robust, is well below potential, given the opportunities a growing economy like India offers and the opportunities in the largest economy of the United States," Sharma said.

Biden will be the most senior administration official to visit India since President Barack Obama visited in 2010.

While the US has been among the world powers calling for India to be given a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, observers detect a sense of drift in ties.

"India is a natural ally of the US but... relations require greasing occasionally because insecurities have crept in, especially on the Indian side," Subhash Agrawal, of the Delhi-based think tank India Focus, told AFP.

Biden will head from India to Singapore on Thursday, where officials say he will tackle tensions over the disputed South China Sea.