Video: Flash Points: Syria, Al Qaeda & Mali

By Jane Sutton GUANTANAMO BAY U. S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – U. S. Senator Dianne Feinstein urged the Pentagon on Wednesday to stop force-feeding hunger-striking prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and called the practice “out of step” with medical ethics and international norms. Feinstein, a California Democrat who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, saying the Guantanamo force-feeding policy was also out of synch with policies in the civilian federal prisons. “Hunger strikes are a long-known form of non-violent protest aimed at bringing attention to a cause, rather than an attempt of suicide,” she wrote. “I believe that the current approach raises very important ethical questions and complicates the difficult situation regarding the continued indefinite detention at Guantanamo.” Speaking in Berlin on Wednesday, President Barack Obama said the United States would redouble efforts to close the prison at Guantanamo. A Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale, said he would not respond to Feinstein’s letter to Hagel via the press, but added that “we will continue to treat the detainees in our charge humanely and that we will not allow them to harm themselves.” The U.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actor James Gandolfini, best known for his Emmy-winning portrayal of a conflicted New Jersey mob boss in the acclaimed HBO cable television series “The Sopranos,” has died while vacationing in Rome, the network said on Wednesday. Gandolfini, who was 51, died of a possible heart attack, HBO spokeswoman Mara Mikialian told Reuters. (Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston) [James Gandolfini via Jaguar PS / Shutterstock.com]

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Wednesday voiced her opposition to President Barack Obama’s top international trade nominee because of a secretive free trade agreement. “I am deeply concerned about the transparency record of the U. S. Trade Representative and with one ongoing trade agreement in particular — the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” she said on the Senate floor. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been negotiated behind closed-doors for years by trade representatives from Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam.

A prominent Senate Republican issued a blunt warning Wednesday about the prospects of getting proposed immigration reform legislation through both chambers of Congress.

WASHINGTON — Government phone and Internet snooping programs helped thwart a Yemen-linked terror plot targeting the New York Stock Exchange, officials claimed Tuesday.