Afghanistan’s president said Wednesday he will not pursue peace talks with the Taliban unless the United States steps out of the negotiations, while also insisting the militant group stop its violent attacks on the ground after it claimed responsibility for a rocket attack that killed four Americans.

Hamid Karzai’s strong response and the Taliban attack deflated hopes for long-stalled talks aimed at ending nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan, just a day after the United States and the Taliban said they would begin initial meetings in Qatar. . .

Afghanistan officials will open a U.S.-backed office in the Gulf nation of Qatar as early as Tuesday to facilitate peace talks with the Taliban, according to three senior administration officials.

The announcement comes as President Hamid Karzai announced on Tuesday that Afghan security forces have taken the lead from NATO. The White House officials spoke on the condition they not be identified because the government of Qatar has yet to announce the official opening of the office in the capital of Doha.

President Obama briefed fellow Group of Eight leaders about the development on Monday night during their summit in Northern Ireland. It will be the first time that the U.S. will have direct talks with the Taliban since the start of the war.

Taliban officials in Doha are expected to release a statement later on Tuesday that will underscore that they disapprove of using Afghan soil to plan attacks threatening other countries as well voicing their support for the peace process, according to one administration official. . .

Prosecutors won’t be filing charges of vandalism against “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Jeff Garlin after he was accused of smashing a car window in a dispute over a parking space.

Instead, the 51-year-old will receive a hearing at the Los Angeles city attorney’s office where he will be advised about the law and how to avoid such incidents.

Frank Mateljan, spokesman for the city attorney, said Monday that Garlin’s alleged actions did not reach the threshold for a criminal filing. Office hearings are frequently used in such cases to avoid a full-blown criminal case.

“We examined the facts and determined an office hearing is most appropriate in this circumstance,” Mateljan said. . .

Federal agents and police raided nearly a dozen 7-Eleven stores across Long Island early Monday as part of an identity theft and human smuggling investigation, law enforcement officials say. 

According to investigators, some owners of the raided franchises allegedly helped smuggle in workers from Pakistan to work in their stores. Those workers were then allegedly forced to live in housing provided by the franchise owners, authorities said.

Five store owners were arrested Monday in the probe and are expected to face identity theft, money laundering and other charges, law enforcement officials said. Some of those being charged are also accused of stealing from 7-Eleven corporate headquarters, authorities said. . .

Developing: Justice Antonin Scalia appeared to side with Arizona in March oral arguments on the state’s proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration.

But Scalia wrote the majority opinion (PDF) on Monday striking down the state requirement. Scalia said Arizona law conflicts with a federal “motor voter” law that doesn’t require proof of citizenship. Instead, the federal law says, those signing the form need only swear that they are citizens.

Scalia’s opinion said states weren’t entirely hamstrung, however. They may still reject would-be voters based on information establishing they are ineligible. Also, they may ask the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to alter the federal form to include information they need to determine eligibility. If the commission rejects a request, the states may appeal. In the case before the court, Arizona wasn’t able to persuade the commission to change the form, but it may still appeal, Scalia said.

In oral arguments, Scalia had suggested that it would be fine for a state to ensure the integrity of its voting system when the federal form is lacking. “When the commission fails to do what enables the state to assess qualifications, the state will do it,” he said. “No problemo.”. . .

The most violent weekend in Chicago this year left at least 41 people injured and six others dead from gunfire.

Those killed ranged in age from 16 to 40.

“I had a family from my parish tell me recently that their 10-year-old son didn’t want to come back to Chicago from vacation because of the violence,” said Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church in Englewood, which is about a mile from the site of one of the shootings. . .

[GP] How much difference a day makes. Here’s Bill Clinton talking about President Obama’s reaction to Syria, via The Daily Beast:

In sharp remarks directed against his Democratic successor and his wife’s former boss, President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that President Barack Obama risks looking like a “wuss,” a “fool,” and “lame” for not doing more to influence events in Syria.

Sony’s PS4 just wiped the floor with the Xbox One

[. . .] The fact that Sony so proudly and openly crowed about how much less restrictive the PlayStation 4 is compared to the Xbox One also shows that Microsoft was probably not under withering pressure from gaming publishers to add tough DRM policies on its new console. Instead it seems that Microsoft has mostly fallen victim to its own arrogance: The company figured that since it had become the dominant player in the console wars that it could implement more restrictive policies than any other console and that no one would care. You could see this sort of arrogance on display when former Microsoft Studios creative director Adam Orth told gamers to “deal with it” when they raised objections to requiring Internet connectivity to play games and it seems the company hasn’t learned anything since then. . .

There is an uneasy calm in central Istanbul after a night of clashes which saw Turkish riot police disperse anti-government demonstrators.

Taksim Square, the focus of days of protest, is now largely cleared.

But protesters have regrouped in nearby Gezi Park. Its proposed redevelopment sparked anger that has widened into nationwide anti-government unrest.

PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said there will be no tolerance of people he accuses of seeking to harm Turkey.

The demonstrators accuse Mr Erdogan of becoming increasingly authoritarian and trying to impose conservative Islamic values on a secular state. . .

Rebels have attacked a village in eastern Syria, killing dozens of Shia Muslim residents, most of them pro-government fighters, activists say.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said at least 60 people died in Hatla on Tuesday.

The attack appeared to be retaliation for a raid on a rebel position by people from the village, it added.

Meanwhile, a government helicopter has reportedly fired three missiles at the northern Lebanese border town of Arsal.

Lebanese security officials said one of the missiles had struck the town centre. One told the AFP news agency several people were wounded.

Arsal is a predominantly Sunni town about 15km (9 miles) from the Syrian border that is home to some 27,000 Syrian refugees.

It is not far from the strategically important Syrian town of Qusair, which was recaptured by the army last week with help from fighters from the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement, Hezbollah. . .

Terrorist attacks in Afghanistan appear to be getting bolder in recent days.  The Taliban also increasingly is targeting the civilian population, including children.

A suicide bomber blew himself up right outside the Supreme Court building in the capital, Kabul, Tuesday, killing 17 people and wounding almost 40 others.  Mohammad Zahir, Chief of the Kabul Police Criminal Investigation Department, said all of the victims were civilians, including women and children.

“There are children and women among those who were martyred (killed) and wounded, all the ones who are martyred [killed] and wounded are civilians and there aren’t any military personnel among them,” said Zahir. . .

A suspected Taliban suicide bomber in a car detonated a bomb close to minibuses taking Supreme Court staff home in the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday, killing at least 17 people and wounding almost 40, police said.

It was the second large-scale attack in Kabul claimed by the hardline Islamist group in two days. On Monday, seven insurgents, including suicide bombers, laid siege to Kabul’s main airport for four hours before they were killed.

Tuesday’s attack appeared to underline the Taliban’s readiness to target civilians, particularly court officials, whom they consider an arm of the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. . .

A State Department whistleblower has accused high-ranking staff of a massive coverup — including keeping a lid on findings that members of then-Secretary Hillary Clinton’s security detail and the Belgian ambassador solicited prostitutes.

A chief investigator for the agency’s inspector general wrote a memo outlining eight cases that were derailed by senior officials, including one instance of interference by Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills.

Any mention of the cases was removed from an IG report about problems within the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS), which provides protection and investigates crimes involving any State Department workers overseas.

“It’s a coverup,” declared Cary Schulman, a lawyer representing the whistleblower, former State Department IG senior investigator Aurelia Fedenisn.“The whole agency is impaired. . .

A portion of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport has reopened to passengers after being briefly evacuated because of an explosion in a maintenance area.

Airport spokesman Reese McCrainie said the small electrical explosion occurred about 8:40 a.m. in a ramp level maintenance shop near Gate D-21.

There were no injuries reported, and there was no fire, according to McCranie. He said there was “minor” property damage. The explosion is under investigation.

Passengers on the north side of Concourse D were evacuated to Concourse E, and arriving aircraft were reassigned to other available gates, McCranie said. . .

JUNE 7–A high-tech computer system that captures images of  “every mail piece that is processed” by the United State Postal Service was critical in helping federal agents track the Texas woman arrested today for allegedly sending ricin-tainted letters to President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In a U.S. District Court complaint filed today against Shannon Guess Richardson, an FBI agent details how investigators traced the ricin letters back to New Boston, Texas, where the 35-year-old Richardson (seen below) lives with her husband. . .

Hundreds of federal employees were given advance word of a Medicare decision worth billions of dollars to private insurers in the weeks before the official announcement, a period when trading in the shares of those firms spiked.

The surge of trading in Humana’s and other private health insurers’ stock before the April 1 announcement already has prompted the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Wall Street investors had advance access to inside information about the then-confidential Medicare funding plan. . .