From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

 

　　The Afghan capital is reeling from a Taliban attack near the UN compound today. Local authorities say there were a number of casualties in Kabul.

 

　　The Syrian government is signalling that it may be willing to take part in talks with the opposition next month. Today its Russian ally announced Damascus had agreed in principle to attend an international conference aimed at ending more than two years of warfare in Syria.

 

　　Secretary of State John Kerry has wrapped up two days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. From Jerusalem, NPR's Emily Harris reports the two sides have different views on what must happen for peace talks to begin.

 

　　Israeli building on West Bank land claimed by Palestinians is one of the most contentious obstacles to talks. Kerry said the U.S. believes Israel should stop building settlements and stop retroactively legalizing Israeli homes in the West Bank that were built without Israeli permits.

 

　　Our position on settlements and outpost and on the legalization is that we are opposed to it. But it should not be something that prevents us from being able to get to negotiations.

 

　　He says keeping or removing settlements must be worked out in direct Israeli-Palestinian talks. Emily Harris, NPR News, Jerusalem.

 

　　Big day for graduates of the U.S. naval academy.

 

　　Three years for those we lived behind in the class 1963. Keep in, keep in, keep in.

 

　　A thousand forty seven midshipmen performed the ceremonial had tossed at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. In keeping with a long tradition, President Obama addressed the graduating class, echoing a counter terrorism speech he gave yesterday. The president said the U.S. has to remain prepared for the rising threats of the 21st century, echoing that message to the graduating class today.

 

　　And even as we stay vigilant in the face of terrorism and stay true to our Constitution and our values, we need to stay ready for the full range of threats from nations seeking weapons of mass destruction to cyber criminals seeking to unleash weapons of mass destruction.

 

　　Obama also criticized reports of sexual assault in the military, saying we have to be determined to stop these crimes.

 

　　The financial hit to the government from bailouts during the financial crisis is shrinking. A congressional budget office study now says the cost of the government's main bailout program, the TARP, will amount to $21 billion. That's much less than the $700 billion Congress originally authorized.

 

　　U.S. stocks remain mixed this hour before the closing bell, at last check on Wall Street, Dow Jones Industrial Average was up nine points at 15,303; NASDAQ was down slightly at 3,459; S&P 500 down slightly at 1,650.

 

　　This is NPR.

 

　　The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best selling author Haynes Johnson died today after suffering a heart attack. As NPR's David Folkenflik tells us Johnson helped to define an era of political journalism.

 

　　Haynes Johnson was the son of a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times and served as an artillery lieutenant in the U.S. army during the Korean war. His first reporting job was in Wilmington Delaware. But Johnson soon moved to the Washington Star where stayed for a dozen years and won a Pulitzer for his coverage of the civil rights movement in Selma, Alabama. He joined the Washington Post where he'd worked the rest of his newspaper career and became one of the most influential political journalists in the country, both as reporter and as an editor guiding the coverage of others. His numerous books helped to cast understanding of the age, such as Sleepwalking Through History. He's carefully reported but highly critical account of the U.S. in the Reagan years. Johnson was 81.  David Folkenflik, NPR News.

 

　　Investigators with a National Transportation Safety Board are being dispatched at the site of a collapsed bridge in Washington State. An incident that's now causing major disruptions between Seattle and Vancouver during one of the year's most heavily travel holiday weekends. Authorities say a semi carrying an oversized load hit the Interstate 5 bridge, sending part of it into the Skagit River near Mount Vernon. No one was seriously hurt.

 

　　In Georgia, authorities say 16 people were taken to the hospital following a crash between a hotel shuttle bus and a tractor-trailer near Atlanta's airport. College Park Police say the department received a call this morning about the crash on a road that loops around the world's busiest airport.

 

　　Before the close, Dow was up nine points at 15,303.

 

　　This is NPR News.