Government report finds 2.3 percent of Americans gay or bisexual

U.S. government data released on Tuesday showed that 2.3 percent of American adults are either gay or bisexual and that these men and women more often reported serious anxiety and having self-destructive habits than their straight peers.
This year's National Health Interview Survey was the first to ask about sexual orientation in addition to health habits in its 57-year history, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Bisexual women were twice as likely to experience serious anxiety while bisexual men were more likely to indulge in binge drinking than others, according to the survey.

U.S. House panel to probe if there was cover-up in CDC lab mishap

Centers for Disease Control Biotechnology Core Facility (Building 23) is shown in Atlanta, Georgia June 20, 2014.

A congressional panel probing the mishandling of dangerous pathogens at federal laboratories will try to determine if U.S. officials sought to cover up an incident involving deadly avian flu, its Republican chairman said on Tuesday.

Representative Tim Murphy said lawmakers will also look at whether lab workers face adequate "consequences" for failing to follow rules, and consider new legislation if penalties are lacking when actions endanger the public.

“Is it lax adherence to protocol? Are people ignoring protocol? Do they have this sense of mastery because they’ve been doing it so long," said Murphy, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.

Over 25 killed in Nigeria militant attack, government air strike

 At least 26 people were killed when suspected Islamist Boko Haram militants stormed a village in northeast Nigeria and a government warplane opened fire to repel the attackers, local residents and a security source said on Tuesday.

The warplane strafed Boko Haram fighters fleeing in pick-up trucks after raiding Dille, near Lassa in the south of Borno State, for several hours on Monday. The attackers fired on inhabitants and burned homes and churches.

"I counted 26 corpses yesterday evening," one of the residents, Dauda Illiya, told Reuters.

Most of the deaths occurred during the raid but cannon fire from the government jet also killed at least six civilians - four women and two children, residents said.

"The pilot was just spraying bullets anywhere ... People were running here and there. Many people were injured from the bullets," said a local man, Suleiman Haruna.

U.S. says deportation of Honduran children a warning to illegal migrants

Women and their children walk on the tarmac after being deported from the U.S., at the Ramon Villeda international airport in San Pedro Sula, in this July 14, 2014 handout provided by the Honduran Presidential House.

The White House said on Tuesday that Central Americans trying to cross the U.S. border should know "they will not be welcome to this country," a day after the United States deported a planeload of women and children to Honduras.

A charter flight on Monday from New Mexico to San Pedro Sula, the city with the highest murder rate in the world, transported 17 Honduran women, as well as 12 girls and nine boys between the ages of 18 months and 15 years.

Nigerian President tells Malala missing girls to be home soon

    Pakistani schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai speaks during a meeting with the leaders of the #BringBackOurGirls Abuja campaign group,      in  Abuja July 13, 2014

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan promised on Monday that more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist militants would soon return home, teenage Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai said after meeting him.

Malala, who became a global celebrity after surviving being shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls' education, was visiting Nigeria to support an international campaign for the release of the teenage students abducted in mid-April by the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.

"The president promised me ... that the abducted girls will return to their homes soon," Malala, who has called the 219 missing students her "sisters", told a news conference after a 45-minute meeting with Jonathan at the presidential villa.