In Brief: U.S. delegation, Iranian officials to negotiate nuclear deal

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration’s chief nuclear negotiator is meeting today with Iranian officials in Geneva as negotiations resume on a deal to prevent the Islamic republic from developing nuclear weapons.

The State Department says Undersecretary Wendy Sherman will be part of a U.S. delegation that also includes Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.

Iran and six world powers failed last month to meet their target date for cutting a nuclear deal but agreed to extend the talks until November.

Vietnamese-American soldier first to reach rank of general

FORT HOOD, Texas – A Fort Hood soldier whose family came to the United States as refugees when he was 10 became the first Vietnamese-American to reach the rank of general in the U.S. Army on Wednesday.

Col. Viet Luong received his brigadier general’s stars from the Fort Hood commander, Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, at a ceremony Wednesday at the Central Texas Army post.

Luong and nine other family members escaped South Vietnam on a flight during Operation Frequent Wind in 1975.

Today, he is the 1st Cavalry Division deputy commanding general for maneuver and the first Vietnamese-born officer to reach the position of general staff or flag officer in the U.S. military.

Luong commanded combat troops in Iraq in 2006-08 and Afghanistan in 2009-10.

Illinois police troopers to help combat crime in Chicago

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced Wednesday that 40 State Police troopers will be dispatched to Chicago to help the police department round up dangerous fugitives as part of an effort to combat an annual rise in violent crime during the summer.

The assignment of the troopers is the latest signal of the growing anxiety in Chicago about gun violence in a summer that has included a July Fourth weekend that left 14 dead and the death of an 11-year-old girl who was at a sleepover when a bullet pierced a wall, striking her in the head.

Study: Human sources raised mercury levels in oceans

WASHINGTON – A new study finds that in much of the world’s oceans, levels of the metal mercury are double to triple what they were before the industrial revolution.

Researchers found there’s more mercury from human sources, mostly burning fossil fuels and mining for gold, than scientists had thought.

The study assessed inorganic mercury, which in the ocean gets converted into the toxic methylmercury found in seafood. When pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children eat too much methylmercury-tainted seafood, there’s an increased risk of nervous system problems in the developing child.

Scientist Carl Lamborg of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts said the new results don’t provide any immediate conclusions about eating fish. His study appears in the journal Nature.

Remains of two missing WWII airmen identified

BILLINGS – The remains of two missing airmen have been accounted for 70 years after they disappeared when their plane went down over Papua New Guinea during World War II, U.S. military officials said.

The remains of 1st Lts. William Bernier and Bryant Poulsen were identified through DNA and other evidence collected from the crash site in a forest on the Pacific island nation, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan with the Defense Prisoner of War-Missing Personnel Office.

Bernier was from Augusta, Montana, and Poulsen from Salt Lake City, Utah.