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This week a young man in Texas became the first American to plead guilty to terrorism charges related to the recent fighting in Iraq.

Michael Wolfe, 23, was arrested just before he boarded a plane. He was on his way to join ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the Sunni extremist group that has been storming its way across Iraq for the past two weeks.

ISIS and hundreds of other rebel groups in Syria have inspired thousands of young men around the world to leave their homes and join the fight.

As Westerners find their way to the battlefield, officials are worried that the militants will use their new skills when they return home.

An Elaborate Recruitment System

The road to violent jihad has never been so smooth: All aspiring fighters have to do is get to Turkey.

Parallels

Behind ISIS Battle In Iraq, A Clash Between Two Arch-Terrorists

SAO PAULO (AP) — The last time the U.S. played in a World Cup in Brazil, just one American reporter was on hand, using vacation time and paying his own way.

Sixty-four years later, about 100 credentialed U.S. media members are covering the tournament — and that doesn't even include staffers from the networks broadcasting the games.

Back home, millions of people are watching on giant screens or office computers, at bars and public gatherings. In their protected Brazilian bubble, U.S. players find out about it via email, text, tweet, Facebook, cable television and all sorts of other inventions that didn't exist in 1950.

"All the bars and the pubs and restaurants are packed, and it's all over social media and people are taking off work," goalkeeper Tim Howard said. "That says a lot. They do that for the Super Bowl. So the fact that they're doing it for the World Cup is special."

The Americans traveled Sunday to Salvador for Tuesday's second-round game against Belgium. Sunday also marked the anniversary of the famous 1-0 victory over England at Belo Horizonte, still considered by many the biggest upset in World Cup history.

Dent McSkimming of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was the only American reporter there in 1950. Now every game is televised live back home, drawing audiences that would make every U.S. league other than the NFL jealous.

Stars in other sports are taking notice. San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum pulled on a U.S. road jersey after throwing a no-hitter last week.

This kind of attention and hype would have been unimaginable not just in 1990, when the U.S. returned to the World Cup after a 40-year absence, but even as recently as 2010.

"Obviously when we were in Korea, when we were in Germany, South Africa, the support has always been there, but it's just a lot bigger," said defender DaMarcus Beasley, the first American to play in four World Cups. "We get a lot more mainstream people that never really watched soccer or been a fan of soccer. And obviously people are going to say, 'Ah, people only come out during the World Cup. They don't support every game.' But we see it differently. We see what's going on behind the scenes, and we know our support is growing in the right direction, and us getting out of our group is a way to help improve our growth from a soccer standpoint."

Players have cited the large crowds at home and the thousands of U.S. fans in Brazilian stadiums as forces that motivated them during difficult moments.

"It is the reason we exist," said Korey Donahoo, president of the American Outlaws supporters group, "to inspire a difference in the team and to help spur the players on to greater things."

The three U.S. group stage games averaged more than 18 million viewers between English-language ESPN and Spanish-language Univision. The 2-2 Sunday evening draw with Portugal was the most-watched soccer game in American history with 24.7 million TV viewers.

The finale against Germany started at noon EDT when much of the country was at work — or at least supposed to be. A record audience of 1.05 million streamed that match on WatchESPN.

"Four years ago it was impressive, and the fact that it seems even bigger now is a testament to our country," Howard said. "I don't know if we can get that type of electricity every weekend. I don't think that's where we're at as a country in terms of the soccer fanaticism."

By comparison, Boston's six-game World Series win over St. Louis last October averaged 14.9 million viewers on Fox, San Antonio's five-game victory over Miami in this month's NBA Finals averaged 15.5 million on ABC, and Los Angeles' five-game win over the New York Rangers in the NHL's Stanley Cup finals averaged 5 million on NBC and NBCSN.

But "American football" is still the king in the U.S. The opening weekend of the NFL playoffs this past season averaged 34.7 million viewers for four games.

"This is a very special time for us back home in America and with the growth of soccer," defender Omar Gonzalez said. "With us getting out of the group, it definitely helps a lot. The viewership on different channels has been great, and we want to keep it going."

A win over Belgium would advance the U.S. to a quarterfinal against Argentina or Switzerland on Saturday at noon EDT, another potential record-setter.

"We're on a positive trendline in this sport. I don't think there's any denying that," U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati said. "What this does is, it jumps up to a much higher trendline."

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — Justin Rose got his mistake out of the way early and won the Quicken Loans National in a playoff Sunday over Shawn Stefani.

Tied for the lead on the 18th hole, Rose tried to hit through the trees and put it into the water. He atoned for the mistake by making a 15-foot bogey putt and got into a sudden-death playoff when Stefani made bogey on the 17th hole.

In the playoff, Stefani punched out from the trees and repeated Rose's mistake by hooking his shot into the water. Stefan made double bogey, and Rose won with a par.

Both finished at 4-under 280.

It was Rose's first win since the U.S. Open last summer at Merion. Congressional made it feel like he won another U.S. Open.

India's new prime minister, Narendra Modi, says he has been denied the "honeymoon" period that new governments traditionally enjoy. Just one month after taking office, he has also asserted that he has defied expectations and secured a firm grip on India's sprawling government.

Given the groundswell of expectation and anxiety surrounding Modi's ascent, there's been unusual attention given to his first 30 days. His decisive victory came despite controversial allegations that he stood by as Hindu-Muslim riots engulfed parts of the western state of Gujarat in 2002, when he was chief minister.

"Forget [a] hundred days; the series of allegations began in less than a hundred hours," Modi rued in his blog marking his first four weeks.

Indian Express opinion editor Vandita Mishra says Modi's no-honeymoon lament suggests he's carried over "a sense of siege and conspiracies" nurtured in his 12 years as Gujarat chief minister. Mishra says, "Antagonistic relations between Modi and the media are still a work in progress."

However, there is no disputing that Modi has taken the reins of power with gusto, in sharp contrast to his predecessor, Manmohan Singh, who was thought to have suffered from acute indecisiveness.

Modi has issued a 10-point agenda to improve everything from the economy, transparency and confidence in India's ordinarily truculent bureaucracy. The proposed changes have been cheered by the Indian public tired of a rudderless government and yearning for "Acche Din," or the "Good Days," which Modi promised to bring about in his campaign.

Modi began with housekeeping — literally. The prime minister, as fastidious in his dress as his daily regimen, targeted slovenliness in government offices.

Flea-ridden monkeys frequently grace the windowsills and staircases of ministry buildings. Discarded furniture, rotting files and dirty bathrooms often line the corridors. Complying with Modi's orders to clean up, bureaucrats have snapped to, with old computers, broken chairs and steel cabinets piled high and hauled off to the junk yard.

Surveying a table stacked with files, one reluctant senior bureaucrat said, "There is a fear that I may lose a document, which could prove fatal."

Modi's blistering pace also has ministerial secretaries — the top-ranking civil servants — rushing to keep up. His preference for using Hindi has some bureaucrats burning the midnight oil to please the boss and perfect the language. While English remains well-entrenched in Indian officialdom, many Hindu nationalists have a visceral loathing of English and identify it with India's colonial past.

But mandating Hindi is emotionally charged in India, and Modi's government has touched off a furor in a country where 22 languages are recognized in the constitution. The government has beaten a diplomatic retreat.

With neighboring Pakistan, Modi and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif bonded on day one over their mothers. The two men exchanged a shawl and a sari for their mothers to the delight of Twitter-sphere that gushed about the "sari diplomacy" between the two nuclear-armed rivals in the hopes it would reset relations.

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