Monday, June 30, 2014 • Vol. 16--No. 345 • 25 of 27

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• The decision to withdraw, which had been widely expected, followed talks between Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and IOC President Thomas Bach.
• "We concluded that it would be extremely difficult to pursue the 2022 bid under current circumstances but that a future bid would make sense for Ukraine and Ukrainian sport," Bach said in a statement.
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Nicki Minaj, Chris Rock, Pharrell: The 6 most memorable moments from the BET Awards

• LOS ANGELES (AP) -- After nearly four hours of prizes, performances and the occasional bleeped expletive, the 2014 BET Awards came to a close. When it was all over, Pharrell Williams had two trophies, as did newcomer August Alsina, and Lil Wayne dropped the mike, apparently breaking it.
• Here's a look at some of the memorable moments that emerged from Sunday night's ceremony, broadcast live from the Nokia Theatre on BET:
• -- Accepting her fifth consecutive award for female hip-hop artist, Nicki Minaj gave a rambling speech in which she said she was recently near death.
• "The other day, literally I didn't tell anybody this, I really thought I was about to die. Like, I was saying my prayers to die. And I didn't even want to call the ambulance because I thought, 'Well if I call the ambulance, it's going to be on TMZ,'" Minaj said, as some of the audience laughed.
• "And I would rather sit there and die," she added, looking to the crowd. "And it made me realize I don't care what anybody got to say. I'm going to do me."
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Today in History
The Associated Press

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• Today is Monday, June 30, the 181st day of 2014. There are 184 days left in the year.
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Today's Highlight in History:
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On June 30, 1934, Adolf Hitler launched his "blood purge" of political and military rivals in Germany in what came to be known as "The Night of the Long Knives."
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On this date:
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In 1859, French acrobat Charles Blondin (blahn-DAN') walked back and forth on

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