Mitt Romney's speech at the NAACP's 103rd annual convention took a turn for the worse when he declared, as president, he'd repeal Obamacare—although Romney claimed later on Fox Business News that he knew he would be booed. The Republican presidential candidate received jeers and boos from the audience who'd been applauding demurly until then. "If you want a President who will fight for African Americans, you are looking at him,” Romney said. Speaking on the more Republican-friendly Fox Business News, Romney said "I think we expected that, of course." House minority leader Nancy Pelosi weighed in on the booing on Wednesday night, saying that she believed that Romney "wanted" to be ridiculed. Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh, calling the NAACP is the NAACLP with the extra "l' for liberal, said Romney "sounded like Snow White with testicles" and Romney was booed because he's white.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to repeal President Obama’s signature piece of legislation, the healthcare reform bill, 244-185. But Obamacare’s detractors shouldn’t rejoice yet: the repeal is expected to die in the Democratically-controlled Senate. The debate over the repeal lasted five hours over the course of two days, and five Democrats supported the repeal in the final vote. Republicans insisted on going ahead with the repeal vote even after the Supreme Court had upheld the constitutionality of the law at the end of June, and House Speaker John Boehner used the House vote as an opportunity to claim the Senate will oppose what the American people want.

Looks like facing British Parliament could be the warm-up act for Bob Diamond. The former Barclays CEO—who resigned last week amid allegations that his bank fixed British mortgage rates—could be called to testify before Congress, sources said on Wednesday. The Senate banking committee and the House financial services committee are both reportedly gathering information about the scandal and could call Diamond to testify after the summer recess. Senator Tim Johnson, chairman of the Senate banking committee, said on Tuesday that they will be questioning Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on the Barclays scandal. The U.S. Justice Department is already investigating the scandal.

The U.S. Navy is using underwater drones to find and destroy sea mines as part of the effort to keep Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz. The unmanned craft, which cost $100,000 per unit, are 4 feet long and weigh just 88 pound, but they also include honing sonar, TV cameras, and explosive charges. Tehran has said they are willing to close the strait “in response to increasing sanctions and in the event Iran is attacked.” Meanwhile, the Department of Defense has said that Iran’s “military capabilities continue to improve.”

Jesse Jackson Jr. hasn’t been seen on Capitol Hill since June 10, leaving many to wonder what’s happened to the congressman. But now, his doctor has provided a clue, saying Jackson is undergoing treatment for a mood disorder at a residential facility and is expected to recover fully. Even though some of his fellow Democrats have pushed Jackson to divulge his medical issues, his office wouldn’t elaborate except to say that he is not dealing with alcohol or substance abuse problems.

A federal judge has blocked Mississippi’s controversial new abortion law. The law requires anyone performing an abortion to be an Ob-gyn with admitting privileges at a local hospital. The law could effectively shut down the state’s only abortion clinic, because its doctors do not have such privileges. But Judge Daniel P. Jordan III temporarily blocked the law on July 1, and he decided on Wednesday to keep the block in place. The U.S. Supreme Court has previously ruled that states cannot create substantial obstacles to women seeking abortion.

A federal judge on Wednesday refused to block Barry Diller’s new online television service Aereo from operating during the television network’s lawsuits. Television networks have been attempting to shut down Aereo, claiming it violates copyright laws, but U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan said the “plaintiffs have not shown a likelihood of success on the merits.” Aereo subscribers register online and then can access a remote antennae that routes live TV broadcasts to devices such as iPhones, iPads and AppleTV, but networks have claimed Aereo hasn’t paid for the right to the programming. Diller is chairman and senior executive of IAC/InterActive Corp., which is the parent company of Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

Tom Cruise’s former Scientology auditor says he believes church officials used their doctrine to turn Cruise’s kids against their mother, his ex-wife Nicole Kidman. In an interview with NBC’s Rock Center, airing Thursday, Marty Rathbun said “it was more than implied… [Kidman] was somebody they shouldn’t open up with, they shouldn’t communicate with, they shouldn’t spend much time with.” Rathbun said he spent countless hours with Cruise at the church’s celebrity center in California starting in 2001, conducting the counseling sessions known as “auditing.” When Cruise and Kidman’s two kids, Connor and Isabella, were with Cruise, they were really at the hands of the Scientology staff, being “indoctrinated,” Rathbun said. After Cruise and Kidman’s divorce, their kids lived primarily with Cruise and now-ex-wife Katie Holmes.

Actress Kristin Chenoweth was sent to the hospital after being hit in the head on the Brooklyn set of The Good Wife on Wednesday.  A piece of lighting equipment fell from scaffolding and struck her in the head. Chenoweth then fell and hit her head on the sidewalk. One witness said that she was “knocked out cold,” adding, “I thought she was dead at first.”  Paramedics quickly arrived and a New York Fire Department rep said that Chenoweth is being treated for “minor injuries.” Chenoweth has suffered injuries on various productions, including the pre-Broadway engagement of Wicked in 2003.

DirectTV better hurry up and make nice with Viacom before it loses all its subscribers. Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and other cable channels owned by Viacom went dark for DirectTV subscribers early Wednesday morning, preventing roughly 20 million households across the country from watching SpongeBob and other popular shows. The blackout came as the two companies were fighting over the amount of money will pay for Viacom’s channels. After the blackout, DirectTV encouraged subscribers to watch Viacom-owned shows via the Internet, but Viacom quickly limited its web access. Meanwhile, DirectTV subscribers complained about customer service on Facebook and Twitter, calling for an end to the feud. But DirectTV said in a statement on Wednesday that it “just can’t afford the extreme increases they are asking for” (30 percent). It’s still unclear when the channels will be up and running again.

After burning through five chief executives in the past five years, Yahoo is now reportedly considering naming Ross Levinsohn as its next CEO.  Levinsohn has served as the company’s acting chief since his predecessor Scott Thompson resigned in May over claims he had doctored his resume. Naming Levinsohn, a media veteran who views the company as a news organization, would signal a departure for Yahoo from its vision of maintaining itself as a tech giant.  Yahoo’s board is expected to make an announcement as early as Wednesday afternoon.

Here’s one way to become an instant Internet celebrity. Vanessa Hojda, a student at York University in Toronto, accidentally sent an unsettling picture of actor Nicolas Cage instead of her resume to a potential employer. When Hojda learned of the mistake, she took to Tumblr to blog about the mishap and explain she had been confused by the file names. It didn’t take long for the rest of the Internet to pick up on her mistake, which quickly became another Cage meme.

Syria’s ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, has reportedly defected. If verified, this would be the second prominent defection in less than a week. It would also be the first defection of a serving diplomat in the 17 months of unrest. Fares was appointed to the post four years ago. Burhan Ghalioun, the former leader of the Syrian National Council, said, "We welcome the defection of the Syrian ambassador to Iraq. We have called upon high ranking officials whether in the military or in the diplomatic service to defect from this regime and join the revolution of dignity."

Baseball’s National League trounced the American League in Tuesday night’s All-Star Game, winning handily 8–0. Melky Cabrera of the San Francisco Giants hit a home run and nabbed the MVP award, while 40-year-old Chipper Jones relished his last All-Star outing. Jones got emotional speaking to his teammates before the game. “I don’t want to stand up here and get all gooey in front of the younger bucks. They might think I’m getting soft,” he said. “I really want to impress upon them to take advantage of this opportunity, to soak it up, have fun. You never know when your last one is going to be.”

A Twilight fan, who had been waiting to meet the films’ stars at Comic-Con, was fatally struck by a car outside of the San Diego Convention. Although police have yet to confirm the woman’s identity, they said she was in her 40s and was bleeding from the head when she was transported to the hospital. She was later pronounced dead. Fans who had been camping out near the convention center said that the woman had been camping with them since Sunday. One member of the group said, “One of the best parts of this fandom is the way we all come together. It’s a huge family.”

Russia has taken it upon itself to draft a new resolution for the U.N. Security Council with regard to its Middle Eastern ally Syria. Basically, Russia proposes to extend the U.N.’s current mission in the war-torn country for an additional three months, but does not include threatening President Bashar al-Assad and his violent regime with any sanctions. On Wednesday envoy Kofi Annan will brief the Security Council on the new resolution proposal, on which it must vote before the current mandate expires July 20. The Security Council is pretty divided, and Russia’s suggestions are likely to disappoint American and European members who are insistent upon using sanctions.

Newly elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi called the country’s Parliament back into session but was intercepted Tuesday by Egypt’s Higher Constitutional Court. The latest move in an ongoing fight for power between the new president and Egypt’s military rulers included the court affirming “its rule to dissolve Parliament and consider[s] it invalid.” Still, Morsi insisted that Parliament gather, and they did for less than an hour. Pro-Morsi demonstrators gathered outside Cairo’s administrative court, throwing water bottles as they faced more than 100 armored police. 

Embattled Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at the NAACP’s annual convention on Tuesday just after federal judges in Washington began hearing a lawsuit over Texas’s voter-identification law. “We will not allow political pretext to disenfranchise American citizens of their most precious right,” Holder declared before the crowd of 600 in Houston. The U.S. Justice Department, led by Holder, has opposed Texas’s photo-ID requirement for voters, finding it more harmful to minorities than helpful. “Under the proposed law, concealed handgun licenses would be acceptable forms of photo ID, but student IDs would not,” he pointed out. “Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them, and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them. We call those poll taxes.”

Bob Diamond may have resigned and agreed to testify in front of British Parliament when an interest-rate-fixing scandal within Barclays Bank, of which he was CEO, came to light. But now British lawmakers think Diamond misled Parliament during its inquiry into the Barclays scandal. During another hearing Tuesday, members of Parliament pointed to differences between the claims made by Diamond last week and a letter released by the bank’s financial watchdog. “He has calculatedly and deliberately misled this parliamentary committee ... Mr. Diamond has been misleading this committee, hasn’t he?” asked John Mann, of the Labour Party. Diamond rejected these accusations, calling them “unfair and unfounded.”

House Republicans are on a mission to repeal President Obama’s health-care overhaul, and they’re latching onto the wording of the Supreme Court’s recent decision two weeks ago. Though the conservative-led high court called the law constitutional, it also called the penalty it would allow the government to impose on people for not purchasing insurance a tax. The House of Representatives has voted at least 30 times to get rid of Obamacare in some way and will do so yet again on Wednesday, this time making the argument that by doing so, they’d be saving about 20 million Americans from paying an unnecessary tax. “This is a major tax with major implications. Democrats have argued that the individual mandate was necessary to improve the nation’s health,” said House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp during Tuesday’s debate. “So what’s next? Will they require you to purchase low-fat or low-salt foods or pay a tax because they think it’s good for you?”

Costa Concordia Capt. Francesco Schettino is so sorry he crashed that Italian cruise ship back in January killing more than 30 people. But really, he insists, it wasn’t all his fault. In an emotional interview with an Italian television station, Schettino said, “When there is an accident, it is not just the ship that is identified or the company, the captain is identified and so it’s normal that I should apologize as a representative of this system.” Still, Schettino said, while he may have been “distracted,” he argues he was not the one manning the bridge when the ship hit ground. "This is a banal accident in which destiny found space right in the interaction among human beings," he said.

The Spanish government is celebrating being granted a big bank bailout by the U.N. with a brand-new plan for austerity. Spain plans to tighten its belt even further through a new hike in sales tax on such things as cigarettes, cars, clothing, and telephone services, as well as public transportation, processed foods, and hotel and bar services. They’re also adding several more spending cuts in the hope of taking $79.85 billion off its total budget over the next two and a half years. “We are living in a crucial moment which will determine our future and that of our families, that of our youth, of our welfare state,” said Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. “This is the reality. There is no other and we have to get out of this hole and we have to do it as soon as possible and there is no room for fantasies or off-the-cuff improvisations because there is no choice.”

Eva Rausing, one of the richest women in Britain and wife of the heir to Tetra Pak fortune, was found dead in their home in London—and a man who may be her husband has been arrested in connection to the case and on suspicion of drug possession. Rausing, the American daughter of businessman Tom Kemeny, is married to Hans Kristian Rausing, the son of Swedish packaging billionaire Hans Rausing. The couple, parents to four chldren, has long had problems with drug addiction—they even reportedly met at a rehab clinic—including when Rausing was found carrying crack cocaine and heroin into London’s U.S. embassy. Police refused to comment on the case and won't confirm the identity of the man arrested, saying only that he is 49 years old, which is the same age as Hans Kristian Rausing. Police said the man arrested was receiving medical attention.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a stop in Laos Wednesday while traveling through Asia, and was faced with several reminders of the Vietnam War. Her visit was the first by an American secretary of state in 57 years. Clinton was met with evidence of the U.S. military’s lasting effect on the small country at an artificial limb center, where patients are still suffering from the war’s aftermath. One 19-year-old at the center lost his eyesight and his forearms when a dormant bomb that was dropped by the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War exploded three years ago. Clinton also met with members of Laos’s government, which is run by the Communist Party and now a close ally of China’s.

Reportedly frustrated by not having sole control over MSNBC’s website, NBC is in talks with Microsoft to buy back the remainder of the online property. MSNBC was originally a joint venture between NBC and Microsoft, but the television partnership ended in 2005. Microsoft still owns 50 percent of MSNBC.com, which consistently ranks as one of the top three online news sites. If NBC is successful, the company plans to relaunch the site as NBCNews.com. Though NBC insists a deal has not been reached, website employees have been briefed on how they will be affected by the sale.

Roughly eight months after Florida A&M student Robert Champion was beaten to death by his fellow university band members, university President James Ammons announced on Wednesday that he will resign. The announcement came the same day Champion’s parents sued the school for failing to heed a dean’s warning that the band needed to be suspended because of its hazing practices, though it wasn’t clear whether the two events were connected. After Champion’s death, Ammons recommended a strict new hazing policy, but the university trustees gave him a vote of no-confidence in June. Ammons’ last day will be Oct. 11.